Baruch
4:1 This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth
for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it
shall die.
4:2 Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the
light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.
4:3 Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable
unto thee to a strange nation.
4:4 O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made
known unto us.
4:5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.
4:6 Ye were sold to the nations, not for [your] destruction: but because ye
moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies.
4:7 For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto devils, and not to
God.
4:8 Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have
grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you.
4:9 For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O
ye that dwell about Sion: God hath brought upon me great mourning;
4:10 For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting
brought upon them.
4:11 With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and
mourning.
4:12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the
sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law
of God.
4:13 They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments,
nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.
4:14 Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my
sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them.
4:15 For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and
of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child.
4:16 These have carried away the dear beloved children of the widow, and left
her that was alone desolate without daughters.
4:17 But what can I help you?
4:18 For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the
hands of your enemies.
4:19 Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate.
4:20 I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of
my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days.
4:21 Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto the Lord, and he will deliver
you from the power and hand of the enemies.
4:22 For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy is
come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon
come unto you from the Everlasting our Saviour.
4:23 For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to
me again with joy and gladness for ever.
4:24 Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity: so shall
they see shortly your salvation from our God which shall come upon you
with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.
4:25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God:
for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his
destruction, and shalt tread upon his neck.
4:26 My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock
caught of the enemies.
4:27 Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be
remembered of him that brought these things upon you.
4:28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek
him ten times more.
4:29 For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you
everlasting joy with your salvation.
4:30 Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will
comfort thee.
4:31 Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall.
4:32 Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she
that received thy sons.
4:33 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she
be grieved for her own desolation.
4:34 For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride
shall be turned into mourning.
4:35 For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and
she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time.
4:36 O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that
cometh unto thee from God.
4:37 Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together
from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the
glory of God.
