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Jeremiah 12

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1 δίκαιος εἶ κύριε ὅτι ἀπολογήσομαι πρὸς σέ πλὴν κρίματα λαλήσω πρὸς σέ τί ὅτι ὁδὸς ἀσεβῶν εὐοδοῦται εὐθήνησαν πάντες οἱ ἀθετοῦντες ἀθετήματα 2 ἐφύτευσας αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐρριζώθησαν ἐτεκνοποίησαν καὶ ἐποίησαν καρπόν ἐγγὺς εἶ σὺ τοῦ στόματος αὐτῶν καὶ πόρρω ἀπὸ τῶν νεφρῶν αὐτῶν 3 καὶ σύ κύριε γινώσκεις με δεδοκίμακας τὴν καρδίαν μου ἐναντίον σου ἅγνισον αὐτοὺς εἰς ἡμέραν σφαγῆς αὐτῶν 4 ἕως πότε πενθήσει ἡ γῆ καὶ πᾶς ὁ χόρτος τοῦ ἀγροῦ ξηρανθήσεται ἀπὸ κακίας τῶν κατοικούντων ἐν αὐτῇ ἠφανίσθησαν κτήνη καὶ πετεινά ὅτι εἶπαν οὐκ ὄψεται ὁ θεὸς ὁδοὺς ἡμῶν

1 Lord, I know well that right is on thy side, if I plead against thee, yet remon-strate with thee I must; why is it that the affairs of the wicked prosper; never a traitor double-dyed but all goes well with him? 2 Deep roots they strike, so firmly thou hast planted them, thrive and bear fruit; yet all the while their hearts keep thee at a distance, only their lips proclaim thee. 3 Yet it is I, Lord, that hold thy warrant; with favour thou regardest me, hast proof of my heart’s loyalty; wilt thou not herd them together like sheep, and mark them down for slaughter? 4 How long must this land go in mourning, all the verdure of its fields be parched up, to avenge the ill-doing of its inhabitants? Neither beast nor bird left in it; and still their hope is, I shall not live to see their end come![1]

1

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum:
verumtamen justa loquar ad te:
Quare via impiorum prosperatur;
bene est omnibus qui prævaricantur et inique agunt? 2
Plantasti eos, et radicem miserunt:
proficiunt, et faciunt fructum:
prope es tu ori eorum,
et longe a renibus eorum. 3
Et tu, Domine, nosti me, vidisti me,
et probasti cor meum tecum.
Congrega eos quasi gregem ad victimam,
et sanctifica eos in die occisionis. 4
Usquequo lugebit terra,
et herba omnis regionis siccabitur,
propter malitiam habitantium in ea?
Consumptum est animal, et volucre,
quoniam dixerunt: Non videbit novissima nostra.

5 σοῦ οἱ πόδες τρέχουσιν καὶ ἐκλύουσίν σε πῶς παρασκευάσῃ ἐ{F'} ἵπποις καὶ ἐν γῇ εἰρήνης σὺ πέποιθας πῶς ποιήσεις ἐν φρυάγματι τοῦ Ιορδάνου 6 ὅτι καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου καὶ ὁ οἶκος τοῦ πατρός σου καὶ οὗτοι ἠθέτησάν σε καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐβόησαν ἐκ τῶν ὀπίσω σου ἐπισυνήχθησαν μὴ πιστεύσῃς ἐν αὐτοῖς ὅτι λαλήσουσιν πρὸς σὲ καλά

5 What, tired out so soon when thy rivals were on foot? And hast thou the mettle to challenge horsemen? Easy to keep thy confidence, here on safe ground; what shift wilt thou make in the fens of Jordan? 6 Even by thy own clansmen, thy own father’s kin, thou art betrayed; these too will join in the hue and cry after thee; never trust soft words of theirs.[2]

5
Si cum peditibus currens laborasti,
quomodo contendere poteris cum equis?
cum autem in terra pacis securus fueris,
quid facies in superbia Jordanis? 6
Nam et fratres tui, et domus patris tui,
etiam ipsi pugnaverunt adversum te,
et clamaverunt post te plena voce:
ne credas eis,
cum locuti fuerint tibi bona.

7 ἐγκαταλέλοιπα τὸν οἶκόν μου ἀφῆκα τὴν κληρονομίαν μου ἔδωκα τὴν ἠγαπημένην ψυχήν μου εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν αὐτῆς 8 ἐγενήθη ἡ κληρονομία μου ἐμοὶ ὡς λέων ἐν δρυμῷ ἔδωκεν ἐ{P'} ἐμὲ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτῆς διὰ τοῦτο ἐμίσησα αὐτήν 9 μὴ σπήλαιον ὑαίνης ἡ κληρονομία μου ἐμοὶ ἢ σπήλαιον κύκλῳ αὐτῆς βαδίσατε συναγάγετε πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ καὶ ἐλθέτωσαν τοῦ φαγεῖν αὐτήν 10 ποιμένες πολλοὶ διέφθειραν τὸν ἀμπελῶνά μου ἐμόλυναν τὴν μερίδα μου ἔδωκαν μερίδα ἐπιθυμητήν μου εἰς ἔρημον ἄβατον 11 ἐτέθη εἰς ἀφανισμὸν ἀπωλείας δ{I'} ἐμὲ ἀφανισμῷ ἠφανίσθη πᾶσα ἡ γῆ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνὴρ τιθέμενος ἐν καρδίᾳ 12 ἐπὶ πᾶσαν διεκβολὴν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἦλθον ταλαιπωροῦντες ὅτι μάχαιρα τοῦ κυρίου καταφάγεται ἀ{P'} ἄκρου τῆς γῆς ἕως ἄκρου τῆς γῆς οὐκ ἔστιν εἰρήνη πάσῃ σαρκί 13 σπείρατε πυροὺς καὶ ἀκάνθας θερίσατε οἱ κλῆροι αὐτῶν οὐκ ὠφελήσουσιν αὐτούς αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν ἀπὸ ὀνειδισμοῦ ἔναντι κυρίου

7 Farewell, my home; I have done with my chosen people; the life that was so dear to me I have handed over to its enemies.[3] 8 My people grown strange to me, as lion snarling in its forest lair; what marvel if I am weary of it? 9 My people grown strange to me as carrion-bird, its mottled plumage all bathed in blood![4]

Gather here, beasts that roam the earth, eager for your prey. 10 Drovers a many have laid waste my vineyard, trampled down my lands; the land I loved so, turned into a lonely wilderness! 11 Desolate they have made it, and desolate it mourns for me now; a very picture of desolation, and all for the want of men with heeding hearts. 12 No track over the uplands but has seen the freebooters coming by; from end to end of the country the sword of divine vengeance must pass, leaving no peace for any living thing; 13 where wheat was sown, the harvest shall be of briers, where men hold lands, they shall get no advantage of it; all your harvests shall disappoint you, so fierce the Lord’s anger burns.

7

Reliqui domum meam;
dimisi hæreditatem meam:
dedi dilectam animam meam in manu inimicorum ejus. 8
Facta est mihi hæreditas mea quasi leo in silva:
dedit contra me vocem, ideo odivi eam. 9
Numquid avis discolor hæreditas mea mihi?
numquid avis tincta per totum?
Venite, congregamini, omnes bestiæ terræ:
properate ad devorandum. 10
Pastores multi demoliti sunt vineam meam,
conculcaverunt partem meam,
dederunt portionem meam desiderabilem in desertum solitudinis. 11
Posuerunt eam in dissipationem,
luxitque super me:
desolatione desolata est omnis terra,
quia nullus est qui recogitet corde. 12
Super omnes vias deserti venerunt vastatores,
quia gladius Domini devorabit:
ab extremo terræ usque ad extremum ejus,
non est pax universæ carni. 13
Seminaverunt triticum,
et spinas messuerunt:
hæreditatem acceperunt,
et non eis proderit.
Confundemini a fructibus vestris
propter iram furoris Domini.

14 ὅτι τάδε λέγει κύριος περὶ πάντων τῶν γειτόνων τῶν πονηρῶν τῶν ἁπτομένων τῆς κληρονομίας μου ἧς ἐμέρισα τῷ λαῷ μου Ισραηλ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποσπῶ αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς αὐτῶν καὶ τὸν Ιουδαν ἐκβαλῶ ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν 15 καὶ ἔσται μετὰ τὸ ἐκβαλεῖν με αὐτοὺς ἐπιστρέψω καὶ ἐλεήσω αὐτοὺς καὶ κατοικιῶ αὐτοὺς ἕκαστον εἰς τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἕκαστον εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ 16 καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν μαθόντες μάθωσιν τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ λαοῦ μου τοῦ ὀμνύειν τῷ ὀνόματί μου ζῇ κύριος καθὼς ἐδίδαξαν τὸν λαόν μου ὀμνύειν τῇ Βααλ καὶ οἰκοδομηθήσονται ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ λαοῦ μου 17 ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἐπιστρέψωσιν καὶ ἐξαρῶ τὸ ἔθνος ἐκεῖνο ἐξάρσει καὶ ἀπωλείᾳ

14 And this message comes from the Lord to those ill neighbours of his, that encroach upon the domain he has granted to his people of Israel: I mean to uproot them from their homes, when I uproot the men of Juda from the land that lies between them. 15 Yet I will relent towards them, so uprooted, and have pity on them; to their scattered homes and countries they shall all return. 16 Then, if they will but learn the traditions of my own people, and take their oaths by the Lord, the living God, as they once taught my people to take oaths by Baal, their fortunes shall be founded anew in the midst of Juda. 17 But wherever my call goes unheeded, the Lord says, that people’s uprooting shall be that people’s undoing.

14
Hæc dicit Dominus adversum omnes vicinos meos pessimos,
qui tangunt hæreditatem quam distribui populo meo Israël:
Ecce ego evellam eos de terra sua,
et domum Juda evellam de medio eorum. 15
Et cum evulsero eos, convertar,
et miserebor eorum, et reducam eos:
virum ad hæreditatem suam,
et virum in terram suam. 16
Et erit: si eruditi didicerint vias populi mei,
ut jurent in nomine meo: Vivit Dominus!
sicut docuerunt populum meum jurare in Baal,
ædificabuntur in medio populi mei. 17
Quod si non audierint,
evellam gentem illam evulsione et perditione, ait Dominus.

[1] ‘I shall not live to see their end come’; or possibly, ‘God does not care what becomes of them’.

[2] vv. 5, 6. This is apparently the divine answer to the prophet’s impatience with the men of Anathoth; what he has experienced so far is nothing to the disappointments which await him at Jerusalem. The fens (literally, the ‘Pride’) of Jordan were a lair of wild beasts (49.19); it is not clear whether peril from wild beasts or peril from flood is here envisaged.

[3] The way in which Jeremias has been treated by his fellow-citizens resembles the way in which God has been treated as a stranger by his chosen people.

[4] The first half of verse 9 runs literally, ‘Has my people become a speckled bird to me, a bird dyed all over?’ The Hebrew text gives, ‘Has my people become a speckled vulture to me? The (other) vultures around are against it’; the Septuagint Greek, ‘Is my people a hyena’s cave to me, or a cave round it?’ Probably the true reading is lost.

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