Jeremiah 37; Jeremiah 38; Jeremiah 39; Hebrews 3

1 Now king Sedecias the son of Josias reigned instead of Jechonias the son of Joakim: whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made king in the land of Juda.

2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land did obey the words of the Lord, that he spoke in the hand of Jeremias the prophet.

3 And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias, and Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremias the prophet, saying: Pray to the Lord our God for us.

4 Now Jeremias walked freely in the midst of the people: for they had not as yet cast him into prison.

5 (37-4) And the army of Pharao was come out of Egypt: and the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem, hearing these tidings, departed from Jerusalem.

6 (37-5) And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, saying:

7 (37-6) Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me: Behold the army of Pharao, which is come forth to help you, shall return into their own land, into Egypt.

8 (37-7) And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.

9 (37-8) Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not your souls, saying: The Chaldeans shall surely depart and go away from us: for they shall not go away.

10 (37-9) But if you should even beat all the army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there should be left of them some wounded men: they shall rise up, every man from his heart, and burn this city with fire.

11 (37-10) Now when the army of the Chaldeans was gone away from Jerusalem, because of Pharao’s army,

12 (37-11) Jeremias went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin: and to divide a possession there in the presence of the citizens,

13 (37-12) And when he was come to the gate of Benjamin, the captain of the gate, who was there in his turn, was one named Jerias, the son of Selemias, the son of Hananias: and he took hold of Jeremias the prophet, saying: Thou art fleeing to the Chaldeans.

14 (37-13) And Jeremias answered: It is not so, I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Jerias took Jeremias and brought him to the princes.

15 (37-14) Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremias, and they beat him, and cast him into the prison that was in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for he was chief over the prison.

16 (37-15) So Jeremias went into the house of the prison, and into the dungeon: and Jeremias remained there many days.

17 (37-16) Then Sedecias the king, sending, took him: and asked him secretly in his house, and said: Is there, thinkest thou, any word from the Lord? And Jeremias said. There is. And he said: Thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.

18 (37-17) And Jeremias said to king Sedecias: In what have I offended against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that thou hast cast me into prison?

19 (37-18) Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and said: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, and against this land?

20 (37-19) Now therefore hear, I beseech thee, my lord the king: let my petition be accepted in thy sight: and send me not back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

21 (37-20) Then king Sedecias commanded that Jeremias should be committed into the entry of the prison: and that they should give him daily a piece of bread, beside broth, till all the bread in the city were spent: and Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.

1 Now Saphatias the son of Mathan, and Gedelias the son of Phassur, and Juchal the son of Selemias, and Phassur the son of Melchias heard the words that Jeremias spoke to all the people, saying:

2 Thus saith the Lord: Whosoever shall remain in this city, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: but he that shall go forth to the Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be safe, and he shall live.

3 Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

4 And the princes said to the king. We beseech thee that this man may be put to death: for on purpose he weakeneth the hands of the men of war, that remain in this city, and the hands of the people, speaking to them according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to this people, but evil.

5 And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands: for it is not lawful for the king to deny you any thing.

6 Then they took Jeremias and cast him into the dungeon of Melchias the son of Amelech, which was in the entry of the prison: and they let down Jeremias by ropes into the dungeon, wherein there was no water, but mire. And Jeremias sunk into the mire.

7 Now Abdemelech the Ethiopian, an eunuch that was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremias in the dungeon: but the king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin.

8 And Abdemelech went out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying:

9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done against Jeremias the prophet, casting him into the dungeon to die there with hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.

10 Then the king commanded Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying: Take from hence thirty men with thee, and draw up Jeremias the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

11 So Abdemelech taking the men with him, went into the king’s house that was under the storehouse: and he took from thence old rags, and old rotten things, and he let them down by cords to Jeremias into the dungeon.

12 And Abdemelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremias: Put these old rags and these rent and rotten things under thy arms, and upon the cords: and Jeremias did so.

13 And they drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth out of the dungeon. And Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.

14 And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias the prophet to him to the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremias: I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me.

15 Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.

16 Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private, saying: As the Lord liveth, that, made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.

17 And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire: and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.

18 But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

19 And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they should abuse me.

20 But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee: hearken, I beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I speak to the, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.

21 But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord hath shewn me:

22 Behold all the women that are left in the house of the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place and they have departed from thee.

23 And all thy wives, and thy children shall be brought out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape their hands, but thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall burn this city with fire.

24 Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know these words, and thou shalt not die.

25 But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken with thee, and shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not kill thee: and also what the king said to thee:

26 Thou shalt say to them: I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not command me to be carried back into the house of Jonathan, to die there.

27 So all the princes came to Jeremias, and asked him: and he spoke to them according to all the words that the king had commanded him: and they left him: for nothing had been heard.

28 But Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison, until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and it came to pass that Jerusalem was taken.

1 In the ninth year of Sedecias king of Juda, in the tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

2 And in the eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.

3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

4 And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city by the way of the king’s garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to the way of the desert.

5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho, and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.

6 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda.

7 He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.

8 And the Chaldeans burnt the king’s house, and the houses of the people with fire, and they threw down the wall of Jerusalem.

9 And Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him, and the rest of the people that remained.

10 But Nabuzardan the general left some of the poor people that had nothing at all, in the land of Juda, and he gave them vineyards, and cisterns at that time.

11 Now Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had given charge to Nabuzardan the general concerning Jeremias, saying:

12 Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no harm: but as he hath a mind, so do with him.

13 Therefore Nabuzardan the general sent, and Nabuzardan, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,

14 Sent and took Jeremias out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, that he might go home, and dwell among the people.

15 But the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, when he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: Go, and tell Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying:

16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will bring my words upon this city unto evil, and not unto good: and they shall be accomplished in thy sight in that day.

17 And I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hands of the men whom thou fearest:

18 But delivering, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword: but thy life shall be saved for thee, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.

1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly vocation consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus:

2 Who is faithful to him that made him, as was also Moses in all his house.

3 For this man was counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, by so much as he that hath built the house hath greater honour than the house.

4 For every house is built by some man: but he that created all things is God.

5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be said:

6 But Christ, as the Son in his own house: which house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and glory of hope unto the end.

7 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith: To-day if you shall hear his voice,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the desert,

9 Where your fathers tempted me, proved and saw my works,

10 Forty years: for which cause I was offended with this generation, and I said: They always err in heart. And they have not known my ways.

11 As I have sworn in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest.

12 Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God.

13 But exhort one another every day, whilst it is called to day, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ: yet so, if we hold the beginning of his substance firm unto the end.

15 While it is said: To day, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in that provocation.

16 For some who heard did provoke: but not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

17 And with whom was he offended forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses were overthrown in the desert?

18 And to whom did he swear, that they should not enter into his rest: but to them that were incredulous?

19 And we see that they could not enter in, because of unbelief.