of a
question. The Prophet feels the Heart of God as moved as his own by the
doom of the people.

I have forsaken My House, XII. 7
I have left My Heritage,
I have given the Beloved of My Soul
To the hand of her foes.
My Heritage to Me is become 8
Like a lion in the jungle,
She hath given against Me her voice,
Therefore I hate her.
Is My Heritage to Me a speckled wild-bird 9
With wild-birds round and against her?
Go, gather all beasts of the field,
Bring them on to devour.
Shepherds so many My Vineyard have spoiled 10
Have trampled My Lot--
My pleasant Lot they have turned
To a desolate desert
They make it a waste, it mourns, 11
On Me is the waste!
All the land is made desolate,
None lays it to heart!
Over the bare desert heights 12
Come in the destroyers!
[For the sword of the Lord is devouring
From the end of the land,
And on to the end of the land,
No peace to all flesh.(421)
Wheat have they sown and reaped thorns, 13
Have travailed for nought,
Ashamed of their crop shall they be
In the heat of God's wrath.]

The last eight lines are doubtfully original: the speaker is no longer God
Himself. There follows, in verses 14-17, a paragraph in prose, which is
hardly relevant--a later addition, whether from the Prophet or an editor.

The next metrical Oracles are appended to the Parables of the Waist-cloth
and of the Jars in Ch. XIII.(422) We have already quoted, in proof of
Jeremiah's poetic power, the most solemn warning he gave to his people,
XIII. 15, 16.(423) At some time these lines were added to it:--

But if ye will not hear it: XIII. 17
In secret my soul shall weep
Because of your pride,
And mine eyes run down with tears
For the flock of the Lord led captive.(424)

The next Oracle in metre is an elegy, probably prospective, on the fate of
Jehoiachin and his mother Nehushta.(425)

Say to the King and Her Highness, 18
Low be ye seated!
For from your heads is come down
The crown of your splendour.
The towns of the Southland are blocked 19
With none to open.
All Judah is gone into exile,
Exile entire.(426)

_The flock of the Lord_, verse 17, comes again into the next poem,
addressed to Jerusalem as appears from the singular form of the verbs and
pronouns preser