Baruch 4

¹ This is the book of the commandments of God, the Law that stands for ever; those who keep her live, those who desert her 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, constant reminder of Israel.[*a]

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, 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 the anger fall on you from God, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow.

¹⁰ I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, to which they have been sentenced by the Eternal.

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 suffer loneliness because of the sins of my own children, who turned away from the Law of God,

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

¹⁴ Let them come here, those neighbours of Zion. Let me remind you of the captivity of my sons and daughters to which they have been sentenced by the Eternal:

¹⁵ how he brought a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language, having 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 can I help you?

¹⁸ He who brought those disasters down on you, he is the one to deliver you from the hands of your enemies.

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

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

²¹ Take courage, my children, call on God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the hands 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 now witness your captivity, so will they soon see you rescued by God, who will intervene, in the 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 disaster on you will remember you.

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

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

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

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

³² Trouble will come, to the cities where your children were slaves; trouble will come to the city which received your sons,

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

³⁴ I will deprive her of that joy known to populous cities, her boasting shall be turned into mourning,

³⁵ fire from the Eternal will burn in 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 sons you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, they are on their way home at the command of the Holy One, jubilant at the glory of God.