Circuite vias Jerusalem, et aspicite, et considerate, et quærite in plateis ejus, an inveniatis virum facientem judicium, et quærentem fidem: et propitius ero ei.

Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.

Go the rounds of Jerusalem, search the streets of it with hue and cry; and if you find one man there that faithfully does his duty, and keeps troth, then the city shall be pardoned.

Quod si etiam: Vivit Dominus, dixerint, et hoc falso jurabunt.

And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

Nay, though they call on the living God to be their witness, they forswear themselves none the less.

Domine, oculi tui respiciunt fidem: percussisti eos, et non doluerunt; attrivisti eos, et renuerunt accipere disciplinam: induraverunt facies suas supra petram, et noluerunt reverti.

O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.

On faithfulness, Lord, thy eyes are set. And these, when thou smitest them, are unrepentant still; when thou crushest them to earth, will not heed reproof; brows are theirs unyielding as rock, and return they will not.

Ego autem dixi: Forsitan pauperes sunt et stulti, ignorantes viam Domini, judicium Dei sui.

But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.

But indeed, thought I, perhaps they are poor men and foolish, that have never learnt the divine command, or what their God requires of them.

Ibo igitur ad optimates, et loquar eis: ipsi enim cognoverunt viam Domini, judicium Dei sui: et ecce magis hi simul confregerunt jugum; ruperunt vincula.

I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.

I will go and have speech with the men of rank; what the divine command is, what their God requires of them, these will surely know. And these I found conspiring, as none other, to throw off the yoke, to break through their bonds.

Idcirco percussit eos leo de silva; lupus ad vesperam vastavit eos: pardus vigilans super civitates eorum: omnis qui egressus fuerit ex eis capietur: quia multiplicatæ sunt prævaricationes eorum; confortatæ sunt aversiones eorum.

Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

What wonder if they are attacked and despoiled by robbers, that leave the woods at night-time, stealthily as lion or wolf or prowling leopard, to beleaguer their towns and catch all who venture forth? So many their rebellions, so obstinate their defiance!

Super quo propitius tibi esse potero? filii tui dereliquerunt me, et jurant in his qui non sunt dii. Saturavi eos, et mœchati sunt, et in domo meretricis luxuriabantur.

How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot’s house.

For all this, how should I pardon thee? Thy sons have deserted me, by gods that are no gods their vows are taken; full-fed with my bounty, they left their wedded troth, to wanton in the bower of a mistress;

Equi amatores et emissarii facti sunt: unusquisque ad uxorem proximi sui hinniebat.

They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

bold in their adultery as stallion at grass neighing for its mate.

Numquid super his non visitabo, dicit Dominus, et in gente tali non ulciscetur anima mea?

Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

What, shall I let all this pass me by, the Lord says; shall I not take my fill of vengeance against such a nation as this?

Ascendite muros ejus, et dissipate: consummationem autem nolite facere: auferte propagines ejus, quia non sunt Domini.

Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord’s.

Scale those ramparts, and fall to pillage, not taking full toll even yet; root out the slips of yonder vine, the Lord will not claim them.

Prævaricatione enim prævaricata est in me domus Israël, et domus Juda, ait Dominus.

For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

Obstinately they have defied me, the Lord says, Israel and Juda both;

Negaverunt Dominum, et dixerunt: Non est ipse: neque veniet super nos malum: gladium et famem non videbimus.

They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.

they disown me; Nay, they tell one another, this is none of his doing, harm shall never befall us, we shall have neither slaughter nor famine here;

Prophetæ fuerunt in ventum locuti, et responsum non fuit in eis: hæc ergo evenient illis.

The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

the prophets did but waste breath, no word of revelation made to them; on their own heads be it!

Hæc dicit Dominus Deus exercituum: Quia locuti estis verbum istud, ecce ego do verba mea in ore tuo in ignem, et populum istum in ligna, et vorabit eos.

Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.

Vain words; but not vainly the Lord, the God of hosts, has spoken; flaming words of his he has entrusted to my lips, and fuel this people shall be for their devouring.

Ecce ego adducam super vos gentem de longinquo, domus Israël, ait Dominus: gentem robustam, gentem antiquam, gentem cujus ignorabis linguam, nec intelliges quid loquatur.

Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.

A nation from far away I am summoning, even now, Israel, to the attack; a warlike nation, of ancient lineage, whose very tongue shall be strange to thee, no word of it well understood;

Pharetra ejus quasi sepulchrum patens; universi fortes.

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

greedily as the tomb their quivers gape, and they are warriors all.

Et comedet segetes tuas et panem tuum; devorabit filios tuos et filias tuas; comedet gregem tuum et armenta tua; comedet vineam tuam et ficum tuam: et conteret urbes munitas tuas, in quibus tu habes fiduciam, gladio.

And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

They shall rob thee of harvest and of food, rob thee of son and daughter, rob thee of flock and herd, rob thee of vine and fig-tree; and all the strongholds, wherein thy hope lies, at the sword’s point shall be overthrown.

Verumtamen in diebus illis, ait Dominus, non faciam vos in consummationem.

Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.

Yet even then, the Lord says, I will not take full toll of thee.

Quod si dixeritis: Quare fecit nobis Dominus Deus noster hæc omnia? dices ad eos: Sicut dereliquistis me, et servistis deo alieno in terra vestra, sic servietis alienis in terra non vestra.

And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.

Ask you why the Lord has so much misused you, this is to be my answer: Did you not forsake me, to worship alien gods in your own land? Alien gods you shall worship in an alien land, for your punishment.

Annuntiate hoc domui Jacob, et auditum facite in Juda, dicentes:

Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:

To Israel’s race proclaim it, for all Juda to hear,

Audi, popule stulte, qui non habes cor: qui habentes oculos, non videtis; et aures, et non auditis.

Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.

Listen, foolish folk and unperceiving, with sightless eyes, ears that had as well been deaf!

Me ergo non timebitis, ait Dominus, et a facie mea non dolebitis? qui posui arenam terminum mari, præceptum sempiternum quod non præteribit: et commovebuntur, et non poterunt; et intumescent fluctus ejus, et non transibunt illud.

Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.

Have you no fear of me, the Lord says, will you stand unmoved in my presence? Was it not I gave the sea its frontier of sand, by my eternal decree inviolate? Vainly the waves boil and toss, they cannot pass beyond it.

Populo autem huic factum est cor incredulum et exasperans: recesserunt, et abierunt.

But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

A faithless heart, a rebellious heart this people of mine has; in a moment they swerve aside from the path, and are gone;

Et non dixerunt in corde suo: Metuamus Dominum Deum nostrum, qui dat nobis pluviam temporaneam et serotinam in tempore suo, plenitudinem annuæ messis custodientem nobis.

And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.

never a thought of reverence for the Lord their God, who gives them autumn and spring rains when the time comes, and secures them a full harvest.

Iniquitates vestræ declinaverunt hæc, et peccata vestra prohibuerunt bonum a vobis:

Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

It is your wrong-doing that has altered their course; to guilt such as yours, blessings are denied.

quia inventi sunt in populo meo impii insidiantes quasi aucupes, laqueos ponentes et pedicas ad capiendos viros.

For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.

Godless men there are among my people that lie in wait like any fowler, but noose and trap of theirs is set to catch men.

Sicut decipula plena avibus, sic domus eorum plenæ dolo: ideo magnificati sunt et ditati.

As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.

Never was cage so full of birds, as their homes of wealth ill gotten; men of power and riches,

Incrassati sunt et impinguati, et præterierunt sermones meos pessime. Causam viduæ non judicaverunt, causam pupilli non direxerunt, et judicium pauperum non judicaverunt.

They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the judgment of the poor.

pampered and sleek, they defy my will past all bearing; redress they deny to the widow, right to the orphan, justice to the poor.

Numquid super his non visitabo, dicit Dominus, aut super gentem hujuscemodi non ulciscetur anima mea?

Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

What, shall I let all this pass me by, the Lord says, shall I not take my fill of vengeance against such a nation as this?

Stupor et mirabilia facta sunt in terra:

Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

A wonder this land has seen beyond all belief;

prophetæ prophetabant mendacium, et sacerdotes applaudebant manibus suis, et populus meus dilexit talia. Quid igitur fiet in novissimo ejus?

The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?

here are prophets that utter a lying message, priests that clap their hands in applause, and this people of mine is well content. And what shift will you make when the end comes?