Jeremiah 4 - Douy-Rheims Bible Challoner Revision

¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed

² 0 And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reacheth even to the soul?

³ 1 At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.

⁴ 2 A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.

⁵ 3 Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.

⁶ 4 Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?

⁷ 5 For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from mount Ephraim.

⁸ 6 Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.

⁹ 7 They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.

¹⁰ 8 They ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy heart.

¹¹ 9 My bowels, my bowels are in pain, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.

¹² 0 Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.

¹³ 1 How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?

¹⁴ 2 For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

¹⁵ 3 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.

¹⁶ 4 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.

¹⁷ 5 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.

¹⁸ 6 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.

¹⁹ 7 For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.

²⁰ 8 The earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.

²¹ 9 At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away; they have entered into thickets and have climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.

²² 0 But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.

²³ 1 For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as of a woman in labor of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain.

²⁴ Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can fins a man that executeth judgement, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.

²⁵ And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

²⁶ O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.

²⁷ But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.

²⁸ I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God: and behold these have together broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.

²⁹ Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening, hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

³⁰ How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.

³¹ They are become as amorous horses and stallions, every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.