Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors

bridegroom and the voice of the bride. ¹⁰And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee: 'Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?' ¹¹then shalt thou say unto them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law; ¹²and ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto Me; ¹³therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; forasmuch as I will show you no favour.'

      ¹⁴Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said: 'As the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, '¹⁵but: 'As the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither He had driven them'; and I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

      ¹⁶Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

      ¹⁷For Mine eyes are upon all their ways,They are not hid from My face;Neither is their iniquity concealed from Mine eyes.¹⁸And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double;Because they have profaned My land;They have filled Mine inheritanceWith the carcasses of their detestable things and their abominations. ¹⁹O Lord, my strength, and my stronghold,And my refuge, in the day of affliction,Unto Thee shall the nations comeFrom the ends of the earth, and shall say:'Our fathers have inherited nought but lies,Vanity and things wherein there is no profit.'²⁰Shall a man make unto himself gods,And they are no gods? ²¹Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know,This once will I cause them to knowMy hand and My might;And they shall know that My name is the Lord. 17The sin of Judah is writtenWith a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond;It is graven upon the tablet of their heart,And upon the horns of your altars.²Like the symbols of their sons are their altars,And their Asherim are by the leafy trees,Upon the high hills.³O thou that sittest upon the mountain in the field,I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil,And thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders.⁴And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritageThat I gave thee;And I will cause thee to serve thine enemiesIn the land which thou knowest not;For ye have kindled a fire in My nostril,Which shall burn for ever. ⁵Thus saith the Lord:Cursed is the man that trusteth in man,And maketh flesh his arm,And whose heart departeth from the Lord.⁶For he shall be like a tamarisk in the desert,And shall not see when good cometh;But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,A salt land and not inhabited.⁷Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,And whose trust the Lord is.⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,And that spreadeth out its roots by the river,And shall not see when heat cometh,But its foliage shall be luxuriant;And shall not be anxious in the year of drought,Neither shall cease from yielding fruit. ⁹The heart is deceitful above all things,And it is exceeding weak—who can know it?¹⁰I the Lord search the heart,I try the reins,Even to give every man according to his ways,According to the fruit of his doings. ¹¹As the partridge that broodeth over young which she hath not brought forth,So is he that getteth riches, and not by right;In the midst of his days he shall leave them,And at his end he shall be a fool. ¹²Thou throne of glory, on high from the beginning,Thou place of our sanctuary,¹³Thou hope of Israel, the Lord!All that forsake Thee shall be ashamed;They that depart from Thee shall be written in the earth,Because they have forsaken the Lord,The fountain of living waters. ¹⁴Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;Save me, and I shall be saved;For Thou art my praise.¹⁵Behold, they say unto me:'Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now.'¹⁶As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after Thee;Neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest it;That which came out of my lips was manifest before Thee.¹⁷Be not a ruin unto me;Thou art my refuge in the day of evil.¹⁸Let them be ashamed that persecute me, but let not me be ashamed;Let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed;Bring upon them the day of evil,And destroy them with double destruction.

      ¹⁹Thus said the Lord unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰and say unto them:

      Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates; ²¹thus saith the Lord: Take heed for the sake of your souls, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work; but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers; ²³but they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. ²⁴And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; ²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited for ever. ²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Lowland, and from the mountains, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of the Lord. ²⁷But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

       18The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ²'Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words.' ³Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was at his work on the wheels. ⁴And whensoever the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

      ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁶'O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ⁸but if that nation turn from their evil, because of which I have spoken against it, I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it. ⁹And at one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰but if it do evil in My sight, that it hearken not to My voice, then I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit it. ¹¹Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹²But they say: There is no hope; but we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.'

      ¹³Therefore thus saith the Lord:Ask ye now among the nations,Who hath heard such things;The virgin of Israel hath doneA very horrible thing.¹⁴Doth the snow of Lebanon failFrom the rock of the field?Or are the strange cold flowing watersPlucked up?¹⁵For My people hath forgotten Me,They offer unto vanity;And they have been made to stumble in their ways,In the ancient paths,To walk in bypaths,In a way not cast up;¹⁶To make their land an astonishment,And a perpetual hissing;Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished,And shake his head.¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east windBefore the enemy;I will look upon their back, and not their face,In the day of their calamity. ¹⁸Then said they:'Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah;For instruction shall not perish from