Part 311

13:16. Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.

13:17. But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.

13:18. Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.

13:19. The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.

13:20. Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?

13:21. What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

13:22. And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.

13:23. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you also may do well, when you have learned evil.

13:24. And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.

13:25. This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.

13:26. Wherefore I have also bared thy thighs against thy face, and thy shame hath appeared.

13:27. I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?

Jeremias Chapter 14

A grievous famine: and the prophet's prayer on that occasion. Evils denounced to false prophets. The prophet mourns for his people.

14:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the words of the drought.

14:2. Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

14:3. The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.

14:4. For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandman were confounded, they covered their heads.

14:5. Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.

14:6. And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

14:7. If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned against thee.

14:8. O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?

14:9. Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us, forsake us not.

14:10. Thus saith the Lord to this people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.

14:11. And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their good.

14:12. When they fast I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.

14:13. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he will give you true peace in this place.

14:14. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.