17 That take their diversion with the birds of the air, 18 That hoard up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and there is no end of their getting? who work in silver and are solicitous, and their works are unsearchable? 19 They are cut off, and are gone down to hell, and others are risen up in their place. 20 Young men have seen the light, and dwelt upon the earth: but the way of knowledge they have not known, 21 Nor have they understood the paths thereof, neither have their children received it, it is far from their face. 22 If hath not been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. 23 The children of Agar also, that search after the wisdom that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha, and of Theman, and the tellers of fables, and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths. 24 O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession! 25 It is great, and hath no end: it is high and immense. 26 There were the giants, those renowned men, that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. 27 The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge: therefore did they perish. 28 And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly. 29 Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? 30 Who hath passed over the sea, and found her, and brought her preferably to chosen gold? 31 There is none that is able to know her ways, nor that can search out her paths: and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. 38 Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men. CHAP. IV. The prophet exhorts to the keeping of the law of wis dom: and encourages the people to be patient, and to hope for their deliverance. TH HIS is the book of the commandments of God, and the law, that is for ever: all they that keep it, shall come to life: but they that have forsaken it, to death. 2 Return, O Jacob, and take hold of it, walk in the way by its brightness, in the presence of the light thereof. 3 Give not thy honour to another, nor thy dignity to a strange nation, 4 We are happy, O Israel: because the things that are pleasing to God, are made known to us. 5 Be of good comfort, O people of God, the memorial of Israel: 6 You have been sold to the Gentiles, not for your destruction: but because you provoked God to wrath, you are delivered to your adversaries. 7 For you have provoked him who made you, the eternal God, offering sacrifice to devils, and not to God. 8 For you have forgotten God, who brought you up, and you have grieved Jerusalem that nursed you. 9 For she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, and she said: Give ear, all you that dwell near Sion, for God hath brought upon me great mourning: 10 For I have seen the captivity of my people, of my sons, and my daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them. 11 For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping and mourning. 12 Let no man rejoice over me a widow, and desolate: I am forsaken of many for the sins of my children, because they departed from the law of God. 13 And they have not known his justices, nor walked by the ways of God's commandments, neither have they entered by the paths of his truth and justice. 32 But he that knoweth all things, knoweth 14 Let them that dwell about Sion come, and her, and hath found her out with his understand-remember the captivity of my sons and daughing: he that prepared the earth for evermore, and filled it with cattle and four-footed beast: 33 He that sendeth forth light, and it goeth: and hath called it, and it obeyeth him with tongue: trembling. 34 And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced: 35 They were called, and they said: Here we are: and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to him that made them. 36 This is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of him. 37 He found out all the way of knowledge, Ch. 3. v. 22. Theman. The capital city of Edom. Ver. 23. Agar. The mother of the Ismaelites. ters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them. 15 For he hath brought a nation upon them from afar, a wicked nation, and of a strange 16 Who have neither reverenced the ancient, nor pitied children, and have carried away the beloved of the widow, and have left me all alone without children. 17 But as for me, what help can I give you? 18 But he that hath brought the evils upon you, he will deliver you out of the hands of your enemies. 19 Go your way, my children, go your way: for I am left alone. 20 I have put off the robe of peace, and have Ver. 38. Was seen upon earth, &c. Viz, By the put upon me the sackcloth of supplication, and mystery of the incarnation, by means of which the Son I will cry to the most High in my days. of God came visibly amongst us, and conversed with men. The prophets often speak of things to come as if21 Be of good comfort, my children, cry to the they were past, to express the certainty of the event of Lord, and he will deliver you out of the hand the things foretold. of the princes your enemies. 22 For my hope is in the Eternal that he will look about towards the east, and behold thy save you and joy is come upon me from the children gathered together from the rising to holy One, because of the mercy which shall the setting sun, by the word of the holy One come to you from our everlasting Saviour. rejoicing in the remembrance of God. 23 For I sent you forth with mourning and weeping: but the Lord will bring you back to me with joy and gladness for ever. 24 For as the neighbours of Sion have now seen your captivity from God: so shall they also shortly see your salvation from God, which shall come upon you with great honour, and everlasting glory. For they went out from thee on foot, led by the enemies: but the Lord will bring them to thee exalted with honour as children of the kingdom. 7 For God hath appointed to bring down every high mountain, and the everlasting rocks, and to fill up the valleys to make them even with the ground: that Israel may walk diligently to the honour of God. 25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you: for thy enemy hath perse- 8 Moreover the woods, and every sweet-smelcuted thee, but thou shalt quickly see his des-ling tree have overshadowed Israel by the comtruction and thou shalt get up upon his neck. mandment of God. 26 My delicate ones have walked rough ways, for they were taken away as a flock made a prey by the enemies. 27 Be of good comfort, my children, and cry to the Lord for you shall be remembered by him that hath led you away. 28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God; so when you return again you shall seek him ten times as much. your 9 For God will bring Israel with joy in the light of his majesty, with mercy, and justice, that cometh from him. CHAP. VI. The epistle of Jeremias to the captives, as a preservatire against idolatry. C A COPY of the epistle that Jeremias sent to them that were to be led away captives into Babylon, by the king of Babylon, to declare to them according to what was commanded him by God. 29 For he that hath brought evils upon you, shall bring you everlasting joy again with salvation. 1 FOR "the sins that you have committed be30 Be of good heart, O Jerusalem: for he ex-fore God, you shall be carried away captives inhorteth thee, that named thee. to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor the king of 31 The wicked that have afflicted thee, shall Babylon. perish and they that have rejoiced at thy ruin, shall be punished. 32 The cities which thy children have served, shall be punished: and she that received thy sons. 33 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation. 2 And when you are come into Babylon, you 34 And the joy of her multitude shall be cut off, 36 Look about thee, O Jerusalem, towards the east, and behold the joy that cometh to thee from God. 37 For behold thy children come, whom thou sentest away scattered, they come gathered together from the east even to the west, at the word of the holy One rejoicing for the honour of God. CHAP. V. Jerusalem is invited to rejoice and behold the return of her children out of their captivity. PUT off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning, and affliction: and put on the beauty, and honour of that everlasting glory which thou hast from God. 2 God will clothe thee with the double garment of justice, and will set a crown on thy head of everlasting honour. 3 For God will shew his brightness in thee, to every one under heaven. 4 For thy name shall be named to thee by God for ever: the peace of justice, and honour of piety. 5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high: band Infra, 5. 5- Supra, 4. 36.- A. M. 3405. A. C. 599.- Jer. 25. 9.- Isa. 44. 10. 5 But when you see the multitude behind, and before adoring them, say you in your hearts: Thou oughtest to be adored, O Lord. 6 For my angel is with you: and I myself will demand an account of your souls. 7 For their tongue that is polished by the craftsman, and themselves laid over with gold and silver, are false things, and they cannot speak. 8 And as if it were for a maiden that loveth to go gay so do they take gold and make them up. 9 Their gods have golden crowns upon their heads: whereof the priests secretly convey away from them gold, and silver, and bestow it on themselves. 10 Yea and they give thereof to prostitutes, and they dress out harlots: and again when they receive it of the harlots, they adorn their gods. 11 And these gods cannot defend themselves from the rust, and the moth. 12 But when they have covered them with a purple garment, they wipe their face because of the dust of the house, which is very much among them. 13 This holdeth a sceptre as a man, as a judge of the country, but cannot put to death one that offendeth him." Ch. 4. v. 32. She that received, &c. Viz., Babylon. 14 And this hath in his hand a sword, or an axe, but cannot save himself from war, or from robbers, whereby be it known to you, that they are not gods. 15 Therefore fear them not. For as a vessel that a man uses when it is broken becometh useless, even so are their gods: 16 When they are placed in the house, their eyes are full of dust by the feet of them that go in. 17 And as the gates are made sure on every side upon one that hath offended the king, or like a dead man carried to the grave, so do the priests secure the doors with bars and locks, lest they be stripped by thieves. 18 They light candles to them, and in great number, of which they cannot see one: but they are like beams in the house. 35 They cannot deliver a man from death, nor save the weak from the mighty. 36 They cannot restore the blind man to his sight: nor deliver a man from distress. 37 They shall not pity the widow, nor do good to the fatherless. 38 Their gods, of wood, and of stone, and of gold, and of silver, are like the stones that are hewn out of the mountains: and they that worship them shall be confounded. 39 How then is it to be supposed, or to be said, that they are gods? 40 Even the Chaldeans themselves dishonour them: who when they hear of one dumb that cannot speak, they present him to Bel, entreating him, that he may speak. 41 As though they could be sensible that have 19 And they say that the creeping things which no motion themselves: and they, when they are of the earth, gnaw their hearts, while they shall perceive this, will leave them: for their eat them and their garments, and they feel it not. | gods themselves have no sense. 20 Their faces are black with the smoke that is made in the house. 21 Owls, and swallows, and other birds fly upon their bodies, and upon their heads, and cats in like manner. 22 Whereby you may know that they are no gods. Therefore fear them not. 23 The gold also which they have, is for shew, but except a man wipe off the rust, they will not shine for neither when they were molten, did they feel it. 24 Men buy them at a high price, whereas there is no breath in them. 25 And having not the use of feet they are carried upon shoulders, declaring to men how vile they are. Be they confounded also that worship them. 26 Therefore if they fall to the ground, they rise not up again of themselves, nor if a man set them upright, will they stand by themselves, but their gifts shall be set before them, as to the dead. 27 The things that are sacrificed to them, their priests sell and abuse in like manner also their wives take part of them, but give nothing of it either to the sick, or to the poor. 28 The child-bearing and menstruous women touch their sacrifices: knowing therefore by these things that they are not gods, fear them not. 29 For how can they be called gods? because women set offerings before the gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood: 30 And priests sit in their temples, having their garments rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing upon their heads. 31 And they roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead. 32 The priests take away their garments, and clothe their wives and their children. 33 And whether it be evil that one doth unto them, or good, they are not able to recompense it: neither can they set up a king, nor put him down: 34 In like manner they can neither give riches, nor requite evil. If a man make a vow to them, and perform it not, they cannot require it. a Isa. 46. 7.————Ch. 6. v. 56. They that are stronger than them. That is, robbers and thieves are stronger than these idols, being things without life or motion. 42 The women also with cords about them, sit in the ways, burning olive-stones. 43 And when any one of them, drawn away by some passenger, lieth with him, she upbraideth her neighbour, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken. 44 But all things that are done about them, are false: how is it then to be thought, or to be said, that they are gods? 45 And they are made by workmen, and by goldsmiths. They shall be nothing else but what the priests will have them to be. 46 For the artificers themselves that make them, are of no long continuance. Can those things then that are made by them, be gods? 47 But they have left false things and reproach to them that come after. 48 For when war cometh upon them, or evils: the priests consult with themselves, where they may hide themselves with them. 49 How then can they be thought to be gods, that can neither deliver themselves from war, nor save themselves from evils? 50 For seeing they are but of wood, and laid over with gold, and with silver, it shall be known hereafter that they are false things, by all nations, and kings: and it shall be manifest that they are no gods, but the work of men's hands, and that there is no work of God in them. 51 Whence therefore is it known, that they are not gods, but the work of men's hands, and no work of God is in them? 52 They cannot set up a king over the land, nor give rain to men. 53 They determine no causes, nor deliver countries from oppression because they can do nothing, and are as daws between heaven and earth. 54 For when fire shall fall upon the house of these gods of wood, and of silver, and of gold, their priests indeed will flee away, and be saved: but they themselves shall be burnt in the midst like beams. 55 And they cannot withstand a king and war. How then can it be supposed, or admitted that they are gods? 56 Neither are these gods of wood, and of able to deliver themselves from thieves or rob stone, and laid over with gold, and with silver, bers: they that are stronger than them |