The Pillars of Three Faiths: Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran. Various Authors

fruit of them?' ²⁹And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. ³⁰Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying: ³¹Send to all them of the captivity, saying: Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he hath caused you to trust in a lie; ³²therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do unto My people, saith the Lord; because he hath spoken perversion against the Lord.

       30The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ²'Thus speaketh the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. ³For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will turn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.'

      ⁴And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. ⁵For thus saith the Lord:

      We have heard a voice of trembling,Of fear, and not of peace.⁶Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child;Wherefore do I see every manWith his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail,And all faces are turned into paleness?⁷Alas! for that day is great,So that none is like it;And it is a time of trouble unto Jacob,But out of it shall he be saved.⁸And it shall come to pass in that day,Saith the Lord of hosts,That I will break his yoke from off thy neck,And will burst thy bands;And strangers shall no more make him their bondman;⁹But they shall serve the Lord their God,And David their king,Whom I will raise up unto them. ¹⁰Therefore fear thou not, O Jacob My servant, saith the Lord;Neither be dismayed, O Israel;For, lo, I will save thee from afar,And thy seed from the land of their captivity;And Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease,And none shall make him afraid.¹¹For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee;For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee,But I will not make a full end of thee;For I will correct thee in measure,And will not utterly destroy thee. ¹²For thus saith the Lord:Thy hurt is incurable,And thy wound is grievous.¹³None deemeth of thy wound that it may be bound up;Thou hast no healing medicines.¹⁴All thy lovers have forgotten thee,They seek thee not;For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy,With the chastisement of a cruel one;For the greatness of thine iniquity,Because thy sins were increased.¹⁵Why criest thou for thy hurt,That thy pain is incurable?For the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased,I have done these things unto thee.¹⁶Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured,And all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity;And they that spoil thee shall be a spoil,And all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.¹⁷For I will restore health unto thee,And I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord;Because they have called thee an outcast:'She is 5Zion, there is none that careth for her.' ¹⁸Thus saith the Lord:Behold, I will turn the captivity of Jacob's tents,And have compassion on his dwelling-places;And the city shall be builded upon her own mound,And the palace shall be inhabited upon its wonted place.¹⁹And out of them shall proceed thanksgivingAnd the voice of them that make merry;And I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished,I will also increase them, and they shall not dwindle away.²⁰Their children also shall be as aforetime,And their congregation shall be established before Me,And I will punish all that oppress them.²¹And their prince shall be of themselves,And their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them;And I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto Me;For who is he that hath pledged his heartTo approach unto Me? saith the Lord.²²And ye shall be My people,And I will be your God. ²³Behold, a storm of the Lord is gone forth in fury,A sweeping storm;It shall whirl upon the head of the wicked.²⁴The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return,Until He have executed, and till He have performedThe purposes of His heart;In the end of days ye shall consider it.31At that time, saith the Lord,Will I be the God of all the families of Israel,And they shall be My people. ²Thus saith the Lord:The people that were left of the swordHave found grace in the wilderness,Even Israel, when I go to cause him to rest.³'From afar the Lord appeared unto me.''Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love;Therefore with affection have I drawn thee.⁴Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built,O virgin of Israel;Again shalt thou be adorned with thy tabrets,And shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.⁵Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria;The planters shall plant, and shall have the use thereof.⁶For there shall be a day,That the watchmen shall call upon the mount Ephraim:Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion,Unto the Lord our God.' ⁷For thus saith the Lord:Sing with gladness for Jacob,And shout at the head of the nations;Announce ye, praise ye, and say:'O Lord, save Thy people,The remnant of Israel.'⁸Behold, I will bring them from the north country,And gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth,And with them the blind and the lame,The woman with child and her that travaileth with child together;A great company shall they return hither.⁹They shall come with weeping,And with supplications will I lead them;I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,In a straight way wherein they shall not stumble;For I am become a father to Israel,And Ephraim is My first-born. ¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations,And declare it in the isles afar off, and say:'He that scattered Israel doth gather him,And keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.'¹¹For the Lord hath ransomed Jacob,And He redeemeth him from the hand of him that is stronger than he.¹²And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion,And shall flow unto the goodness of the Lord,To the corn, and to the wine, and to the oil,And to the young of the flock and of the herd;And their soul shall be as a watered garden,And they shall not pine any more at all.¹³Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,And the young men and the old together;For I will turn their mourning into joy,And will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.¹⁴And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness,Saith the Lord. ¹⁵Thus saith the Lord:A voice is heard in Ramah,Lamentation, and bitter weeping,Rachel weeping for her children;She refuseth to be comforted for her children,Because they are not. ¹⁶Thus saith the Lord:Refrain thy voice from weeping,And thine eyes from tears;For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord;And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.¹⁷And there is hope for thy future, saith the Lord;And thy children shall return to their own border.¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:'Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,As a calf untrained;Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,For Thou art the Lord my God.¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented,And after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh;I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,Because I did bear the reproach of my youth.'²⁰Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me?Is he a child that is dandled?For as often as I speak of him,I do earnestly remember him still;Therefore My heart yearneth for him,I will surely have compassion upon him, saith the Lord. ²¹Set thee up waymarks,Make thee guide-posts;Set thy heart toward the highway,Even the way by which thou wentest;Return, O virgin of Israel,Return to these thy cities.²²How long wilt thou turn away coyly,O thou backsliding daughter?For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth:A woman shall court a man. ²³Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:Yet again shall they use this speechIn the land of Judah and in the cities thereof,When I shall turn their captivity:'The Lord bless thee, O habitation of righteousness,O mountain of holiness.'²⁴And Judah and all the cities thereofShall dwell therein together:The husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul,And every pining soul have I replenished. ²⁶Upon this I awaked, and beheld;And my sleep was sweet unto me.

       ²⁷Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down, and to overthrow and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord.

      ²⁹In those days they shall say no more:'The fathers have eaten sour grapes,And the children's teeth are set on edge.'

      ³⁰But every one shall