Baruch

This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever. All those who keep it will come to life, but those who forsake it will die.

Turn, Jacob, and take hold of it. Walk toward the shining of its light.

Do not give your glory to another, nor the things that are profitable to you to a foreign nation.

We are happy, Israel, because the things that are pleasing to God are made known to us.

Take courage, my people, the memorial of Israel.

You have been sold to the nations, not for destruction, but because you moved God to wrath, you were delivered to your adversaries.

For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to demons and not to God.

You forgot the everlasting God who raised you. You also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you.

For she saw the wrath that has come upon you from God, and said, 'Listen, you who dwell near Zion. God has brought upon me great mourning.

For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.'

For I nourished them with joy, but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.

Let no one rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken by many; for I am left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God

and had no regard for his statutes; neither did they walk in the ways of God's commandments, nor tread in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

Let those who dwell near Zion come, and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

For he has brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation with a strange language, who have neither reverenced the aged, nor had pity on children.

They have carried away the widow's beloved sons, and left her who was alone desolate, bereaved of her daughters.'

But I, how can I help you?

For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.

Go your way, my children, go your way; for I am left desolate.

I have put off the garment of peace, and have put on sackcloth of my supplication; I will cry to the Everlasting as long as I live.

Take courage, my children, cry to God! He will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.

For I have trusted in the Everlasting that he will save you; and joy has come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which will soon come to you from your everlasting Savior.

For I sent you out with mourning and weeping, but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness forever.

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

My children, endure patiently the wrath that has come upon you from God. Your enemy has persecuted you, but you will soon see his destruction, and you will tread upon his neck.

My delicate ones have traveled rough roads; they were taken away like a flock carried off by enemies.

Take courage, my children, and cry to God! For you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you.

For as it was your intention to go astray from God, return and seek him ten times more.

For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation.

Take courage, O Jerusalem, for he who named you will comfort you.

Wretched are those who afflicted you and rejoiced at your fall.

Wretched are the cities which your children served. Wretched is she who received your sons.

For as she rejoiced at your fall and was glad at your ruin, so she will be grieved at her own desolation.

For I will take away her pride in her great multitude, and her arrogance will be turned into mourning.

For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting for many days, and she will be inhabited by demons for a long time.

O Jerusalem, look around you toward the east, and see the joy that comes to you from God.

Behold, your sons come, whom you sent away; they come gathered together from the east to the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.