Jeremiah 1; Jeremiah 2; Jeremiah 3

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Jeremiah 1

1 The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
2 The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the fifth month.
4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
6 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
7 And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.
8 Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
9 And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:
10 Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant.
11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
12 And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch over my word to perform it.
13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.
14 And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.
16 And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, and have adored the work of their own hands.
17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make thee not to fear their countenance.
18 For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.

Jeremiah 2

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not sown.
3 Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
4 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel:
5 Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
6 And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?
7 And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.
8 The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
9 Therefore will I yet contend in judgment with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children.
10 Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar, and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like this.
11 If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be very desolate, saith the Lord.
13 For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14 Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become a prey?
15 The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is none to dwell in them.
16 The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have defloured thee, even to the crown of the head.
17 Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?
18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river?
19 Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts.
20 Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.
21 Yet, I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange vineyard?
22 Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord God.
23 How canst thou say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a swift runner pursuing his course.
24 A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.
25 Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. But thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them.
26 As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and their priests, and their prophets.
27 Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast begotten me: they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.
28 Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.
29 Why will you contend with me in judgment? you have all forsaken me, saith the Lord.
30 In vain have I struck your children, they have not received correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is like a ravaging lion.
31 See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are revolted, we will come to thee no more?
32 Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but my people hath forgotten me days without number.
33 Why dost thou endeavour to shew thy way good to seek my love, thou who hast also taught thy malices to be thy ways,
34 And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I mentioned before.
35 And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with thee in judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.
36 How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
37 For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have nothing prosperous therein.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.

Jeremiah 3

1 It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.
2 Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
4 Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:
5 Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.
6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.
7 And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,
8 That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.
9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
10 And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
12 Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.
13 But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.
14 Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.
15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
16 And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.
18 In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.
19 But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.
20 But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
21 A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
23 In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.