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¹ When Phashur the priest the sonne of Emmer, chiefe in the house of the Lorde, hearde Ieremie preache these wordes [so stedfastly]² He smote Ieremie, and put hym in the prison that is in the hye gate of Beniamin towardes the house of the Lorde.³ The next day folowing Phashur brought Ieremie out of the prison agayne: Then saide Ieremie vnto him, The Lorde shall call thee no more Phashur [that is excellent and increasing] but Magor [that is fearefull and afraide] euery where.⁴ For thus saith the Lorde: Beholde, I wil make thee afraide, euen thy selfe, and all that fauour thee, which shall perishe with the sworde of their enemies, euen before thy face, and I wyll geue whole Iuda into the hands of the king of Babylon, whiche shall cary some vnto Babylon prisoners, and slay some with the sworde.⁵ Moreouer, all the substaunce of this citie, whatsoeuer they haue gotten with their trauaile, all their precious thinges, & all the treasure of the kinges of Iuda, wyll I geue into the handes of their enemies, whiche shall spoyle them, and cary them vnto Babylon.⁶ But as for thee (O Phashur) thou shalt go into captiuitie with all thyne housholde, and to Babylon shalt thou come, where thou shalt dye and be buried, thou and all thy fauourers to whom thou hast preached lies.

⁷ O Lord, if I am deceaued, then hast thou deceaued me, thou enforcedst me, and hast preuayled: dayly am I despised and laughed to scorne of euery man.⁸ For since I began to preache, I cryed out against violencie, and exclamed against oppression: for the whiche cause they cast the worde of the Lorde in my teeth, to my reproche continually.⁹ Wherefore I thought from hencefoorth not to speake of hym, nor to preache any more in his name: but the worde of the Lorde was a very burning fire in my heart and in my bones, whiche when I woulde haue stopped, I might not.¹⁰ Ueryly I hearde the euyll reportes of many, terrour was on euery side of me: complayne vpon hym say they, and we wyll tell his tale: Yea all myne owne companions, and suche as were conuersaunt with me, lay in wayte for my halting, saying: peraduenture he wylbe deceaued, and so shall we preuayle against hym, and be auenged of hym.¹¹ But the Lorde stoode by me lyke a mightie giaunt, therefore my persecutours fell and coulde do nothing: they shalbe sore confounded, for they haue done vnwisely, they shall haue an euerlasting shame, which shall neuer be forgotten.¹² And nowe O Lorde of hoastes that triest the righteous, which knowest the raynes and the very heartes, let me see them punished: for vnto thee I haue declared my cause.¹³ Sing vnto the Lord and prayse hym, for he hath deliuered the soule of the oppressed from the hande of the violent.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day wherein I was borne, vnhappy be the day wherein my mother brought me foorth.¹⁵ Cursed be the man that brought my father the tidinges to make hym gald, saying, Thou hast begotten a sonne:¹⁶ Let it happen vnto that man, as to the cities whiche the Lorde turned vpsidedowne and repented not: Let hym heare crying in the morning, and at noone day lamentable howling.¹⁷ Why sluest thou not me assoone as I came out of my mothers wombe? or that my mother had ben my graue her selfe, that the byrth might not haue come out, but remayned still in her?¹⁸ Wherefore came I foorth of my mothers wombe? to haue experience of labour and sorowe, and to leade my lyfe with shame?