The Book of Baruch
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Anonymous
2:19 Therefore we do not make our humble supplication before thee, O Lord our God, for the righteousness of our fathers, and of our kings.
2:20 For thou hast sent out thy wrath and indignation upon us, as thou hast spoken by thy servants the prophets, saying,
2:21 Thus saith the Lord, Bow down your shoulders to serve the king of Babylon: so shall ye remain in the land that I gave unto your fathers.
2:22 But if ye will not hear the voice of the Lord, to serve the king of Babylon,
2:23 I will cause to cease out of the cites of Judah, and from without Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: and the whole land shall be desolate of inhabitants.
2:24 But we would not hearken unto thy voice, to serve the king of Babylon: therefore hast thou made good the words that thou spakest by thy servants the prophets, namely, that the bones of our kings, and the bones of our fathers, should be taken out of their place.
2:25 And, lo, they are cast out to the heat of the day, and to the frost of the night, and they died in great miseries by famine, by sword, and by pestilence.
2:26 And the house which is called by thy name hast thou laid waste, as it is to be seen this day, for the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Juda.
2:27 O Lord our God, thou hast dealt with us after all thy goodness, and according to all that great mercy of thine,
2:28 As thou spakest by thy servant Moses in the day when thou didst command him to write the law before the children of Israel, saying,
2:29 If ye will not hear my voice, surely this very great multitude shall be turned into a small number among the nations, where I will scatter them.
2:30 For I knew that they would not hear me, because it is a stiffnecked people: but in the land of their captivities they shall remember themselves.
2:31 And shall know that I am the Lord their God: for I will give them an heart, and ears to hear:
2:32 And they shall praise me in the land of their captivity, and think upon my name,
2:33 And return from their stiff neck, and from their wicked deeds: for they shall remember the way of their fathers, which sinned before the Lord.
2:34 And I will bring them again into the land which I promised with an oath unto their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they shall be lords of it: and I will increase them, and they shall not be diminished.
2:35 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them to be their God, and they shall be my people: and I will no more drive my people of Israel out of the land that I have given them.
3:1 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish the troubled spirit, crieth unto thee.
3:2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy; as thou art merciful: and have pity upon us, because we have sinned before thee.
3:3 For thou endurest for ever, and we perish utterly.
3:4 O Lord Almighty, thou God of Israel, hear now the prayers of the dead Israelites, and of their children, which have sinned before thee, and not hearkened unto the voice of thee their God: for the which cause these plagues cleave unto us.
3:5 Remember not the iniquities of our forefathers: but think upon thy power and thy name now at this time.
3:6 For thou art the Lord our God, and thee, O Lord, will we praise.
3:7 And for this cause thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity: for we have called to mind all the iniquity of our forefathers, that sinned before thee.
3:8 Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where thou hast scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God.
3:9 Hear, Israel, the commandments of life: give ear to understand wisdom.
3:10 How happeneth it Israel, that thou art in thine enemies’ land, that thou art waxen old in a strange country, that thou art defiled with the dead,
3:11 That thou art counted with them that go down into the grave?
3:12 Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom.
3:13 For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou shouldest have dwelled in peace for ever.
3:14 Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.
3:15 Who hath found out her place? or who hath come into her treasures?
3:16 Where are the princes of the heathen become, and such as ruled the beasts upon the earth;
3:17 They that had their pastime with the fowls of the air, and they that hoarded up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and made no end of their getting?
3:18 For they that wrought in silver, and were so careful, and whose works are unsearchable,
3:19 They are vanished and gone down to the grave, and others are come up in their steads.
3:20 Young men have seen light, and dwelt upon the earth: but the way of knowledge have they not known,
3:21 Nor understood the paths thereof, nor laid hold of it: their children were far off from that way.
3:22 It hath not been heard of in Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman.
3:23 The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding; none of these have known the way of wisdom, or remember her paths.