5:5. I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their G.o.d: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.

5:6. Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

5:7. How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not G.o.ds: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.

5:8. They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

5:9. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

5:10. Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord's.

5:11. For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

5:12. They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.

5:13. The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of G.o.d in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

5:14. Thus saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts: because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.

5:15. Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.

5:16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

5:17. And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

5:18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.

5:19. And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our G.o.d done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange G.o.d in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.

5:20. Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:

5:21. Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.

5:22. Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pa.s.s over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pa.s.s over it.

5:23. But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

5:24. And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our G.o.d, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.

5:25. Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

5:26. For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.

5:27. As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.

5:28. They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the judgment of the poor.

5:29. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

5:30. Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

5:31. The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?

Jeremias Chapter 6

The evils that threaten Jerusalem. She is invited to return, and walk in the good way, and not to rely on sacrifices without obedience.

6:1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great destruction.

6:2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate woman.

6:3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them that are under his hand.

6:4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are grown longer.

6:5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.

6:6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression is in the midst of her.

6:7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity and stripes are continually before me.

6:8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.

6:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of Israel, as in a vine, even to one cl.u.s.ter: turn back thy hand, as a grapegatherer into the basket.

6:10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may hear? behold, their ears are uncirc.u.mcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and they will not receive it.

6:11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient and he that is full of days.

6:12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch forth my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.

6:13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty of deceit.

6:14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.

6:15. They were confounded, because they committed abomination: yea, rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.

6:16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.

6:17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.

6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great things I will do to them.

6:19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and they have cast away my law.

6:20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.

6:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall, neighbour and kinsman shall perish.