Jeremiah 13:1-10
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 13[a]
Warnings to Judah. 1 The Lord said to me: Go forth and purchase for yourself a loincloth. Wrap it around your loins, but do not dip it in water. 2 I purchased the loincloth as instructed by the Lord and wrapped it around my loins.
3 Then the Lord spoke to me a second time, saying: 4 Take the loincloth that you purchased and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates and conceal it there in a cleft of the rock. 5 So I went to the Euphrates and hid it as the Lord had commanded me.
6 After a long period of time, the Lord said to me: Go now to the Euphrates and retrieve the loincloth that I instructed you to hide there. 7 And so I returned to the Euphrates and searched for the cleft, and I then retrieved the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But the loincloth had now rotted and was good for nothing.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 Thus says the Lord: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the enormous pride of Jerusalem. 10 Because these wicked people refuse to listen to my words and stubbornly follow their own inclinations as they run after other gods to serve them and worship them, they will become like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Jeremiah 13:1 Judah, which should be a source of renown and glory for the Lord (v. 11), has become intoxicated by its title of chosen people. The oracles collected here by the editor denounce this pride; the prophecies are filled with threats to be carried out in the very near future. The oracles certainly preceded the first deportation in 598 B.C.
Jeremiah 25:12-38
New Catholic Bible
12 However, at the end of those seventy years, says the Lord, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, and I will turn it into a desolate wasteland. 13 [a]I will inflict upon that land all the scourges that I threatened against it, everything written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. 14 Mighty nations and powerful kings will reduce them to a life of slavery, and thus I will requite them as their deeds and their handiwork deserve.
15 The Cup of Wrath on the Nations. For these are the words that the Lord, the God of Israel, proclaimed to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and command all the nations to whom I send you to drink from it. 16 After they drink, they will stagger and become mad because of the sword that I am inflicting upon them.”
17 Therefore, I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and ordered all the nations to whom the Lord had sent me to drink from it: 18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to transform them into a desolate ruin and a desert, an object of ridicule and cursing, as they are today; 19 Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people, 20 with the various groupings of people: all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and all the kings of the coastland across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaven temples; 24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples that dwell in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; 26 all the kings of the north, both close neighbors and those who are distant from each other—in other words, all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And, last of all, the king of Sheshach[b] shall drink.
27 Then say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! Get drunk and vomit! Fall down, never to rise again, because of the sword that I am sending against you. 28 Should they refuse to accept the cup from your hand and drink, then you are to say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink! 29 Behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name. Do you believe that you can possibly avoid punishment? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.
30 Therefore, prophesy against them all these words and proclaim to them:
The Lord roars from on high;
he thunders from his holy dwelling place.
He will roar mightily against his fold;
like those who tread the grapes, she shouts aloud
against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 The uproar will resound to the ends of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against the nations,
he will pass judgment upon all mankind
and put the wicked to the sword.
This the Lord has sworn.
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Behold, disaster is spreading
from nation to nation,
and a mighty storm has been unleashed
from the farthest corners of the earth.
33 Those whom the Lord has slain on that day will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them. Nor will they be gathered up for burial. Rather, they will become like dung spread over the surface of the ground.
34 Wail, you shepherds, and weep aloud;
roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
The time for you to be slaughtered has arrived;
you will fall and be shattered
like a valuable vase.
35 The shepherds have no place to seek refuge;
the leaders of the flock have no way of escape.
36 Listen to the cry of the shepherds
and the wails from the lords of the flock.
For the Lord has ravaged their pasture,
37 and their peaceful sheepfolds lie in ruins
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 Like a lion he has abandoned his lair,
for their land has become a desolate waste
because of the sword of the oppressor
and the fierce anger of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 25:13 This passage probably served as a conclusion to the oracles against the nations, which have been removed from their proper place and put at the end of the Book (chs. 46–51).
- Jeremiah 25:26 Sheshach: a cabalistic transcription of the name “Babylon.”
Hosea 1:2-9
New Catholic Bible
The Marriage of Hosea Is a Symbol[a]
The Harlot and Her Children[b]
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
“Go forth and take a harlot for a wife,
and father children of harlotry,
for the people have devoted themselves to adultery
and turned away from the Lord.”
3 Therefore, Hosea went forth and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
“Name the boy Jezreel,
for in a short time
I will punish the house of Jehu
for the blood shed at Jezreel,
and I will bring an end to the kingdom
of the house of Israel.
5 On that day I will demolish the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 When Gomer conceived again and bore him a daughter, the Lord said to him:
“Give her the name Lo-ruhama,
for I no longer have compassion for the house of Israel,
nor do I wish to forgive them.
7 However, I do have pity on the house of Judah,
and I will save them by the Lord, their God.
But I will not deliver them by war,
nor by sword or bow,
nor by horses or horsemen.”[c]
8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhama, she conceived and bore him a son. 9 Then the Lord said:
“Give him the name Lo-ammi,
for you are not my people,
and I am not your God.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 1:2 A prophet proclaims his message not only by what he says but also by what he does and by the way he lives. Hosea becomes a sign by reason of his strange and painful marital history and also by reason of the provocative names that he gives to his children. We are given two accounts of his marriage; these repeat and complete each other. His married life is a kind of parable of the history of Israel. God is attached to his people with a passion that resembles that of a husband; as time passes, Israel increasingly betrays the covenant by seeking to find its happiness in the many Canaanite fertility cults. Degradation leads to a complete break, but God cannot forever abandon his own; one day they will return and enjoy a new life. The Lord remains faithful, despite the continuing infidelity of the people.
- Hosea 1:2 Gomer was perhaps a sacral prostitute at some high place, or perhaps simply a young girl who vowed herself to the god Baal in order to become fertile. She represents here the situation of the country and its children, who have been contaminated by the worship of false gods. Even the name given to the children symbolizes the threat that hangs over Israel and the royal house. At Jezreel, royal residence of the northern kingdom, Jehu had ordered the massacre, in 841 B.C., of all the descendants of the wicked King Ahab (see 2 Ki 9–10). The new dynasty has likewise become unfaithful, and King Zechariah will pay for his misdeeds with his life after only a six months’ rule. The bow (v. 5), that is, the military power, will be broken in 732 B.C., by Tiglath-pileser III, who turns the Transjordan area and Galilee into Assyrian provinces. Contrary to all custom, the name of Hosea’s second child is a negative one, signifying the end, at least provisionally, of God’s mercy. The name of the third child signifies the complete break.
- Hosea 1:7 This verse was probably added by a Judean editor in order to exclude Jerusalem from the threat; Jerusalem was, in fact, spared from the Assyrian peril in 701 B.C.
