Baruch - The Old Testament

¹ She is the book of God's commandments, the Law that stands for ever; those who keep her shall live, those who desert her shall die.

² Turn back, Jacob, seize her, in her radiance make your way to light:

³ do not yield your glory to another, your privilege to a people not your own.

⁴ Israel, blessed are we: what pleases God has been revealed to us!

⁵ Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel!

⁶ You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies,

⁷ since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons, and not to God.

⁸ You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,

⁹ for when she saw God's anger falling on you, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow.

¹⁰ I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.

¹¹ I had reared them joyfully; in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.

¹² Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sins of my children, who turned away from the Law of God,

¹³ who did not want to know his precepts and would not follow the ways of his commandments or tread the paths of discipline as his justice directed.

¹⁴ Come here, neighbours of Zion! Remember my sons' and daughters' captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.

¹⁵ How he brought a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language, they showed neither respect for the aged, nor pity for the child;

¹⁶ they carried off the widow's cherished sons, they left her quite alone, bereft of her daughters.

¹⁷ For my part, how could I help you?

¹⁸ He who brought those disasters down on you, is the one to deliver you from your enemies' clutches.

¹⁹ Go, my children, go your way! I must stay bereft and lonely;

²⁰ I have taken off the clothes of peace and put on the sackcloth of entreaty; all my life I shall cry to the Eternal.

²¹ Take courage, my children, call on God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the clutches of your enemies;

²² for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soon to reach you from your Saviour, the Eternal.

²³ In sorrow and tears I watched you go away, but God will give you back to me in joy and gladness for ever.

²⁴ As the neighbours of Zion have now witnessed your captivity, so will they soon see your rescue by God, which will come upon you with great glory and splendour of the Eternal.

²⁵ My children, patiently bear the anger brought on you by God. Your enemy has persecuted you, but soon you will witness his destruction and set your foot on his neck.

²⁶ My favourite children have travelled by rough roads, carried off like a flock by a marauding enemy.

²⁷ Take courage, my children, call on God: he who brought this on you will remember you.

²⁸ As by your will you first strayed from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times harder;

²⁹ for as he has been bringing down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.

³⁰ Take courage, Jerusalem: he who gave you your name will console you.

³¹ Disaster will come to all who have ill-treated you and gloated over your fall.

³² Disaster will come to the cities where your children were slaves; disaster to whichever one received your children,

³³ for just as she rejoiced at your fall and was happy to see you ruined, so will she grieve over her own desolation.

³⁴ I shall deprive her of the joy of a populous city, and her insolence will turn to mourning;

³⁵ fire from the Eternal will befall her for many a day, and demons will dwell in her for ages.

³⁶ Jerusalem, turn your eyes to the east, see the joy that is coming to you from God.

³⁷ Look, the children you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, they are on their way home at the Holy One's command, rejoicing in God's glory.