Hæc dicit Dominus: Descende in domum regis Juda, et loqueris ibi verbum hoc,

Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and there thou shalt speak this word,

A message from the Lord, I must betake myself to the royal palace, and make proclamation there;

et dices: Audi verbum Domini, rex Juda, qui sedes super solium David: tu et servi tui, et populus tuus, qui ingredimini per portas istas.

And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.

Listen to a divine warning, king of Juda though thou be, and heir to David’s throne; it is for thee and thy courtiers and thy retinue, all that claim entry here.

Hæc dicit Dominus: Facite judicium et justitiam, et liberate vi oppressum de manu calumniatoris: et advenam, et pupillum, et viduam nolite contristare, neque opprimatis inique, et sanguinem innocentem ne effundatis in loco isto.

Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place.

Just sentence, the Lord says, and right award; rob the oppressor of his prey; to alien, orphan and widow do neither despite nor wrong; never, within these walls, be innocence condemned to death.

Si enim facientes feceritis verbum istud, ingredientur per portas domus hujus reges sedentes de genere David super thronum ejus, et ascendentes currus et equos, ipsi, et servi, et populus eorum.

For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants, and their people.

This warning if you obey, through these palace gates the heirs of David and of David’s throne, with horses and chariots, courtiers and retinue, shall yet pass to and fro.

Quod si non audieritis verba hæc: in memetipso juravi, dicit Dominus, quia in solitudinem erit domus hæc.

But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.

Disobey, the Lord says, and my own honour is engaged to make, of this palace, a ruin.

Quia hæc dicit Dominus super domum regis Juda: Galaad, tu mihi caput Libani, si non posuero te solitudinem, urbes inhabitabiles!

For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities not habitable.

On the royal house of Juda this is the Lord’s sentence: Growth I found here once, generous as in Galaad or on Lebanon’s height; now I have sworn to make a desert of it, no place for the haunts of men.

Et sanctificabo super te, interficientem virum et arma ejus: et succident electas cedros tuas, et præcipitabunt in ignem.

And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.

Who shall strike the blow, and with what arms, is decreed already; all those fair cedars shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.

Et pertransibunt gentes multæ per civitatem hanc, et dicet unusquisque proximo suo: Quare fecit Dominus sic civitati huic grandi?

And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?

Nations a many shall pass by those ruins; and when a man asks his neighbour what it meant, that the Lord should deal so hardly with a great city like this,

Et respondebunt: Eo quod dereliquerint pactum Domini Dei sui, et adoraverint deos alienos, et servierint eis.

And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.

the answer will be, It was because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped alien gods, took alien gods for their masters.

Nolite flere mortuum, neque lugeatis super eum fletu: plangite eum qui egreditur, quia non revertetur ultra, nec videbit terram nativitatis suæ.

Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

Not for the dead your tears, not for him bow your heads; if weep you must, weep for him that must go and come again no more, never again see the land of his birth!

Quia hæc dicit Dominus ad Sellum, filium Josiæ, regem Juda, qui regnavit pro Josia patre suo, qui egressus est de loco isto: Non revertetur huc amplius,

For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:

Sellum, that followed his father Josias on the throne of Juda, is leaving Jerusalem, the Lord says, and will never come back to it;

sed in loco ad quem transtuli eum, ibi morietur, et terram istam non videbit amplius.

But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more.

die he must in that country to which I have banished him, and see this land no more.

Væ qui ædificat domum suam in injustitia, et cœnacula sua non in judicio: amicum suum opprimet frustra, et mercedem ejus non reddet ei:

Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgment: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.

Alas, for the palace that is built with gains ill gotten, for halls founded only on wrong! Alas for the man that sets his fellow-man vainly drudging, and leaves his wages unpaid!

qui dicit: Ædificabo mihi domum latam, et cœnacula spatiosa: qui aperit sibi fenestras et facit laquearia cedrina, pingitque sinopide.

Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.

A fine house I will make of it, says he, and wide rooms in it! Here he will throw out a window, there he will panel a wall with cedar, and paint it vermilion.

Numquid regnabis quoniam confers te cedro? pater tuus numquid non comedit et bibit, et fecit judicium et justitiam tunc cum bene erat ei?

Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?

Art thou hoping for a long reign, that thou shouldst challenge comparison with the cedar? Thy father was one that ate and drank at his ease, gave every man his just due, and was content;

Judicavit causam pauperis et egeni in bonum suum: numquid non ideo quia cognovit me? dicit Dominus.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?

well for him that he gave the friendless and the poor redress, as men will when they bethink themselves of me.

Tui vero oculi et cor ad avaritiam, et ad sanguinem innocentem fundendum, et ad calumniam, et ad cursum mali operis.

But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.

Thou hast no eyes, no thoughts, but for gain; for innocent men’s undoing, for oppression, for the reckless pursuit of mischief.

Propterea hæc dicit Dominus ad Joakim, filium Josiæ, regem Juda: Non plangent eum: Væ frater! et væ soror! non concrepabunt ei: Væ domine! et væ inclyte!

Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and, Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord, or, Alas, the noble one.

This, then, is the Lord’s sentence upon Joachim, son to Josias and king of Juda: For him no cry shall be made, Brother, what grief! Sister of mine, what grief! For him no cry shall be made, Ah, what a master! Ah, what renown!

Sepultura asini sepelietur, putrefactus et projectus extra portas Jerusalem.

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.

An ass’s burial he shall have, cast out, a stinking corpse, beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Ascende Libanum, et clama, et in Basan da vocem tuam: et clama ad transeuntes, quia contriti sunt omnes amatores tui.

Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.

Get thee gone, faithless people, to Lebanon, and cry out there; fill Basan with thy voice, and let Abarim echo the cry again; ruin has overtaken all those lovers of thine.

Locutus sum ad te in abundantia tua, et dixisti: Non audiam: hæc est via tua ab adolescentia tua, quia non audisti vocem meam.

I spoke to thee in thy prosperity: and thou saidst: I will not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.

In the days of thy ease, I gave thee warning, but thou wouldst not listen; it was ever thus from thy girlhood’s days, my voice went unheard.

Omnes pastores tuos pascet ventus, et amatores tui in captivitatem ibunt: et tunc confunderis, et erubesces ab omni malitia tua.

The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.

Drifting with the wind, the drovers thou once didst follow, captive all those that once held thy love! Be ashamed at last, and blush for all thy wickedness.

Quæ sedes in Libano, et nidificas in cedris, quomodo congemuisti cum venissent tibi dolores, quasi dolores parturientis?

Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?

High on Lebanon thy dwelling-place, high in the cedars that nest of thine, piteous shall be thy moan when pangs overtake thee, like the pangs of a woman in travail.

Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, quia si fuerit Jechonias filius Joakim regis Juda annulus in manu dextera mea, inde evellam eum,

As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.

And of Joachim’s son Jechonias, that is heir to the throne of Juda, the Lord says this: Were he the signet ring on my right hand, I would cast him off none the less.

et dabo te in manu quærentium animam tuam, et in manu quorum tu formidas faciem, et in manu Nabuchodonosor regis Babylonis, et in manu Chaldæorum:

And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

Thou hast sworn enemies to fear; Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and his Chaldaeans, shall have the mastery of thee.

et mittam te, et matrem tuam quæ genuit te, in terram alienam, in qua nati non estis, ibique moriemini.

And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:

Cast away, thyself and the queen-mother who bore thee, into an alien land, far from the land of your birth, to die there;

Et in terram ad quam ipsi levant animam suam ut revertantur illuc, non revertentur.

And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return thither.

ever longing for home, and home returning never.

Numquid vas fictile atque contritum vir iste Jechonias? numquid vas absque omni voluptate? quare abjecti sunt ipse et semen ejus, et projecti in terram quam ignoraverunt?

Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

What, is he but a broken piece of earthenware, this Jechonias, a useless shard, that he should be thrown away, and his sons with him, cast out into a land unknown?

Terra, terra, terra, audi sermonem Domini.

O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

Alas, my country, alas, alas, my country, bitter hearing the Lord sends thee:

Hæc dicit Dominus: Scribe virum istum sterilem, virum qui in diebus suis non prosperabitur: nec enim erit de semine ejus vir qui sedeat super solium David, et potestatem habeat ultra in Juda.

Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.

Write him down a barren trunk, a life gone to waste; child of his race shall never mount David’s throne, or govern this realm of Juda.