The Makers and Teachers of Judaism | Page 5

and are no more, While we bear their guilt.
[Sidenote: Lam. 5:8-13] Slaves have dominion over us, With none to
deliver from their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin becomes hot like an
oven, Because of the glowing heat of famine. They ravish the women
in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. Princes are hanged up by the
hand, The person of the elders is not honored. The young men bear up
the mill, And the children stumble under the wood.
[Sidenote: Lam. 5:14-18] The elders have ceased from the gate, The
young men from their music. The joy of our heart has ceased, Our
dance is turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us! for we have sinned.
For this reason our heart is faint, For these causes our eyes are dim; For
the mountain of Zion is desolate; The jackals walk over it.
[Sidenote: Jer. 43:8-12] The word of Jehovah also came to Jeremiah in
Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in thy hand, and bury them in the
loose foundation in the brick-covered place before Pharaoh's palace
door in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of Judah; and say to them,
'Thus saith, Jehovah hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I will send and
bring Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his
throne upon these stones that you have buried, and he shall spread his
royal pavilion over them. And he shall come and shall smite the land of
Egypt; such as are for death shall be given to death, and such as are for
captivity shall be given to captivity, and such as are for the sword shall
be given to the sword. And he will kindle a fire in the houses of the
gods of Egypt, and will burn them and carry them away. And he shall
wrap himself in the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his mantle,
and shall go forth from there in peace. He shall also break the obelisks
of Heliopolis and the temples of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with

fire."'
[Sidenote: Jer. 44:1-10] The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all
the Jews who dwelt in the land of Egypt, who dwelt at Migdol,
Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in upper Egypt, saying, Thus saith Jehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought
upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, they are
this day a desolation, and no man dwelleth in them, because of their
wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger in that
they went to offer sacrifices to other gods, that they knew not, neither
they nor ye, nor your fathers. However, I constantly sent to them all my
servants the prophets, saying, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I
hate." But they neither hearkened nor inclined their ear to turn from
their wickedness, to offer no sacrifice to other gods. And so my wrath
and mine anger was poured forth and was kindled against the cities of
Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and they were wasted and desolate,
as is now the case.' Therefore now thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts,
the God of Israel, 'Why do you commit a great Crime against
yourselves to cut off from you man and woman, infant and sucking
child, out of the midst of Judah so that ye leave none remaining, in that
ye provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, offering sacrifice
to other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye have gone to sojourn, that
ye may be cut off, and that ye may be an object of cursing and a
reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have ye forgotten the
crimes of your fathers, and the crimes of the kings of Judah, and the
crimes of their princes, which they committed in the land of Judah and
in the streets of Jerusalem? They are not humbled even to this day,
neither have they feared nor walked in my law nor in my statutes that I
set before you and before your fathers.'
[Sidenote: Jer. 44:11-13, 22] 'Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the
God of Israel: "Behold, I set my face against you for evil to cut off the
remnant of Judah in the land of Egypt, and they shall fall by the sword
and by famine; they shall die, small and great, and they shall be an
object of execration, of astonishment, of cursing, and of reproach. For I
will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished
Jerusalem,