Agere Sequitur Esse

Lament for Judah

1 At that time, sayeth the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Iudah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the Priests, and the bones of the Prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Ierusalem out of their graues.

2 And they shall spread them before the Sunne, and the Moone, and all the hoste of heauen whom they haue loued, and whom they haue serued, and after whom they haue walked, and whom they haue sought, and whom they haue worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for doung, vpon the face of the earth.

3 And death shall bee chosen rather then life, by all the residue of them that remaine of this euill family, which remaine in all the places whither I haue driuen them, saith the Lord of hosts.

4 ¶ Moreouer thou shalt say vnto them, Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall, and not arise? shall hee turne away, and not returne?

5 Why then is this people of Ierusalem slidden backe, by a perpetual backesliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to returne.

6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickednesse, saying, What haue I done? euery one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battell.

7 Yea the Storke in the heauen knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow obserue the time of their coming; but my people know not the iudgement of the Lord.

8 How doe ye say, We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with vs? Loe, certainly, in vaine made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vaine.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; loe, they haue reiected the word of the Lord, and what wisedome is in them?

10 Therfore will I giue their wiues vnto others, & their fields to them that shall inherite them: for euery one from the least euen vnto the greatest is giuen to couetousnes, from the Prophet euen vnto the priest, euery one dealeth falsly.

11 For they haue healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fal, in the time of their visitation they shall be cast downe, saith the Lord.

13 ¶ I will surely consume them, saith the Lord; there shalbe no grapes on the vine, nor figges on the figtree, and the leafe shall fade, and the things that I haue giuen them, shall passe away from them.

14 Why doe wee sit still? assemble your selues, and let vs enter into the defenced cities, and let vs be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put vs to silence, and giuen vs waters of gall to drink, because we haue sinned against the Lord.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came: and for a time of health, and behold trouble.

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones, for they are come and haue deuoured the land, and all that is in it, the citie, and those that dwell therein.

17 For behold, I wil send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you; saith the Lord.

18 ¶ When I would comfort my selfe against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the crie of the daughter of my people because of them that dwel in a farre countrey: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? why haue they prouoked me to anger with their grauen images, and with strange vanities?

20 The haruest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saued.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, I am blacke: astonishment hath taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balme in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recouered?

Chap 9

1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountaine of teares, that I might weepe day and night for the slaine of the daughter of my people.

2 Oh that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leaue my people, and goe from them: for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

3 And they bend their tongue like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the trueth vpon the earth: for they proceed from euil to euill, and they know not me, saith the Lord.

4 Take yee heede euery one of his neighbour, and trust yee not in any brother: for euery brother will vtterly supplant, and euery neighbour will walke with slanders.

5 And they will deceiue euery one his neighbour, and will not speake the trueth, they haue taught their tongue to speake lies, and weary themselues to commit iniquity.

6 Thine habitation is in the middest of deceit, through deceit they refuse to know me, sayth the Lord.

7 Therfore thus saith the Lord of hostes; Behold, I will melt them, and trie them: for how shall I doe for the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is as an arrowe shot out, it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his waite.

9 ¶ Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord ? shall not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this?

10 For the mountaines will I take vp a weeping and wayling, and for the habitations of the wildernesse a lamentation, because they are burnt vp, so that none can passe through them, neither can men heare the voyce of the cattell, both the foule of the heauens, and the beast are fled, they are gone.

11 And I will make Ierusalem heapes, and a denne of dragons, and I wil make the cities of Iudah desolate, without an inhabitant.

12 ¶ Who is the wise man that may vnderstand this, and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that hee may declare it; for what the land perisheth, and is burnt vp like a wildernesse that none passeth through?

13 And the Lord saith; Because they haue forsaken my law, which I set before them, and haue not obeyed my voyce, neither walked therein;

14 But haue walked after the imagination of their owne heart, & after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, euen this people with wormewood, and giue them water of gall to drinke.

16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whome neither they nor their fathers haue knowen: and I wil send a sword after them, til I haue consumed them.

17 ¶ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider yee, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for cunning women, that they may come.

18 And let them make haste, and take vp a wailing for vs, that our eyes may run down with teares, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

19 For a voyce of wayling is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled? wee are greatly confounded, because wee haue forsaken the land, because our dwellings haue cast vs out.

20 Yet heare the word of the Lord, O ye women, & let your eare receiue the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and euery one her neighbour lamentation.

21 For death is come vp into our windowes, and is entred into our palaces, to cut off the children from without and the yong men from the streetes.

22 Speake, Thus saith the Lord, Euen the carkeises of men shall fall as dung vpon the open field, and as the handfull after the haruest man, and none shall gather them.

23 ¶ Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.

24 But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that hee vnderstandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise louing kindnesse, iudgement and righteousnesse in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

25 ¶ Behold, the dayes come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised, with the vncircumcised,

26 Egypt, and Iudah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the vtmost corners, that dwell in the wildernesse: for all these nations are vncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are vncircumcised in the heart.