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hath clothed me with the garments of sal-thou shalt be called: A city sought after, vation and with the robe of justice he and not forsaken. hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked

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CHAP. LXIII.

with a crown, and as a bride adorned with Christ's victory over his enemies: his mercies to his people: their complaint. THO is this that cometh from Edom,*

her jewels.

Il For as the earth bringeth forth her dyed garments from Bosra, this

bud, and as the garden causeth her seed to shoot forth; so shall the Lord God make justice to spring forth, and praise before all the nations.

CHAP. LXII.

beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength? I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.

2 Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the wine

The prophet will not cease from preaching press?

Christ: to whom all nations shall he con3 I have trodden the wine-press alone, verted: and whose church snuï continue and of the Gentiles there is not a man with for ever. me: I have trampled on them in my indig

FOR Sion's sake, I will not hold my peace, nation, and have trodden them down in my

and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon not rest, till her just One come forth as my garments, and I have stained all my ap. brightness, and her saviour be lighted as a parel.

lamp.

4 For the day of vengeance is in my 2 And the Gentiles shall see thy just heart: the year of my redemption is come. One, and all kings thy glorious One; and 5 I looked about, and there was none to thou shalt be called by a new name, which help: I sought, and there was none to give the mouth of the Lord shall name. aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, 3 And thou shalt be a crown of glory in and my indignation itself hath helped me. the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in 6 And I have trodden down the people the hand of thy God. in my wrath, and have made them drunk in 4 Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken my indignation, and have brought down and thy land shall no more be called Deso-their strength to the earth.

late but thou shalt be called My pleasure 7 I will remember the tender mercies of in her, and thy land inhabited. Because the Lord, the praise of the Lord for all the the Lord hath been well pleased with thee things that the Lord hath bestowed upon and thy land shall be inhabited. us, and for the multitude of his good things 5 For the young man shall dwell with the to the house of Israel, which he hath given virgin, and thy children shall dwell in thee. them according to his kindness, and accordAnd the bridegroom shall rejoice over the ing to the multitude of his mercies. bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee. 8 And he said: Surely they are my peo6 Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have ple, children that will not deny : so he beappointed watchmen all the day, and all the came their saviour.

night, they shall never hold their peace. 9 In all their affliction he was not trouYou that are mindful of the Lord, hold not bled, and the angel of his presence saved your peace, them in his love, and in his mercy, he re7 And give him no silence till he estab- deemed them, and he carried them and liftlish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise ined them up all the days of old.

the earth.

10 But they provoked to wrath, and af8 The Lord hath sworn by his right flicted the spirit of his holy One: and he hand, and by the arm of his strength: sure- was turned to be their enemy, and he ly I will no more give thy corn to be meat fought against them.

for thy enemies: and the sons of the stran 11 And he remembered the days of old gers shall not drink thy wine, for which of Moses, and of his people: Where is he thou hast laboured. that brought them up out of the sea, with 9 For they that gather it shall eat it, and the shepherds of his flock? where is he shall praise the Lord: and they that bring that put in the midst of them the spirit of his it together, shall drink it in my holy courts. holy One? 10 Go through, go through the gates, 12 He that brought out Moses by the prepare the way for the people, make the right hand, by the arm of his majesty: that road plain, pick out the stones, and lift up divided the waters before them, to make the standard to the people. himself an everlasting name.

11 Behold, the Lord hath made it to be 13 He that led them out through the heard in the ends of the earth, tell the deep, as a horse in the wilderness that daughter of Sion: Behold, thy Saviour stumbleth not. cometh: behold, his reward is with him, and

his work before him.

* Edom. Edom and Bosra (a strong city 12 And they shall call them: The holy of Edom) are here taken in a mystical sense people, The redeemed of the Lord. But for the enemies of Christ and his church.

the

14 As a beast that goeth down in the we have sinned: in them we have been al field, the spirit of the Lord was their leader :ways, and we shall be saved.

so didst thou lead thy people to make thy- 6 And we are all become as one unclean, self a glorious name. and all our justices as the rag of a men15 Look down from heaven, and behold struous woman: and we have all fallen as from thy holy habitation and the place of a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have thy glory where is thy zeal, and thy taken us away. strength, the multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies? they have held back themselves from me.

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7 There is none that calleth upon thy name; that riseth up, and taketh hold of thee thou hast hid thy face from us, and 16 For thou art our father, and Abraham hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity. hath not known us,† and Israel hath been 8 And now, O Lord, thou art our father, ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, and we are clay and thou art our maker, our redeemer, from everlasting is thy name. and we all are the works of thy hands.

17 Why hast thou made us to err, O 9 Be not very angry, O Lord, and reLord, from thy ways? why hast thou hard-member no longer our iniquity: behold, ened our heart, that we should not fear see we are all thy people. thee? return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.

18 They have possessed thy holy people as nothing our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.

19 We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over us, and when we were not called by thy name.

CHAP. LXIV.

The prophet prays for the release of his people, and for the remission of their sins.

THAT thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the mountains would melt away at thy presence.

2 They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy ene

10 The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert; Sion is made a desert; Jerusalem is desolate.

11 The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned into ruins.

12 Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these things? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us vehemently?

CHAP. LXV.

The Gentiles shall seek and find Christ; but the Jews will persecute him, and be reject ed: only a remnant shall be reserved. The church shall multiply, and abound with graces.

HEY have sought me that before asked

mics; that the nations might tremble at thy T not for me, they have found me, that

presence.

sought me not. I said: Behold me, behold me, to a nation that did not call upon my name.

3 When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains 21 have spread forth my hands all the meited away. day to an unbelieving people, who walk in 4 From the beginning of the world they a way that is not good, after their own have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: thoughts;

the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, 3 A people that continually provoke me what things thou hast prepared for them to anger before my face; that immolate in that wait for thee. gardens, and sacrifice upon bricks; 5 Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and 4 That dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in doeth justice in thy ways they shall re- the temple of idols; that eat swine's flesh, member thee: behold, thou art angry, and and profane broth is in their vessels; 5 That say: Depart from me, come not

They have held back, &c. This is spo- near me, because thou art unclean: these ken by the prophet in the person of the shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning Jews at the time when for their sins they all the day. were given up to their enemies.

6 Behold, it is written before me: I will + Abraham hath not known us, &c. That not be silent, but I will render and repay is, Abraham will not now acknowledge us into their bosom,

for his children, by reason of our degenera- 7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of cy: but thou, O Lord, art our true father your fathers together, saith the Lord, who and our redeemer, and no other can be have sacrificed upon the mountains, and called our parent in comparison with thee. have reproached me upon the hills; and I + Made us to err, &c. hardened our heart, &c. The meaning is, that God in punish- § Our justices, &c. That is, the works ment of their great and manifold crimes, by which we pretended to make ourselves and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, just. This is spoken particularly of the sahad withdrawn his graces from them, and crifices, sacraments and ceremonies of the so given them up to error and hardness of Jews after the death of Christ, and the proheart. mulgation of the new law.

will measure back their first work in their for as the days of a tree, so shall be the bosom.

8 Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole.

days of my people, and the works of their hands shall be of long continuance.

23 My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth in trouble: for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them.

9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Ja- 24 And it shall come to pass, that before cob, and out of Juda a possessor of my they call, I will hear: as they are yet speakmountains: and my elect shall inherit it, ing, I will hear. and my servants shall dwell there.

10 And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together: the lion and the ox shall eat straw: and dust shall be the serpent's food: they shall not hurt, nor kill in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. CHAP. LXVI.

11 And you, that have forsaken the Lord, that have forgotten my holy mount, that set More of the reprobation of the Jews, and of a table for fortune, and offer libations upon

it:

TH

the call of the Gentiles. NHUS saith the Lord: Heaven is my 12 I will number you in the sword, and throne, and the earth my footstool: you shall all fall by slaughter: because what is this house* that you will build to I called, and you did not answer: I spoke,me? and what is this place of my rest? and you did not hear: and you did evil in 2 My hand made all these things, and all my eyes, and you have chosen the things these things were made, saith the Lord. that displease me. But to whom shall I have respect, but to

13 Therefore thus saith the Lord God:him that is poor and little, and of a contrite Behold, my servants shall eat, and you shall spirit, and that trembleth at my words? be hungry behold, my servants shall drink, 3 He that sacrificeth an ox,t is as if he and you shall be thirsty. slew a man he that killeth a sheep in sac

14 Behold, my servants shall rejoice, and||rifice, as if he should brain a dog: he that you shall be confounded: behold, my ser-offereth an oblation, as if he should offer vants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and swine's blood: he that remembereth inyou shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall cense, as if he should bless an idol. All howl for grief of spirit. these things have they chosen in their 15 And you shall leave your name for an ways, and their soul is delighted in their execration to my elect and the Lord God abominations.

shall slay thee, and call his servants by an- 4 Wherefore I also will choose their other name: mockeries; and will bring upon them the 16 In which he that is blessed upon the things they feared: because I called, and earth, shall be blessed in God, amen: and there was none that would answer: I have he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear spoken, and they heard not: and they have by God, amen: because the former distres-done evil in my eyes, and have chosen the ses are forgotten, and because they are hid things that displease me.

5 Hear the word of the Lord, you that

from my eyes. 17 For behold, I create new heavens, and tremble at his word: Your brethren that a new earth: and the former things shall not hate you, and cast you out for my name's be in remembrance, and they shall not come sake, have said: Let the Lord be glorified, upon the heart. and we shall see in your joy: but they shall

18 But you shall be glad and rejoice for be confounded. ever in these things, which I create for 6 A voice of the people from the city, a bebold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and voice from the temple, the voice of the the people thereof joy. Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies.

19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

• What is this house, &c. This is a prophecy that the temple should be cast off. 20 There shall no more be an infant of He that sacrificeth an ox, &c. This is days there, nor an old man that shall not fill a prophecy, that the sacrifices which were up his days: for the child shall die a hun-offered in the old law should be abolished dred years old, and the sinner being a hun-in the new; and that the offering of them dred years old shall be accursed. should be a crime.

21 And they shall build houses, and in- Remembereth incense, viz. To offer it in habit them: and they shall plant vineyards, the way of a sacrifice. and eat the fruits of them.

§ I will choose their mockeries. I will turn 22 They shall not build and another in-their mockeries upon themselves; and will habit: they shall not plant, and another eat cause them to be mocked by their enemies.

7 Before she was in labour, she brought 16 For the Lord shall judge by fire, and forth before her time came to be delivered and by his sword unto all flesh and the she brought forth a man-child. slain of the Lord shall be many.

8 Who hath ever heard such a thing? 17 They that were sanctified, and thought and who hath seen the like to this? shall themselves clean in the gardens behind the the earth bring forth in one day? or shall gate within, they that did eat swine's flesh, a nation be brought forth at once, because and the abomination, and the mouse: they Sion hath been in labour, and hath brought shall be consumed together, saith the Lord. forth her children? 18 But I know their works, and their

9 Shall not I that make others to bring thoughts: I come that I may gather them forth children, myself bring forth, saith the together with all nations and tongues: and Lord? shall 1, that give generation to others, they shall come, and shall see my glory. be barren, saith the Lord thy God? 19 And I will set a sign among them, and 10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad I will send of them, that shall be saved, to with her, all you that love her: rejoice for the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and joy with her, all you that mourn for her. Lydia, them that draw the bow; into Italy, 11 That you may suck, and be filled with and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them the breasts of her consolations: that you that have not heard of me, and have not may milk out, and flow with delights from seen my glory. And they shall declare my the abundance of her glory. glory to the Gentiles:

12 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I 20 And they shall bring all your brethren will bring upon her as it were a river of out of all nations for a gift to the Lord, peace, and as an overflowing torrent the upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, glory of the Gentiles, which you shall suck and on mules, and in coaches, to my holy you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as if the knees they shall caress you. the children of Israel should bring an offer

13 As one whom the mother caresseth, ing in a clean vessel into the house of the so will I comfort you, and you shall be com- Lord. forted in Jerusalem.

21 And I will take of them to be priests

14 You shall see, and your heart shall re-and Levites, saith the Lord. joice, and your bones shall flourish like an 22 For as the new heavens, and the new herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be earth, which I make to stand before me, known to his servants: and he shall be an- saith the Lord; so shall your seed stand, gry with his enemies.

and your name.

15 For behold, the Lord will come with 23 And there shall be month after month, fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind, and sabbath after sabbath: and all flesh to render his wrath in indignation, and his shall come to adore before my face, saith rebuke with flames of fire. the Lord.

24 And they shall go out, and see the * Before she was in labour, &c. This re- carcasses of the men that have transgressed lates to the conversion of the Gentiles, who against me: their worm shall not die, and were born, as it were all on a sudden to the their fire shall not be quenched: and they church of God. shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh.

THE

PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS.

Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the tribe of Benjamin, and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a child in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification of his name, great before the

Lord; and a special figure of Jesus Christ,

stoned to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into Egypt.

CHAP. I.

The time, and the calling, of Jeremias; his prophetical visions. God encourages him. words of Jeremias the son of Hel

NHE

cias, of the priests that were in Anain the persecutions he underwent for dis-thoth, in the land of Benjamin. charging his duty; in his charity for his 2 The word of the Lord which came to persecutors; and in the violent death he him in the days of Josias the son of Amon suffered at their hands: it being an an- king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his cient tradition of the Hebrews, that he was reign.

3 And which came to him in the days of shall not prevail: for I am with thee, saith Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, unto Lord, to deliver thee.

the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias

CHAP. II.

the son of Josias king of Juda, even unto God expostulates with the Jews for their inthe carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in gratitude and infidelity. the fifth month.

4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

AND the word of the Lord came to me,

saying:

2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, 5 Before I formed thee in the bowels of saying; Thus saith the Lord: I have rethy mother, I knew thee, and before thou membered thee, pitying thy youth, and camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified the love of thy espousals, when thou folthee, and made thee a prophet unto the lowedst me in the desert, in a land that is nations.

not sown.

6 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: be- 3 Israel is holy to the Lord, the firsthold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. fruits of his increase: all they that devour 7 And the Lord said to me: Say not: Ihim offend: evils shall come upon them, am a child for thou shalt go to all that I saith the Lord. shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.

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4 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel :

8 Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. 5 Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity 9 And the Lord put forth his hand, and have your fathers found in me, that they are touched my mouth: and the Lord said to gone far from me, and have walked after me: Behold, I have given my words in thy vanity, and are become vain ? 6 And they have not said: Where is the

mouth:

10 Lo, I have set thee this day over the Lord, that made us come up out of the land nations, and over kingdoms, to root up, and of Egypt? that led us through the desert, to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, through a land uninhabited and unpassable, and to build, and to plant. through a land of drought, and the image 11 And the word of the Lord came to of death, through a land, wherein no man me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias? walked, nor any man dwelt? And I said: I see a rod watching. 7 And I brought you into the land of

12 And the Lord said to me: Thou hast Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the seen well: for I will watch over my word best things thereof: and when ye entered to perform it. in, you defiled my land, and made my in

13 And the word of the Lord came to meheritance an abomination. a second time, saying: What seest thou? 8 The priests did not say: Where is the And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the Lord? and they that held the law knew me face thereof from the face of the north. not, and the pastors transgressed against 14 And the Lord said to me: From the me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, north shall an evil break forth upon all the and followed idols. inhabitants of the land.

9 Therefore will I yet contend in judg ment with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children.

15 For behold, I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith 10 Pass over to the isles of Cethim; and the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every one his throne in the entrance of see: and send into Cedar, and consider the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the diligently and see if there hath been done walls thereof round about, and upon all the any thing like this.

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.

11 If a nation hath changed their gods, have changed their glory into an idol. and indeed they are not gods: but my people

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. 17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and They have forsaken me, the fountain of arise, and speak to them all that I command] living water, and have digged to themselves thee. Be not afraid at their presence:cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no for I will make thee not to fear their coun- water.

tenance.

14 Is Israel a bondman, or a home-born 18 For behold, I have made thee this day slave? why then is he become a prey ? a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a 15 The lions have roared upon him, and wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings have made a noise: they have made his of Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.

19 And they shall fight against thee, and||land.

Carmel. That is, a fruitful, plentiful

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