"It is you, O ye men," sayeth she, "whom I call! Unto you, O ye children of men, lift I up my voice.

She hath killed her victuals, poured out her wine, and prepared her table.

She hath sent forth her maidens to cry upon the highest place of the city:

"Whoso is ignorant, let him come hither!" And to the unwise she said,

"Who so is ignorant," sayeth she, "let him come hither." And to the unwise she sayeth,

A steadfast woman is a crown unto her husband; but she that behaveth herself dishonestly is a corruption in his bones.

It were better to come against a she Bear robbed of her whelps, than against a fool in his foolishness.

Give ear unto thy father that begat thee; and despise not thy mother when she is old.

She lurketh like a thief, and those that be not aware, she bringeth unto her.

Such is the way also of a wife that breaketh wedlock, which wipeth her mouth like as when she hath eaten, and sayeth, "As for me, I have done no harm."

Whoso findeth a honest faithful woman, she is much more worth than pearls.

She rendereth him good and not evil all the days of her life.

She occupieth wool and flax, and laboureth gladly with her hands.

She is like the merchants' ship, that bringeth her victuals from afar.

She riseth ere day and giveth meat to her household, and food to her maidens.

She considereth land, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

She girdeth her loins with strength, and courageth her arms.

And if she perceiveth that her housewifery doth good, her candle goeth not out by night.

She layeth her fingers to the spindle, and her hand taketh hold of the rock.

She openeth her hand to the poor, yea she stretcheth forth her hands to such as have need

She feareth not that the cold of winter shall hurt her house, for all her household folks are double clothed.

She maketh herself fair ornaments; her clothing is white silk and purple.

She maketh cloth of silk and selleth it, and delivereth a girdle unto the merchant.

Strength and honour is her clothing, and in the latter day she shall rejoice.

She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of grace.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not her bread with idleness.

Favour is a deceitful thing, and beauty is vanity; but a woman that feareth God, she shall be praised.

All these things have I proved because of wisdom: For I thought to be wise, but she went farther from me than she was before;

And I found, that a woman is bitterer than death: for she is a very angle, her heart is a net, and her hands are chains. Who so pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner will be taken with her.

Wish the king no evil in thy thought, and speak no hurt of the rich in thy privy chamber; for a bird of the air shall betray thy voice, and with her feathers shall she betray thy words.

and that because of the good and pleasant savour. Thy name is sweet smelling ointment when it is shed forth; therefore do the maidens love thee.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the Roes and hinds of the field, that ye wake not up my love nor touch her, till she be content herself.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the Roes, and Hinds of the field, that ye wake not up my love nor touch her, till she be content herself.

But one is my dove, my darling. She is the only beloved of her mother, and dear unto her that bare her. When the daughters saw her, they said, she was blessed: Yea the Queens and concubines praised her.

What is she, this that peepeth out as the morning, fair as the moon, excellent as the sun, glorious as an army of men with their banners?

Turn again, turn again, O thou Shulamite; turn again, turn again, that we may look upon thee. What pleasure have ye more in the Shulamite, than when she danceth among the men of war?

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye wake not up my love, nor touch her, till she be content herself. What is she, this that cometh up from the wilderness, and leaneth upon her love?

Our sister is but young, and hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister when she shall be spoken for?

If she be a wall, we shall build a silver bulwark thereupon: if she be an open door, we shall fasten her with boards of Cedar tree.

And behold, here cometh a chariot of men with two horsemen." And he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen! She is turned upside down, and all the images of her gods are smitten to the ground!"

As soon as Egypt perceiveth it, she will be as sorry as Tyre itself.

Thus shall it happen after seventy years. The LORD shall visit the city of Tyre, and she shall convert unto her reward, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms that be in the world.

The earth shall stagger like a drunkard, to and fro; and be taken away like a tent. Her misdeeds shall lie so heavy upon her, that she must fall, and never rise up again.

then shall Ariel be besieged, so that she shall be heavy and sorrowful, and shall be unto me even as an altar of slaughter.

She shall flourish pleasantly, and be joyful, and ever be giving thanks more and more. For the glory of Lebanon, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon shall be given her. These shall know the honour of the LORD, and the majesty of our God.

Comfort Jerusalem, and tell her that her travail is at an end, that her offense is pardoned, that she hath received of the LORD's hand sufficient correction for all her sins.

Doth a wife forget the child of her womb, and the son who she hath born? And though she do forget, yet will not I forget thee.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their counsels are wicked counsels; harm and destruction are in their ways.

and thus have I trodden down the people in my wrath, and bathed them in my displeasure: Insomuch that I have shed their blood upon the earth."

like as when a wife bringeth forth a man child, before she suffer the pain of the birth and anguish of the travail.

Commonly, when a man putteth away his wife, and she goeth from him, and marrieth with another, then the question is: should he resort unto her any more after that? Is not this field then defiled and unclean? But as for thee, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet turn again to me, sayeth the LORD.

The LORD said also unto me, in the time of Josiah the king, "Hast thou seen what that shrinking Israel hath done? How she hath run up upon all high hills, and among all thick trees, and there played the harlot?

Hast thou seen also, when she had done all this, how I said unto her that she should turn again unto me, and yet she is not returned? Judah, that unfaithful sister of hers also saw this:

Yea, and the noise of her whoredom hath defiled the whole land. For she hath committed her adultery with stones and stocks.

And therefore I am so full of thine indignation, O LORD, that I may suffer no longer. "Shed out thy wrath upon the children that are without, and upon all young men. Yea the man must be taken prisoner with the wife, and the aged with the cripple.

If ye will not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; if ye will not shed innocent blood in this place; if ye will not cleave to strange gods to your own destruction;

The Hind shall forsake the young fawn that she bringeth forth in the field because there shall be no grass.

She that hath born seven children, shall have none; her heart shall be full of sorrow. The Sun shall fail her in the clear day, when she shall be confounded and faint for very heaviness. As for those that remain, I will deliver them unto the sword of their enemies, sayeth the LORD."

Thus the LORD commandeth: Keep equity and righteousness, deliver the oppressed from the power of the violent: do not grieve nor oppress the stranger, the fatherless nor the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place.

Nevertheless, as for thine eyes and thine heart, they look upon covetousness, to shed innocent blood, and to do wrong and violence.'"

The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded when she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north.

Make a token unto Moab, that she get her away speedily: for her cities shall be made so desolate, that no man shall dwell therein.

Moab hath ever been rich and careless from her youth up, she hath sitten and taken her ease with her treasure. She was never yet put out of one vessel into another, that is, she never went away into captivity, therefore her taste remaineth, and her savour is not yet changed.

And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, like as Israel was ashamed of Bethel, wherein she put her trust.

Make her drunken, for she magnified herself above the LORD, that men may clap their hands at her vomit, and that she also may be laughed into scorn.

As for Moab's pride, we have heard of it, she is very high-minded. I know her stoutness, her boasting, her arrogance, and the pride of her stomach, sayeth the LORD.

Moreover, I will make Moab cease, sayeth the LORD, from the offerings and censing that she hath made unto her gods in high places.

O how fearful is she? O how mourneth she? O how doth Moab hang down her head, and is ashamed? Thus shall Moab be a laughingstock, and had in derision of all them, that be round about her.

And Moab shall be made so desolate, that she shall no more be a people, because she hath set up herself against the LORD.

Your mothers shall be sore confounded; and they that bare you, shall come to shame. She shall be the least set by among the nations, void, waste, and dried up.

No man shall be able to dwell there, for the fear of the LORD, but she shall be whole desolate. All they that go by Babylon, shall stand still, and be abashed, and shall wonder at all her plagues.

Go forth in your array against Babylon round about, all ye that can handle bows: shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she hath sinned against the LORD.

Cry out: upon her, upon her, against her round about: she shall yield herself, her foundations shall fall, and her walls shall come down, for it shall be the vengeance of the LORD. Yea vengeance shall be taken of her, and as she hath done, so shall she be dealt withal.

'Call up all the archers against Babylon! Pitch your tents round about her, that none escape!' Recompense her, as she hath deserved: and according as she hath done, so deal with her again. For she hath set up herself against the LORD, against the holy one of Israel.

But suddenly is Babylon fallen and destroyed. Mourn for her; bring plasters for her wounds, if she may peradventure be healed again.

'We would have made Babylon whole,' say they, 'but she is not recovered. Therefore will we let her alone, and go every man into his own country. For her judgment is come in to heaven, and is gone up to the clouds.'

and say, 'Even thus shall Babylon sink, and be thrust down with the burden of trouble that I will bring upon her: so that she shall never come up again.'" Thus far are the preachings of Jeremiah.

{Aleph} Alas, how sitteth the city so desolate, that some time was full of people? How is she become like a widow, which was the lady of all nations? How is she brought under tribute, that ruled all lands?

{Beth} She weepeth sore in the night, so that the tears run down her cheeks: for among all her lovers, there is none that giveth her any comfort. Yea, her next friends transgress against her, and are become her enemies.

{Gimel} Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen. She findeth no rest: all they that persecuted her, took her in strait places where she could not escape.

{Daleth} The streets of Zion mourn, because no man cometh to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests make lamentation; her maidens are careful; and she herself is in great heaviness.

{Zayin} Now doth Jerusalem remember the time of her misery and disobedience, yea the joy and pleasure that she hath had in times past: seeing her people is brought down through the power of their enemy, and there is no man for to help her. Her enemies stand looking at her, and laughing her Sabbath days to scorn.

{Khet} Jerusalem sinned ever more and more, therefore is she come in decay. All they that had her in honour, despise her: for they have seen her filthiness. Yea she sigheth and is ashamed of herself.

{Tet} Her skirts are defiled, she remembered not what would follow: therefore is her fall so great, and there is no man to comfort her. O LORD, consider my trouble, for my enemy hath the upper hand.

{Yod} The enemy hath put his hand to all the precious things that she had, yea even before her eyes came the Heathen in and out of the Sanctuary: whom thou, nevertheless, hast forbidden to come within thy congregation.

{Mem} Which nevertheless is come to pass for the sins of her prophets, and for the wickedness of her priests that have shed innocents' blood within her.

but she hath despised my judgments more than the Gentiles themselves, and broken my commandments more than the nations that lie round about her. For they have cast out mine ordinances, and not walked in my laws.

Thine eldest sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell upon thy left hand. But thy youngest sister that dwelleth on thy righthand, is Sodom and her daughters.

Behold, the sins of thy sister Sodom, were these: Pride, fullness of meat, abundance and Idleness: these things had she and her daughters. Besides that, they reached not their hand to the poor and needy,

The soul that sinneth, she shall die. The son shall not bear part of the father's wickedness. The righteousness of the right shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

One of her whelps she brought up, and it became a lion: it learned to spoil, and to devour folk.

Now when the dame saw, that all her hope and comfort was away, she took another of her whelps, and made a lion of him.

"As for thy mother, she is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waterside: her fruits and branches are grown out of many waters,

her stalks were so strong that men might have made staves thereof for officers, she grew so high in her stalks. So when men saw that she exceeded the height and multitude of her branches,

she was rooted out in displeasure, and cast down to the ground. The East wind dried up her fruit; her strong stalks were broken off, withered, and burnt in the fire.

But now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

And there is a fire gone out of her stalks, which hath burnt up her branches and her fruit: so that she hath no more strong stalks, to be staves for officers. This is a piteous and miserable thing."

Thou shalt feed the fire and thy blood shall be shed in the land, that thou mayest be put out of remembrance. Even I the LORD have spoken it.'"

Thou hast made thyself guilty in the blood that thou hast shed, and defiled thee in the Idols, which thou hast made. Thou hast caused thy days to draw nigh, and made the time of thy years to come. Therefore will I make thee to be confounded among the heathen, and to be despised in all the lands.

Behold, the rulers of Israel have brought every man his power, to shed blood in thee.