66:9. Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy G.o.d?
66:10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.
66:11. That you may suck, and be filled with the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the abundance of her glory.
66:12. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon her as it were a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the Gentiles, which you shall suck; you shall be carried at the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and upon the knees they shall caress you.
66:13. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
66:14. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall be angry with his enemies.
66:15. For behold the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind, to render his wrath in indignation, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
66:16. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by his sword unto all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.
66:17. They that were sanctified, thought themselves clean in the gardens behind the gate within, they that did eat swine"s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse: they shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.
66:18. But I know their works, and their thoughts: I come that I may gather them together with all nations and tongues: and they shall come and shall see my glory.
66:19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them that shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia them that draw the bow: into Italy, and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles:
66:20. And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations for a gift to the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and in coaches, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as if the children of Israel should bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
66:21. And I will take of them to be priests, and Levites, saith the Lord.
66:22. For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your seed stand, and your name.
66:23. And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath: and all flesh shall come to adore before my face, saith the Lord.
66:24. And they shall go out, and see the carca.s.ses of the men that have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they 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 G.o.d; 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, in the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in his charity for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered at their hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he was stoned to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into Egypt.
Jeremias Chapter 1
The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. G.o.d encourages him.
1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the fifth month.
1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord G.o.d: behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.
1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:
1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant.
1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch over my word to perform it.
1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.
1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.
1:16. And I will p.r.o.nounce my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange G.o.ds, and have adored the work of their own hands.
1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make thee not to fear their countenance.
1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of bra.s.s, over all the land, to the kings of Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.
1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
Jeremias Chapter 2
G.o.d expostulates with the Jews for their ingrat.i.tude and infidelity.
2:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2:2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not sown.
2:3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
2:4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel:
2:5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
2:6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land uninhabited and unpa.s.sable, through a land of drought, and the image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?