que, saith the Lord the God of hosts: for||Lord, which he hath taken against Babylon ; thy day is come, the time of thy visitation. and his thoughts which he hath thought 32 And the proud one shall fall, he shall against the land of the Chaldeans: surely fall down, and there shall be none to lift him the little ones of the flocks shall pull them up and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and down; of a truth their habitation shall be it shall devour all round about him. destroyed with them.

:

33 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel, and the children of Juda are oppressed together: all that have taken them captives, hold them fast; they will not let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name: he will defend their cause in judgment, to terrify the land, and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

41 Behold, a people cometh from the north, and a great nation; and many kings shall rise up from the ends of the earth.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard amongst the nations.

36 A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be foolish a sword upon her valiant ones, and they shall be dismayed.

3 Let not him that bendeth, bend his bow and let not him go up that is armed with a coat of mail: spare not her young men ; destroy all her army.

37 A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the people that are in the midst of her: and they shall be- 4 And the slain shall fall in the land of come as women: a sword upon her trea-the Chaldeans. and the wounded in the resures, and they shall be made a spoil. gions thereof.

38 A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: because it is a land of idols, and they glory in monstrous things.

5 For Israel and Juda have not been forsaken by their God the Lord of hosts: but their land hath been filled with sin against the holy One of Israel.

39 Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig-fauns:* and ostriches shall dwell 6 Flee ye from the midst of Babylon, and therein and it shall be no more inhabited let every one save his own life: be not sifor ever, neither shall it be built up from lent upon her iniquity: for it is the time of generation to generation. revenge from the Lord; he will render unto 40 As the Lord overthrew Sodom and her what she hath deserved. Gomorrha, and their neighbour cities, saith| the Lord: No man shall dwell there; neither shall the son of man inhabit it.

CHAP. LI.

THU

The miseries that shall fall upon Babylon from the Medes: the destruction of her idols. HUS saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up as it were a pestilential wind against Babylon and against the inhabitants thereof, who have lifted up their heart against me.

2 And I will send to Babylon fanners, and they shall fan her, and shall destroy her land: for they are come upon her on every side in the day of her affliction.

Fig-fauns. Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous shapes; such as the ancients called Fauns and Satyrs: and as they imagined them to live upon wild figs they called them Fauni ficarii, or Fig-fauns.

7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine, and therefore they have staggered.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her, take balm for her pain, if

42 They shall take the bow, and the so she may be healed. shield: they are cruel and unmerciful: their|| 9 We would have cured Babylon, but voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall she is not healed: let us forsake her, and ride upon horses, like a man prepared for let us go every man to his own land: bebattle against thee, O daughter of Babylon.cause her judgment hath reached even to 43 The king of Babylon hath heard the the heavens, and is lifted up to the clouds.. report of them, and his hands are grown fee- 10 The Lord hath brought forth our jusble: anguish hath taken hold of him, pangs tices: come, and let us declare in Sion the as of a woman in labour. work of the Lord our God.

44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion 11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers: from the swelling of the Jordan to the strong the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the and beautiful: for I will make him run sud- kings of the Medes: and his mind is against denly upon her: and who shall be the cho-Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vensen one whom I may appoint over her? for geance of the Lord, the vengeance of his who is like to me? and who shall bear up against me? and who is that shepherd that can withstand my countenance?

temple.

45 Therefore hear ye the counsel of the

12 Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard, strengthen the watch: set up the watchman, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both purposed, and done all that he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 0 thou that dwellest upon many waters, rich in treasures, thy end is come for thy entire destruction.

14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by him

self, saying: I will fill thee with men as with locusts, and they shall lift up a joyful shout against thee.

28 Prepare the nations against her, the kings of Media, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion.

15 He that made the earth by his power, 29 And the land shall be in a commotion, that hath prepared the world by his wis-and shall be troubled: for the design of the dom, and stretched out the heavens by his Lord against Babylon shall awake, to make understanding. the land of Babylon desert and unhabit. 16 When he uttereth his voice the wa-able. ters are multiplied in heaven: he lifteth up 30 The valiant men of Babylon have forthe clouds from the ends of the earth: he borne to fight, they have dwelt in holds : hath turned lightning into rain, and hath their strength hath failed, and they are bebrought forth the wind out of his treasures. come as women: her dwelling-places are

17 Every man is become foolish by his burnt, her bars are broken. knowledge every founder is confounded by his idol; for what he hath cast is a lie, and there is no breath in them.

31 One running post shall meet another, and messenger shall meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from one end to the other:

18 They are vain works, and worthy to be laughed at: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

32 And that the fords are taken, and the marshes are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he that made all things he it is, and Israel is the sceptre of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.

33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor; this is the time of

20 Thou dashest together for me the wea-her threshing: yet a little while, and the pons of war; and with thee I will dash na- time of her harvest shall come. tions together, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms:

34 Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath eaten me up; he hath devoured me: he 21 And with thee I will break in pieces hath made me as an empty vessel: he hath the horse, and his rider: and with thee I swallowed me up like a dragon: he hath will break in pieces the chariot, and him filled his belly with my delicate meats, and that getteth up into it: The hath cast me out.

22 And with thee I will break in pieces 35 The wrong done to me, and my flesh man and woman; and with thee I will break be upon Babylon, saith the habitation of in pieces the old man and the child; and Sion; and my blood upon the inhabitants with thee I will break in pieces the young of Chaldea, saith Jerusalem.

man and the virgin :

36 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Be23 And with thee I will break in pieces hold, I will judge thy cause, and will take the shepherd and his flock; and with thee vengeance for thee, and I will make her I will break in pieces the husbandman and sea desolate, and will dry up her spring. his yoke of oxen; and with thee I will break 37 And Babylon shall be reduced to in pieces captains and rulers. heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an

24 And I will render to Babylon, and to astonishment, and a hissing, because there all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil, is no inhabitant. that they have done in Sion, before your eyes, saith the Lord.

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall shake their manes like young

25 Behold, I come against thee, thou des-lions. troying mountain, saith the Lord, which 39 In their heat I will set them drink: corruptest the whole earth and I will and I will make them drunk, that they may stretch out my hand upon thee, and will slumber, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will awake no more, saith the Lord. make thee a burnt mountain.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to 26 And they shall not take of thee a stone the slaughter, and like rams with kids. for the corner, nor a stone for foundations; 41 How is Sesach taken, and the renownbut thou shalt be destroyed for ever, saithed one of all the earth surprised? How is the Lord. Babylon become an astonishment among 27 Set ye up a standard in the land the nations?

sound with the trumpet among the nations: 42 The sea is come up over Babylon: she prepare the nations against her: call to-is covered with the multitude of the waves gether against her the kings of Ararat, Men-thereof.

ni, and Ascenez: number Taphsar against 43 Her cities are become an astonishher; bring the horse as the stinging locust.ment, a land uninhabited and desolate, a land wherein none cau dwell, nor son of man pass through it.

44 And I will visit against Bel in Baby. on, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed down; and

Every man, &c. That is, every maker of idols, however he boasts of his knowledge and skill, does but shew himself a fool in pretending to make a God.

60 And Jeremias wrote in one book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon; all these words that are written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremias said to Saraias: When thou shalt come into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,

62 Thou shalt say: O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to destroy it: so that there should be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be desolate for ever.

58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down; and her high gates shall be burnt with fire; and the labours of the people shall come to nothing; and of the nations shall go to the fire, and shall perish.

59 The word that Jeremias the prophet commanded Saraias the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, when he went with king Sedecias to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.

63 And when thou shalt have made an end of reading this book, thou shalt tie a stone to it, and shalt throw it into the midst of the Euphrates:

64 And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink; and she shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring upon her; and she shall be utterly destroyed. Thus far are the words of Jeremias. CHAP. LII.

A recapitulation of the reign of Sedecias, and the destruction of Jerusalem. number of the captives.

The

old when he began to reign: and he EDECIAS was one and twenty years reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of Lobna.

2 And he did, that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.

3 For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.

4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon came, he and all his army against Jerusalem: and they besieged it, and built forts against it round about.

5 And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Sedecias.

6 And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a famine overpowered the city: and there was no food for the people of the land.

56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, that is, upon Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is weakened, because the Lord who is a strong revenger will surely repay.

57 And I will make her princes drunk, 7 And the city was broken up; and the and her wise men, and her captains, and men of war fled, and went out of the city her rulers, and her valiant men: and they in the night by the way of the gate that is shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall between the two walls, and leadeth to the awake no more, saith the King, whose name king's garden (the Chaldeans besieging the is Lord of hosts. city round about), and they went by the way that leadeth to the wilderness.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king: and they overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near Jericho: and all his companions were scattered from him.

And when they had taken the king, they carried him to the king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.

10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias before his eyes: and he slew all the princes of Juda in Reblatha.

11 And he put out the eyes of Sedecias, cubits: and net-work, and pomegranates and bound him with fetters: and the king were upon the chapiters round about, all of Babylon brought him to Babylon, and he of brass. The same of the second pillar, put him in prison till the day of his death. and the pomegranates.

12 And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan the general of the army, who stood before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem.

24 And the general took Saraias the chief priest, and Sophonias the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry. 25 He also took out of the city one eunuch that was chief over the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, that were found in the city; and a scribe an officer of the army, who exercised the young soldiers; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.

26 And Nabuzardan the general took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Reblatha.

27 And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death in Reblatha in the land of Emath and Juda was carried away captive out of his land.

..

17 The Chaldeans also broke in pieces 28 This is the people whom Nabuchodothe brazen pillars that were in the house of nosor carried away captive: In the seventh the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass year, three thousand and twenty three Jews. that was in the house of, the Lord: and 29 In the eighteen year of Nabuchodothey carried all the brass of them to Baby-nosor, eight hundred and thirty two souls from Jerusalem.

lon.

13 And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire.

14 And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the general broke down all the wall of Jerusalem round about.

15 But Nabuzardan the general carried away captives some of the poor people, and of the rest of the common sort who remained in the city, and of the fugitives that were fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16 But of the poor of the land, Nabuzardan the general left some for vine-dressers, and for husbandmen.

18 And they took the cauldrons, and the 30 In the three and twentieth year of Naflesh-hooks, and the psalteries, and the buchodonosor, Nabuzardan the general carbowls, and the little mortars, and all the ried away of the Jews seven hundred and brazen vessels that had been used in the forty-five souls. So all the souls were four ministry and thousand six hundred.

23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down: and the pomegranates being a hundred in all, were compassed with net-work.

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31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Joachin king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the five

19 The general took away the pitchers, and the censers, and the pots, and the basons, and the candlesticks, and the mortars, and the cups: as many as were of gold, in and twentieth day of the month, that Evilgold; and as many as were of silver, in Merodach king of Babylon, in the first silver: year of his reign, lifted up the head of Joachin king of Juda, and brought him forth out of prison.

20 And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels.

21 And concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high: and a cord of twelve cubits compassed it about: but the thickness thereof was four fingers, and it was hollow within.

22 And chapiters of brass were upon both the height of one chapiter was five

:

32 And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon.

33 And he changed his prison-garments; and he ate bread before him always all the days of his life.

34 And for his diet a continual provision was allowed him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

270

OF

JEREMIAS.

and

In these JEREMIAS laments in a most patheti-honoured her, have despised her, because cal manner the miseries of his people, and they have seen her shame: but she sighed, the destruction of JERUSALEM and the tem-and turned backward. ple, in Hebrew verses, beginning with dif ferent letters according to the order of the she hath not remembered her end she is 9 Teth. Her filthiness is on her feet; Hebrew alphabet. And it came to pass, after Israel was car-forter: behold, O Lord, my affliction, bewonderfully cast down, not having a comried into captivity, and Jerusalem was de-cause the enemy is lifted up. solate, that Jeremias the prophet sat weeping, and mourned with this lamen-hand to all her desirable things: for she 10 Jod. The enemy hath put out his tation over Jerusalem, and with a sorrow-hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sancful mind, sighing and moaning, he said: tuary, of whom thou gavest commandment CHAP. I. Aleph. [OW doth the city sit solitary that that they should not enter into thy church. was full of people! how is the mistress of the Gentiles become as a widow the princess of provinces made tributary!

H

bread: they have given all their precious 11 Caph. All her people sigh, they seek things for food to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile.

attend, and see if there be any sorrow like 12 Lamed. O all ye that pass by the way,

2 Beth. Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks there is none to comfort her among all them to my sorrow; for he hath made a vintage that were dear to her all her friends have of me, as the Lord spoke in the day of his -despised her, and are become her enemies. fierce anger.

3 Ghimel. Juda hath removed her dwelling place, because of her affliction, and the into my bones, and hath chastised me: he 13 Mem. From above he hath sent fire greatness of her bondage: she hath dwelt hath spread a net for my feet; he hath among the nations, and she hath found no turned me back: he hath made me desolate, rest: all her persecutors have taken her in wasted with sorrow all the day long. the midst of straits. 14 Nun. The yoke of my iniquities hath

4 Daleth. The ways of Sion mourn, be-watched: they are folded together in his cause there are none that come to the so-hand, and put upon my neck: my strength lemn feast: all her gates are broken down:is weakened: the Lord hath delivered me her priests sigh: her virgins are in afflic-into a hand, out of which I am not able to tion, and she is oppressed with bitterness. rise.

5 He. Her adversaries are become her lords: her enemies are enriched: because all my mighty men out of the midst of me : 15 Samech. The Lord hath taken away the Lord hath spoken against her for the he hath called against me the time, to demultitude of her iniquities: her children are stroy my chosen men: the Lord hath trodled into captivity, before the face of the den the wine-press for the virgin-daughter oppressor. of Juda.

16 Ain. Therefore do I weep, and my

8 Vau. And from the daughter of Sion all her beauty is departed: her princes are eyes run down with water: because the become like rams that find no pastures: comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from and they are gone away without strength me: my children are desolate, because the before the face of the pursuer. enemy hath prevailed.

7 Zain. Jerusalem hath remembered the days of her affliction, and prevarication of there is none to comfort her: the Lord 17 Phe. Sion hath spread forth her hands; all her desirable things which she had from hath commanded against Jacob, his enemies the days of old, when her people fell in the are round about him: Jerusalem is as a menenemy's hand, and there was no helper: thestruous woman among them.

enemies have seen her, and have mocked at her sabbaths.

18 Sade. The Lord is just, for I have provoked his mouth to wrath: hear, I pray

8 Heth. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; you, all ye people, and see my sorrow: my therefore is she become unstable: all that virgins, and my young men are gone into captivity.

This preface was not written by Jeremias, but added by the seventy interpreters, deceived me: my priests and my ancients 19 Coph. I called for my friends, but they to give the reader to understand upon what pined away in the city; while they sought occasion the Lamentations were published. their food, to relieve their souls: