HOLY BIBLE: Jeremiah 8 (original) (raw)

1 ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ λέγει κύριος ἐξοίσουσιν τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν βασιλέων Ιουδα καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν ἀρχόντων αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν ἱερέων καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν κατοικούντων Ιερουσαλημ ἐκ τῶν τάφων αὐτῶν 2 καὶ ψύξουσιν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ πρὸς πάντας τοὺς ἀστέρας καὶ πρὸς πᾶσαν τὴν στρατιὰν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἃ ἠγάπησαν καὶ οἷς ἐδούλευσαν καὶ ὧν ἐπορεύθησαν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν καὶ ὧν ἀντείχοντο καὶ οἷς προσεκύνησαν αὐτοῖς οὐ κοπήσονται καὶ οὐ ταφήσονται καὶ ἔσονται εἰς παράδειγμα ἐπὶ προσώπου τῆς γῆς 3 ὅτι εἵλοντο τὸν θάνατον ἢ τὴν ζωήν καὶ πᾶσιν τοῖς καταλοίποις τοῖς καταλειφθεῖσιν ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς ἐκείνης ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ οὗ ἐὰν ἐξώσω αὐτοὺς ἐκεῖ

1 All the tombs in Jerusalem will be rifled, the Lord says, when that day comes, tomb of king and prince of Juda’s line, tomb of priest and prophet, tomb of common citizen; naked their bones shall lie, 2 with sun and moon and all the starry host to witness it, their gods aforetime; gods so loved, so well served, so hailed, so courted, so adored! Those bones there shall be none to gather, none to bury; they shall lie like dung on the bare ground. 3 And the living shall envy the dead; so poor a home shall be left, the Lord of hosts says, to the remnant of a guilty race, in the far lands to which I have banished them.

1

In illo tempore, ait Dominus,
ejicient ossa regum Juda, et ossa principum ejus,
et ossa sacerdotum, et ossa prophetarum,
et ossa eorum qui habitaverunt Jerusalem,
de sepulchris suis:

2
et expandent ea ad solem, et lunam,
et omnem militiam cæli,
quæ dilexerunt, et quibus servierunt,
et post quæ ambulaverunt,
et quæ quæsierunt, et adoraverunt.
Non colligentur, et non sepelientur:
in sterquilinium super faciem terræ erunt. 3
Et eligent magis mortem quam vitam,
omnes qui residui fuerint de cognatione hac pessima,
in universis locis quæ derelicta sunt,
ad quæ ejeci eos, dicit Dominus exercituum.

4 ὅτι τάδε λέγει κύριος μὴ ὁ πίπτων οὐκ ἀνίσταται ἢ ὁ ἀποστρέφων οὐκ ἐπιστρέφει 5 διὰ τί ἀπέστρεψεν ὁ λαός μου οὗτος ἀποστροφὴν ἀναιδῆ καὶ κατεκρατήθησαν ἐν τῇ προαιρέσει αὐτῶν καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησαν τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι 6 ἐνωτίσασθε δὴ καὶ ἀκούσατε οὐχ οὕτως λαλήσουσιν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνθρωπος μετανοῶν ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας αὐτοῦ λέγων τί ἐποίησα διέλιπεν ὁ τρέχων ἀπὸ τοῦ δρόμου αὐτοῦ ὡς ἵππος κάθιδρος ἐν χρεμετισμῷ αὐτοῦ 7 καὶ ἡ ασιδα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἔγνω τὸν καιρὸν αὐτῆς τρυγὼν καὶ χελιδών ἀγροῦ στρουθία ἐφύλαξαν καιροὺς εἰσόδων αὐτῶν ὁ δὲ λαός μου οὐκ ἔγνω τὰ κρίματα κυρίου 8 πῶς ἐρεῖτε ὅτι σοφοί ἐσμεν ἡμεῖς καὶ νόμος κυρίου ἐστὶν με{Q'} ἡμῶν εἰς μάτην ἐγενήθη σχοῖνος ψευδὴς γραμματεῦσιν 9 ᾐσχύνθησαν σοφοὶ καὶ ἐπτοήθησαν καὶ ἑάλωσαν ὅτι τὸν λόγον κυρίου ἀπεδοκίμασαν σοφία τίς ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς 10 διὰ τοῦτο δώσω τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν ἑτέροις καὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς αὐτῶν τοῖς κληρονόμοις 11 12 13 καὶ συνάξουσιν τὰ γενήματα αὐτῶν λέγει κύριος οὐκ ἔστιν σταφυλὴ ἐν ταῖς ἀμπέλοις καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν σῦκα ἐν ταῖς συκαῖς καὶ τὰ φύλλα κατερρύηκεν

4 Give them this message from the Lord: A man falls but to rise, errs but to retrieve his path; 5 how is it that this rebellious people of mine at Jerusalem has rebelled so obstinately? They cling to their illusion, and return no more. 6 Listen I never so attentively, wholesome word I hear none; never a man that repents of his sin, asks himself what his life has been. No, each one follows his own bent, reckless as war-horse charging into battle. 7 Yet the kite, circling in air, knows its time; turtle-dove can guess, and swallow, and stork, when they should return;[1] only for my people the divine appointment passes unobserved. 8 What, still boasting that you are wise, that the Lord’s law finds its home among you? Nay, but the scribes, with their false penmanship, have construed all amiss. 9 In all their wisdom, how disappointed, how bewildered, how entrapped! God’s word they cast away, and wisdom left them. 10 Alien lords their wives shall have, alien masters their lands; (high and low, ill-gotten gains they covet; treacherous the ways alike of prophet and of priest; 11 here lies my people grievously hurt, and they tend her unconcernedly; All’s well, they say, all’s well, when in truth all goes amiss. 12 Shamed they needs must be, that did so detestably; shamed, but never ashamed, for indeed they have lost the power to blush; theirs to fall in the common ruin, crushed to earth, the Lord says, when I call all to account).[2] 13 I will make an end of them once for all, the Lord says; never a grape on the vine, or a fig on the fig-tree, every leaf withered; and I have given them … what has passed them by.[3]

4 Et dices ad eos:

Hæc dicit Dominus:
Numquid qui cadit non resurget?
et qui aversus est non revertetur?

5
Quare ergo aversus est populus iste in Jerusalem
aversione contentiosa?
Apprehenderunt mendacium,
et noluerunt reverti. 6
Attendi, et auscultavi:
nemo quod bonum est loquitur;
nullus est qui agat pœnitentiam super peccato suo,
dicens: Quid feci?
Omnes conversi sunt ad cursum suum,
quasi equus impetu vadens ad prælium. 7
Milvus in cælo cognovit tempus suum:
turtur, et hirundo, et ciconia custodierunt tempus adventus sui:
populus autem meus non cognovit judicium Domini. 8
Quomodo dicitis: Sapientes nos sumus,
et lex Domini nobiscum est?
vere mendacium operatus est stylus mendax scribarum! 9
Confusi sunt sapientes;
perterriti et capti sunt:
verbum enim Domini projecerunt,
et sapientia nulla est in eis. 10
Propterea dabo mulieres eorum exteris,
agros eorum hæredibus,
quia a minimo usque ad maximum
omnes avaritiam sequuntur:
a propheta usque ad sacerdotem
cuncti faciunt mendacium. 11
Et sanabant contritionem filiæ populi mei ad ignominiam,
dicentes: Pax, pax!
cum non esset pax. 12
Confusi sunt, quia abominationem fecerunt:
quinimmo confusione non sunt confusi,
et erubescere nescierunt.
Idcirco cadent inter corruentes:
in tempore visitationis suæ corruent, dicit Dominus. 13
Congregans congregabo eos, ait Dominus.
Non est uva in vitibus, et non sunt ficus in ficulnea:
folium defluxit,
et dedi eis quæ prætergressa sunt.

[1] The birds cannot be certainly identified; some would alter ‘kite’ to ‘stork’, and ‘stork’ to ‘crane’.

[2] vv. 10-12. The repetition of 6.13-15 may be intentional, but is more probably due to a copyist’s error; they are wanting here in some Greek manuscripts.

[3] The last clause of this verse does not yield any natural sense, either in the Hebrew or in the Latin, and it seems likely that the text as we have it is defective.

[4] ‘Uncomplaining’ and ‘silence’ represent a Hebrew verb which normally has that sense, but is interpreted by some, here and in a few other passages, as meaning ‘to die’. ‘A draught to dull the senses’; literally, ‘waters of a root’; the potion so described in Hebrew is probably the ‘gall’ offered to our Lord at his Crucifixion (Mt. 27.34).

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd