The Hebrew Prophets

Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.

And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.

Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great things I will do to them.

Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and they have cast away my law.

To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.

Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall, neighbour and kinsman shall perish.

Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.

They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of Sion.

We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.

Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.

Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt know, and prove their way.

All these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.

The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.

Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.

Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.

For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,

If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt,

I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.

Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit you:

To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.

And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations.