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The Prophecy
of Jeremias 5
Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see,
and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof,
if you can fins a man that executeth judgement, and
seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.
And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they
will swear falsely.
O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them,
and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and
they have refused to receive correction: they have made
their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused
to return.
But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that
know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their
God.
I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak
to them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement
of their God: and behold these have together broken
the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.
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.
How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken
me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them
to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted
in the harlot's house.
They are become as amorous horses and stallions, every
one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord?
and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
Scale down the walls thereof, and throw them down, but
do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof,
because they are not the Lord's.
For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have
greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
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.
The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was
no word of God in them: these things therefore shall
befall them.
Thus saith the Lord the God 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.
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.
Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.
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.
Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not
bring you to utter destruction.
And if you shall say: why hath the Lord our God done
all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you
have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own
land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is
not your own.
Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it
in Juda, saying:
Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who
have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.
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 pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss
themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell,
and shall not pass over it.
But the heart of this people is become hard of belief
and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
And they have not said in their heart: let us fear the
Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter
rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fullness
of the yearly harvest.
Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your
sins have withholden good things from you.
For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in
wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full
of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.
They are grown gross and fat: andhave most wickedly
transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause
of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the
fatherless, they have not judged the judgement of the
poor.
Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord?
or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the
land.
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? |
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