The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 28: Jeremias

THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS

Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the
tribe of Benjamin: and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a
prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a child
in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification of his
name, Great before the Lord; and a special figure of Jesus Christ, in
the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in his charity
for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered at their
hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he was stoned
to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into Egypt.

Jeremias Chapter 1

The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. God
encourages him.

1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were
in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.

1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the
son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king
of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias
king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the
fifth month.

1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made
thee a prophet unto the nations.

1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am
a child.

1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go
to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou
shalt speak.

1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord.

1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord
said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:

1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms,
to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to
build, and to plant.

1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou,
Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.

1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch
over my word to perform it.

1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What
seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof
from the face of the north.

1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.

1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms
of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every
one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all
the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.

1:16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all their
wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods,
and have adored the work of their own hands.

1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all
that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make
thee not to fear their countenance.

1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a
pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of
Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of
the land.

1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I am
with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.