Jeremiæ 6
1 [Confortamini, filii Benjamin, in medio Jerusalem: et in Thecua clangite buccina, et super Bethacarem levate vexillum, quia malum visum est ab aquilone, et contritio magna.
Go in flight out of Jerusalem, so that you may be safe, you children of Benjamin, and let the horn be sounded in Tekoa, and the flag be lifted up on Beth-haccherem: for evil is looking out from the north, and a great destruction.
2 Speciosæ et delicatæ assimilavi filiam Sion.
The fair and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will be cut off by my hand.
3 Ad eam venient pastores et greges eorum; fixerunt in ea tentoria in circuitu: pascet unusquisque eos qui sub manu sua sunt.
Keepers of sheep with their flocks will come to her; they will put up their tents round her; everyone will get food in his place.
4 Sanctificate super eam bellum: consurgite, et ascendamus in meridie: væ nobis, quia declinavit dies; quia longiores factæ sunt umbræ vesperi!
Make war ready against her; up! let us go up when the sun is high. Sorrow is ours! for the day is turned and the shades of evening are stretched out.
5 Surgite, et ascendamus in nocte, et dissipemus domus ejus.
Up! let us go up by night, and send destruction on her great houses.
6 Quia hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Cædite lignum ejus, et fundite circa Jerusalem aggerem. Hæc est civitas visitationis: omnis calumnia in medio ejus.
For this is what the Lord of armies has said: Let trees be cut down and an earthwork be placed against Jerusalem: sorrow on the false town! inside her there is nothing but cruel ways.
7 Sicut frigidam fecit cisterna aquam suam, sic frigidam fecit malitiam suam. Iniquitas et vastitas audietur in ea, coram me semper infirmitas et plaga.
As the spring keeps its waters cold, so she keeps her evil in her: the sound of cruel and violent behaviour is in her; before me at all times are disease and wounds.
8 Erudire, Jerusalem, ne forte recedat anima mea a te; ne forte ponam te desertam, terram inhabitabilem.
Undergo teaching, O Jerusalem, or my soul will be turned away from you, and I will make you a waste, an unpeopled land.
9 Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Usque ad racemum colligent quasi in vinea reliquias Israël. Converte manum tuam quasi vindemiator ad cartallum.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: Everything will be taken from the rest of Israel as the last grapes are taken from the vine; let your hand be turned to the small branches, like one pulling off grapes.
10 Cui loquar, et quem contestabor ut audiat? ecce incircumcisæ aures eorum, et audire non possunt: ecce verbum Domini factum est eis in opprobrium, et non suscipient illud.
To whom am I to give word, witnessing so that they may take note? see, their ears are stopped, and they are not able to give attention: see, the word of the Lord has been a cause of shame to them, they have no delight in it.
11 Idcirco furore Domini plenus sum; laboravi sustinens. Effunde super parvulum foris, et super consilium juvenum simul: vir enim cum muliere capietur; senex cum pleno dierum.
For this reason I am full of the wrath of the Lord, I am tired of keeping it in: may it be let loose on the children in the street, and on the band of the young men together: for even the husband with his wife will be taken, the old man with him who is full of days.
12 Et transibunt domus eorum ad alteros, agri et uxores pariter, quia extendam manum meam super habitantes terram, dicit Dominus:
And their houses will be handed over to others, their fields and their wives together: for my hand will be stretched out against the people of the land, says the Lord.
13 a minore quippe usque ad majorem omnes avaritiæ student, et a propheta usque ad sacerdotem cuncti faciunt dolum.
For from the least of them even to the greatest, everyone is given up to getting money; from the prophet even to the priest, everyone is working deceit.
14 Et curabant contritionem filiæ populi mei cum ignominia, dicentes: Pax, pax! et non erat pax.
And they have made little of the wounds of my people, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
15 Confusi sunt, quia abominationem fecerunt: quin potius confusione non sunt confusi, et erubescere nescierunt. Quam ob rem cadent inter ruentes: in tempore visitationis suæ corruent, dicit Dominus.
Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they will be made low, says the Lord.
16 Hæc dicit Dominus: State super vias, et videte, et interrogate de semitis antiquis quæ sit via bona, et ambulate in ea: et invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris. Et dixerunt: Non ambulabimus.
This is what the Lord has said: Take your place looking out on the ways; make search for the old roads, saying, Where is the good way? and go in it that you may have rest for your souls. But they said, We will not go in it.
17 Et constitui super vos speculatores: Audite vocem tubæ. Et dixerunt: Non audiemus.
And I put watchmen over you, saying, Give attention to the sound of the horn; but they said, We will not give attention.
18 Ideo audite, gentes, et cognosce, congregatio, quanta ego faciam eis.
So then, give ear, you nations, and ...
19 Audi, terra: ecce ego adducam mala super populum istum, fructum cogitationum ejus: quia verba mea non audierunt, et legem meam projecerunt.
Give ear, O earth: see, I will make evil come on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not given attention to my words, and they would have nothing to do with my law.
20 Ut quid mihi thus de Saba affertis, et calamum suave olentem de terra longinqua? Holocautomata vestra non sunt accepta, et victimæ vestræ non placuerunt mihi.
To what purpose does sweet perfume come to me from Sheba, and spices from a far country? your burned offerings give me no pleasure, your offerings of beasts are not pleasing to me.
21 Propterea hæc dicit Dominus: Ecce ego dabo in populum istum ruinas: et ruent in eis patres et filii simul; vicinus et proximus peribunt.
For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will put stones in the way of this people: and the fathers and the sons together will go falling over them; the neighbour and his friend will come to destruction.
22 Hæc dicit Dominus: Ecce populus venit de terra aquilonis, et gens magna consurget a finibus terræ.
The Lord has said, See, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation will be put in motion from the inmost parts of the earth.
23 Sagittam et scutum arripiet: crudelis est et non miserebitur. Vox ejus quasi mare sonabit: et super equos ascendent, præparati quasi vir ad prælium adversum te, filia Sion.
Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the fight, against you, O daughter of Zion.
24 Audivimus famam ejus; dissolutæ sunt manus nostræ: tribulatio apprehendit nos, dolores ut parturientem.
The news of it has come to our ears; our hands have become feeble: trouble has come on us and pain, like the pain of a woman in childbirth.
25 Nolite exire ad agros, et in via ne ambuletis, quoniam gladius inimici, pavor in circuitu.
Go not out into the field or by the way; for there is the sword of the attacker, and fear on every side.
26 Filia populi mei, accingere cilicio, et conspergere cinere: luctum unigeniti fac tibi, planctum amarum, quia repente veniet vastator super nos.
O daughter of my people, put on haircloth, rolling yourself in the dust: give yourself to sorrow, as for an only son, with most bitter cries of grief; for he who makes waste will come on us suddenly.
27 Probatorem dedi te in populo meo robustum: et scies, et probabis viam eorum.
I have made you a tester among my people, so that you may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test.
28 Omnes isti principes declinantes, ambulantes fraudulenter, æs et ferrum: universi corrupti sunt.
All of them are turned away, going about with false stories; they are brass and iron: they are all workers of deceit.
29 Defecit sufflatorium; in igne consumptum est plumbum: frustra conflavit conflator, malitiæ enim eorum non sunt consumptæ.
The blower is blowing strongly, the lead is burned away in the fire: they go on heating the metal to no purpose, for the evil-doers are not taken away.
30 Argentum reprobum vocate eos, quia Dominus projecit illos.]
They will be named waste silver, because the Lord has given them up.
