none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquities, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Juda all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they have not heard.

And Jeremias took another volume, and gave it to Baruch the son of Nerias the scribe: who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremias all the words of the book which Joakim the king of Juda had burnt with fire: and there were added besides many more words than had been before.

XXV. 1-14

The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people Jeremias of Juda, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda (the same is the first year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon), which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of Juda, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: From the thirteenth year of Josias the son of Ammon king of Juda until this day, this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you rising before day, and speaking, and you have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ears to hear. When He said: Return ye, every one, from his evil way, and from your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord hath given to you, and your fathers for ever and ever. And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor provoke Me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you. And you have not heard Me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.

Prophecy of the Captivity.-Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard My words: Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon My servant: and I will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations that are around about it: and I will destroy them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual desclations. And I will take away from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the mill, and the light of the lamp.

And all this land shall be a desolation and an astonishment: and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy

years.

And when the seventy years shall be expired, I will

Jeremias
XXIX

punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans: and I will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all My words, that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, all that Jeremias hath prophesied against all nations for they have served them, whereas they were many nations and great kings: and I will repay them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their hands.

SECT. CLXIX. JEREMIAS WRITES TO THE CHILDREN OF THE CAPTIVITY,
AND EXHORTS THEM TO PATIENT ENDURANCE OF THEIR CONDITION.

Letter to the Captives.-Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremias the prophet sent from Jeru1-20. B.C. 597. salem to the residue of the ancients that were carried into captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: after that Jechonias the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Juda, and of Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the engravers were departed out of Jerusalem: by the hand of Elasa the son of Saphan, and Gamarias the son of Helcias, whom Sedecias king of Juda sent to Babylon to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, saying:

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build ye houses, and dwell in them and plant orchards, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters: and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters: and be ye multiplied there, and be not few in number. And seek the peace of the city, to which I have caused you to be carried away captives: and pray to the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall be your peace.

For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Let not

your prophets that are in the midst of you and your diviners
deceive
you : and give no heed to your dreams which you dream.
For they prophesy falsely to you in My name: and I have not
sent them, saith the Lord. For thus saith the Lord: When
the seventy years shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon,
I will visit you: and I will perform My good word in your
favour, to bring you again to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, to give you an
end and patience. And you shall call upon Me, and you shall
go: and
you shall pray to Me, and I will hear you. You shall

seek Me, and shall find Me, when you shall seek Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord: and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive.

Because you have said: The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon: for thus saith the Lord to the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and to all the people that dwell in this city, to your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence; and I will make them like bad figs that cannot be eaten, because they are very bad. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with famine, and with the pestilence: and I will give them up unto affliction to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach to all the nations to which I have driven them out: because they have not hearkened to My words, saith the Lord: which I sent to them by My servants the prophets rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord. Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to Babylon.

SECT. CLXX. JEREMIAS PROPHESIES OF THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL
AND OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

1-40.

The Restoration of Israel.-At that time, saith the Lord, I Jeremias will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be XXXI. My people. Thus saith the Lord : The people that were left and escaped from the sword found grace in the desert: Israel shall go to his rest. The Lorth hath appeared from afar to me. Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and they shall not gather the vintage before the time for there shall be a day in which the watchmen on mount Ephraim shall cry: Arise, and let us go up to Sion to the Lord our God.

For thus saith the Lord: Rejoice ye in the joy of Jacob, and shout before the head of the Gentiles: shout ye, and sing, and say: Save, O Lord, Thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold I will bring them from the north country, and will

gather them from the ends of the earth and among them shall be the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she that is bringing forth together, a great company of them returning hither. They shall come with weeping: and I will bring them back in mercy and I will bring them through the torrents of waters in a right way, and they shall not stumble in it for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born.

Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the islands that are afar of, and say: He that scattered Israel will gather him, and He will keep him as the shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and delivered him out of the hand of one that was mightier than he. And they shall come, and shall give praise in mount Sion: and they shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, for the corn, and wine, and oil, and the increase of cattle and herds, and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall be hungry no more. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, the young men and old men together: and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them joyful after their sorrow. And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness: and My people shall be filled with My good things, saith the Lord.

Prophecies relating to Christ. Thus saith the Lord: A voice was heard on high* of lamentation, of mourning and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them because they are not. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thy eyes from tears for there is a reward for thy work, saith the Lord: and they shall return out of the land of the enemy. And there is hope for thy last end,

:

saith the Lord: and the children shall return to their own borders.

Hearing I heard Ephraim when he went into captivity: Thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed, as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Convert me, and I shall be converted: for Thou art the Lord my God. For after Thou didst convert me, I did penance and after Thou didst show unto me, I struck my thigh: I am confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach of my youth. Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to Me, surely he is a tender child: for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore are My bowels troubled for him: pitying I will pity him, saith the Lord. Set thee up * Or 'in Ramah,' a city in the tribe of Benjamin, not far from the tomb of Rachel. KENRICK,

This passage is quoted in St. Matthew's Gospel (chap. ii.) as a prophecy of the massacre of the innocents by king Herod.

The striking of the thigh was a gesture expressive of regret and humiliation. KENRICK,

a watch-tower, make to thee bitterness: direct thy heart into the right way, wherein thou hast walked: return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities. How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man.

*

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: As yet shall they say this word in the land of Juda, and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring back their captivity. The Lord bless thee, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain. And Juda and all his cities shall dwell therein together: the husbandmen and they that drive the flocks. For I have inebriated the weary soul: and I have filled every hungry soul. Upon this I was as it were awaked out of a sleep, and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me.

Behold the days come, saith the Lord and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Juda with the seed of men, and with the seed of beasts. And as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to throw down, and to scatter, and destroy, and afflict: so will I watch over them, to build up, and to plant them, saith the Lord. In those days they shall say no more: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.+ But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that shall eat the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Juda. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give My law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus said the Lord, who giveth the

*St. Jerome interprets this of the B. Virgin becoming the Mother of our Lord. This proverb is referred to by the prophet Ezekiel (chap. xviii.). It expressed a complaint that the children should suffer for the faults of their parents.

This passage is quoted by St. Paul, in the eighth and again in the tenth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews, where he speaks of it as dictated by the Holy Ghost, and interprets it of the New Testament.