Baruch Chapter 4

From The Open Bible Project

4:1 "'This is the book of the commandments of God and the law that endures for ever. All those who keep it shall come to life, but such as leave it shall die.

4:2 Turn you, O Jacob, and take hold of it; walk in the presence of its light so that you may be illuminated.

4:3 Give not your honor to another, nor the things which are beneficial for you to a strange nation.

4:4 O Israel, happy are we, for the things which are pleasing to God are made known to us.

4:5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.

4:6 You were sold to the nations, not for destruction, but because you moved God to wrath; thus you were delivered to the enemies.

4:7 For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to devils and not to God.

4:8 "'You have forgotten the everlasting God, who brought you up, and you have grieved Jerusalem, who nursed you.

4:9 For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, "Hearken, O you who dwell around Zion. God has 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 I nourished them, but sent them away with weeping and mourning.

4:12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow and forsaken of many; for by the sins of my children, I 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 those who dwell around Zion approach and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting has brought upon them.

4:15 For he has brought a nation upon them from afar, 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 who was alone desolate without daughters.

4:17 But how can I help you?

4:18 For he who 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 to the Everlasting in my days.

4:21 Be of good cheer, O my children, cry to 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 has come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come to you from the Everlasting our Savior.

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 Just as now the neighbors of Zion have seen your captivity, so shall they soon see your salvation from our God, which shall come upon you with the great glory and brightness of the Everlasting.

4:25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath which has come upon you from God, for your enemy has persecuted you, but shortly you shall see his destruction and shall tread upon his neck.

4:26 My delicate ones have gone rough ways and were taken away as a flock caught by the enemies.

4:27 Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry to God, for you shall be remembered by him who brought these things upon you.

4:28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God, so then, being returned, seek him ten times more.

4:29 For he who has brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy with your salvation."

4:30 "'Take a good heart, O Jerusalem, for he who gave you that name will comfort you.

4:31 Miserable are those who afflicted you and rejoiced at your fall.

4:32 Miserable are the cities which your children served; miserable is she who received your sons.

4:33 For, just as she rejoiced at your ruin and was glad of your 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 by devils for a great time.

4:36 O Jerusalem, look about you toward the east and behold the joy that comes to you from God.

4:37 Lo, your sons approach, whom you sent away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.'"

5:1 "'Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of mourning and affliction, and put on the wholesomeness of the glory that comes from God for ever.

5:2 Cast around you a double garment of the righteousness which comes from God, and set a diadem on your head of the glory of the Everlasting.

5:3 For God will reveal your brightness to every country under heaven.

5:4 For your name shall be called by God for ever: "The peace of righteousness" and "The glory of God's worship."

5:5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high and look about toward the east and behold your children, gathered from the west to the east by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the remembrance of God.

5:6 For they departed from you on foot and were led away by their enemies, but God brings them to you exalted with glory, as children of the kingdom.

5:7 For God has appointed that every high hill and embankment of long duration shall be cast down, and the valleys filled up, to make the ground level so that Israel may go safely in the glory of God,

5:8 moreover, even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.

5:9 For God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness which comes from him.'"