Baruch

O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the troubled spirit cries to you.

Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for you are a merciful God; yes, have mercy on us, because we have sinned before you.

For you endure forever, and we perish utterly.

O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of the children of those who have sinned before you, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God; therefore the plagues have clung to us.

Do not remember the iniquities of our fathers, but remember your power and your name at this time.

For you are the Lord our God, and we will praise you, O Lord.

For you have put your fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon your name; and we will praise you in our captivity, for we have put aside from our heart all the iniquity of our fathers who sinned before you.

Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where you have scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to penalties, according to all the iniquities of our fathers who departed from the Lord our God.

Hear, Israel, the commandments of life: Give ear to understand wisdom.

How is it, Israel, that you are in your enemies' land? You have grown old in a strange country. You are defiled with the dead.

You are counted with those who go down into Sheol.

You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.

If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived in peace forever.

Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding; that you may also know where there is length of days and life, where there is the light of the eyes and peace.

Who has found her place? Who has come into her treasuries?

Where are the princes of the nations, and those who ruled the beasts that are on the earth,

who took their pleasure with the birds of the sky, and who hoarded up silver and gold, in which men trust, and of whose getting there is no end?

For those who fashioned silver, and were so careful, and whose works are past finding out,

they have vanished and gone down to Sheol; and others have risen up in their place.

Young men have seen the light, and have lived upon the earth, but they have not known the way of knowledge,

nor understood its paths, nor laid hold of it. Their children have gone far away from its way.

It has not been heard of in Canaan, neither has it been seen in Teman.

The descendants also of Hagar, who seek understanding on the earth, the merchants of Merran and Teman, and the story-tellers, and those who seek discernment, have not known the way of wisdom, nor remembered her paths.

O Israel, how great is the house of God! How vast is the place of his possession!

It is great and has no end. It is high and immeasurable.

There the famous giants were born, those who were of great stature and skilled in war.

God did not choose them, nor did he give them the way of knowledge;

so they perished, because they had no wisdom; they perished through their own foolishness.

Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds?

Who has gone over the sea, and found her, and will bring her for choice gold?

There is no one who knows her way, nor anyone who comprehends her path.

But he who knows all things knows her. He found her by his understanding. He who prepared the earth for all time has filled it with four-footed animals.

He who sends forth the light, and it goes; he called it, and it obeyed him with fear.

The stars shone in their watches, and were glad. He called them, and they said, 'Here we are!' They shone with gladness for him who made them.

This is our God. No other can be compared to him!

He has found out all the way of knowledge, and has given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel who is loved by him.

Afterward she appeared on earth, and lived among men.