Old Testament

New Testament

Jeremiah 44:8-22 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

8. For you have provoked me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods in the land of Egypt, into which you have entered in order to live there, and so that you would perish and become a curse and a disgrace before all the nations of the earth.

9. How could you have forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of their wives, and your own evils, and the evils of your own wives, which they have done in the land of Judah and in the regions of Jerusalem?

10. They have not been cleansed, even to this day. And they have not feared, and they have not walked in the law of the Lord and in my precepts, which I have given before you and before your fathers.

11. For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil. And I will disperse all of Judah.

12. And I will take the remnant of Judah, who had set their faces so that they would enter into the land of Egypt and live there, and they will all be consumed in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword and by famine. And they will be consumed, from the least, even to the greatest. By sword and by famine shall they die. And they will be an oath, and a wonder, and a curse, and a disgrace.

13. And I will visit against those who are living in the land of Egypt, just as I have visited against Jerusalem: with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence.

14. And there will be no one who escapes, of those who remain among the remnant of the Jews, those who have gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt. And they wish to be returned to the land of Judah, for they lift up their souls so that they might return and live there. But there will be no one who may return, except those who will flee."

15. Then all the men, knowing that their wives were sacrificing to strange gods, and all of the women, a great multitude of whom were standing there, and all of the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros, responded to Jeremiah, by saying:

16. "Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not heed you.

17. But we will continue to do every word which proceeds from our own mouth, so that we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and we pour out libations to her, just as we and our fathers have done, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil.

18. But since the time that we ceased to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, we have been in need of all things, and we have been consumed by the sword and by famine.

19. But when we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, do we make cakes for her worship and offer libations to her without our husbands?"

20. And Jeremiah spoke to all the people, facing the men, and facing the women, and facing all the people who had responded this word to him, saying:

21. "Was this not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, which has been called to mind by the Lord and which has entered into his heart?

22. And the Lord could no longer bear this, because of the evil of your intentions, and because of the abominations that you have done. And so, your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, and it is without an inhabitant, even to this day.

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