Jeremiæ 3
1 Vulgo dicitur: Si dimiserit vir uxorem suam, et recedens ab eo, duxerit virum alterum: Numquid revertetur ad eam ultra? Numquid non polluta, et contaminata erit mulier illa? Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis: tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, et ego suscipiam te.
They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord.
2 Leva oculos tuos in directum, et vide ubi non prostrata sis: in viis sedebas, expectans eos quasi latro in solitudine: et polluisti terram in fornicationibus tuis, et in malitiis tuis.
Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing.
3 Quam ob rem prohibitæ sunt stillæ pluviarum, et serotinus imber non fuit: frons mulieris meretricis facta est tibi, noluisti erubescere.
So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed.
4 Ergo saltem amodo voca me: Pater meus, dux virginitatis meæ tu es:
Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years?
5 Numquid irasceris in perpetuum, aut perseverabis in finem? Ecce locuta es, et fecisti mala, et potuisti.
Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way.
6 Et dixit Dominus ad me in diebus Iosiæ regis: Numquid vidisti quæ fecerit aversatrix Israel? Abiit sibimet super omnem montem excelsum, et sub omni ligno frondoso, et fornicata est ibi.
And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel, turning away from me, has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every branching tree, acting like a loose woman there.
7 Et dixi, cum fecisset hæc omnia: Ad me revertere: et non est reversa. Et vidit prævaricatrix soror eius Iuda,
And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it.
8 quia pro eo, quod mœchata esset aversatrix Israel, dimisissem eam, et dedissem ei libellum repudii: et non timuit prævaricatrix Iuda soror eius, sed abiit, et fornicata est etiam ipsa.
And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same.
9 Et facilitate fornicationis suæ contaminavit terram, et mœchata est cum lapide et ligno.
So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees.
10 Et in omnibus his non est reversa ad me prævaricatrix soror eius Iuda in toto corde suo, sed in mendacio, ait Dominus.
But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord.
11 Et dixit Dominus ad me: Iustificavit animam suam aversatrix Israel, comparatione prævaricatricis Iudæ.
And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah.
12 Vade, et clama sermones istos contra Aquilonem, et dices: Revertere aversatrix Israel, ait Dominus, et non avertam faciem meam a vobis: quia sanctus ego sum, dicit Dominus, et non irascar in perpetuum.
Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever.
13 Verumtamen scito iniquitatem tuam, quia in Dominum Deum tuum prævaricata es: et dispersisti vias tuas alienis sub omni ligno frondoso, et vocem meam non audisti, ait Dominus.
Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord.
14 Convertimini filii revertentes, dicit Dominus: quia ego vir vester: et assumam vos unum de civitate, et duos de cognatione, et introducam vos in Sion.
Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion;
15 Et dabo vobis pastores iuxta cor meum, et pascent vos scientia et doctrina.
And I will give you keepers, pleasing to my heart, who will give you your food with knowledge and wisdom.
16 Cumque multiplicati fueritis, et creveritis in terra in diebus illis, ait Dominus: non dicent ultra: Arca testamenti Domini: neque ascendet super cor, neque recordabuntur illius: nec visitabitur, nec fiet ultra.
And it will come about, when your numbers are increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, that they will no longer say, The ark of the agreement of the Lord: it will not come into their minds, they will not have any memory of it, or be conscious of the loss of it, and it will not be made again.
17 In tempore illo vocabunt Ierusalem, Solium Domini: et congregabuntur ad eam omnes gentes in nomine Domini in Ierusalem, et non ambulabunt post pravitatem cordis sui pessimi.
At that time Jerusalem will be named the seat of the Lord's kingdom; and all the nations will come together to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: and no longer will their steps be guided by the purposes of their evil hearts.
18 In diebus illis ibit domus Iuda ad domum Israel, et venient simul de terra Aquilonis ad terram, quam dedi patribus vestris.
In those days the family of Judah will go with the family of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north into the land which I gave for a heritage to your fathers.
19 Ego autem dixi: Quomodo ponam te in filios, et tribuam tibi terram desiderabilem, hereditatem præclaram exercituum Gentium? Et dixi: Patrem vocabis me, et post me ingredi non cessabis.
But I said, How am I to put you among the children, and give you a desired land, a heritage of glory among the armies of the nations? and I said, You are to say to me, My father; and not be turned away from me.
20 Sed quomodo si contemnat mulier amatorem suum, sic contempsit me domus Israel, dicit Dominus.
Truly, as a wife is false to her husband, so have you been false to me, O Israel, says the Lord.
21 Vox in viis audita est, ploratus et ululatus filiorum Israel: quoniam iniquam fecerunt viam suam, obliti sunt Domini Dei sui.
A voice is sounding on the open hilltops, the weeping and the prayers of the children of Israel; because their way is twisted, they have not kept the Lord their God in mind.
22 Convertimini filii revertentes, et sanabo aversiones vestras. Ecce nos venimus ad te: tu enim es Dominus Deus noster.
Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God.
23 Vere mendaces erant colles, et multitudo montium: vere in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel.
Truly, the hills, and the noise of an army on the mountains, are a false hope: truly, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 Confusio comedit laborem patrum nostrorum ab adolescentia nostra, greges eorum, et armenta eorum, filios eorum, et filias eorum.
But the Baal has taken all the work of our fathers from our earliest days; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 Dormiemus in confusione nostra, et operiet nos ignominia nostra: quoniam Domino Deo nostro peccavimus nos, et patres nostri ab adolescentia nostra usque ad diem hanc: et non audivimus vocem Domini Dei nostri.
Let us be stretched on the earth in our downfall, covering ourselves with our shame: for we have been sinners against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our earliest years even till this day: and we have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God.
