CHAP. LI. against Babylon in revenge of Israel. and young; and with thee will I Babylon hath devoured me, he Dreak in pieces the young man hath crushed me, he hath made and the maid: me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. 23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will f break in pieces captains and rulers. 24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. 25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. 26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say and, My blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. 36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing. without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. 27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Miuni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain 41 How is Sheshach taken and against her; cause the horses to how is the praise of the whole come up as the rough caterpillars.earth surprised! how is Babylon 28 Prepare against her the na- become an astonishment among the tions with the kings of the Medes, nations! the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. 29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have foreborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women they have they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are bro ken. 31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, 32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. 33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of 42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. 43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which ho hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more, unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall." 45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall bo heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48 Then the heaven and the 709 Jerusalem's misery LAMENTATIONS. ments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. 34 And for his diet, there was a and complaint continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. T The LAMENTATIONS of JEREMIAH. CHAP. I. Jerusalem's Misery for her Sins. OW doth the city sit solitary, she is she become as a widow 2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. 3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. 4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. 6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. 10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. 11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. 12 T Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the LORD hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. 15 The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine-press. 16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevail 8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all ed. that honoured her despise her, 17 Zion spreadeth forth her because they have seen her naked-hands, and there is none to comness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth fort her: the LORD hath combackward. 9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; his adversaries should be round manded concerning Jacob, that she remembereth not her last end; about him: Jerusalem is as a mentherefore she came down wonder-struous woman among them. fully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: I have rebelled against his com 18 The LORD is righteous; for for the enemy hath magnified him-mandment: hear, I pray you, all self. people, and behold my sorrow 712 CHAP. II. Jeremiah lamenteth 19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. 20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. 21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. CHAP. II. Jerusalem's Misery lamented. Hthe daughter of Zion with a 2 The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. 3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he bath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. 4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. 5 The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation Jerusalem's misery of his anger the king and the priest. 7 The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctua ry, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. 9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more: her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. 10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their heads: they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins, of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. 12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. 13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Je rusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? 14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for tnce: and they have not discovered thine ini-. quity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. 15 All that pass by, clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the Perfection of beauty, the Joy of the whole earth? 16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: cer 713 Jeremiah's complaint. LAMENTATIONS, He lamenteth tainly this is the day that we lookedĮ. 9 He hath enclosed my ways with for; we have found, we have seen hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. it. 17 The LORD hath done that 10 He was unto me as a bear which he had devised; he hath lying in wait, and as a lion in fulfilled his word that he had com- secret places. manded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversa ries. 18 Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine 20 ¶ Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the LORD? 21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men are fallen. by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.. 22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped or remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up, hath mine enemy consumed. CHAP. III. Jeremiah bewaileth his Calamities. AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. I 2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. 3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. 4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. 5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. 6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. 7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he hutteth out my prayer. 11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. 12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. 15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. 16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel-stones, he hath covered me with ashes. 17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. 18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: 19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28 He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 31 For the LORD will not cast off for ever: 32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not afflict wil lingly, nor grieve the children of men. his own calamities, CHAP. IV. and Zion's wretched condition. geance and all their imaginations against me. 34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 36 To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not. 37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the LORD commandeth it not? 38 Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We 42 Wo have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. 61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; 62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music. 64 1 Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. 66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD. CHAP. IV. Zion's pitiful State bewailed. HOW is the gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctua ry are poured out in the top of every street. 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 2 The precious sons of Zion, 44 Thou hast covered thyself comparable to fine gold, how are with a cloud, that our prayer they esteemed as earthen pitchers, should not pass through. the work of the hands of the pot 45 Thou hast made us as the off-ter! scouring, and refuse in the midst of the people. 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. 51 Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city. 52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and casta stone upon me. 3 Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouch for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. 5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. 6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. 7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapOphire: 54 Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off. 55 I called upon thy name, LORD, out of the low dungeon. 56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. 58 O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field." 59 O LORD, thou hast seen my 10 The hands of the pitiful wrong: judge thou my cause. women have sodden their own 60 Thou hast seen all their ven-Ichildren: they were their meat in |
