Baruch 4

1This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever; all who hold fast to it are for life, but those who forsake it will die.

2Turn, O Jacob, and take hold of her; walk toward the radiance, opposite her light.

3Do not give your glory to another, nor what benefits you to a foreign nation.

4We are blessed, O Israel, because what is pleasing to God is known to us.

5Take courage, my people, the memorial of Israel.

6You were sold to the nations, not for destruction; but because you provoked God to anger, you were handed over to your adversaries.

7For you provoked the one who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God.

8You forgot the eternal God who nourished you; you also grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.

9For he saw the wrath that came upon you from God, and he said, “Hear, you neighbors of Zion: God has brought upon me great mourning.”

10For behold, the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting One brought upon them.

11For I nourished them with gladness, but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.

12Let no one gloat over me, a widow and abandoned by many; I have been left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned aside from the law of God.

13and they did not know his righteous decrees, nor did they walk in the ways of God's commandments, nor did they step onto the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

14Let the neighboring women of Zion come, let the neighboring women come, and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal One brought upon them.

15For he brought against them a nation from far away, a shameless and foreign-speaking nation, which showed no respect for the old man and had no mercy on the child,

16And they carried away the widow’s beloved ones, and from among her daughters they left her desolate and alone.

17But as for me, how am I able to help you?

18For the one who brought these evils upon you will rescue you from the hand of your enemies.

19Go, children, go, for I have been left desolate.

20I have taken off the robe of peace, but I have put on the sackcloth of my supplication; I will cry out to the Eternal One in my days.

21Take courage, children; cry out to God, and he will deliver you from oppression, from the hand of enemies.

22For I have hoped in the Eternal One for your salvation, and joy has come to me from the Holy One because of the mercy that will quickly come to you from your eternal Savior.

23For I sent you out with mourning and weeping, but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness forever.

24For just as the neighbors of Zion have now seen your captivity, so they will soon see the salvation from your God that will come upon you with great glory and the splendor of the Eternal.

25Children, endure patiently the wrath that has come upon you from God. The enemy pursued you, but you will soon see his destruction, and you will step upon their necks.

26My pampered ones traveled rough roads; they were carried off like a flock seized by enemies.

27Take courage, children, and cry out to God, for you will be remembered by the one who brought this upon you.

28For just as your mind was set on going astray from God, so, as you return, seek him ten times more.

29For the one who brought evils upon you will bring you everlasting gladness with your salvation.

30Take courage, Jerusalem; the one who named you will comfort you.

31Wretched are those who harmed you and rejoiced at your fall,

32Wretched are the cities to which your children were enslaved; wretched is she who received your sons.

33For just as she rejoiced over your fall and was glad over your downfall, so she will grieve over her own desolation.

34And I will take away from her the rejoicing of her many people, and turn her pride into mourning.

35For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting One for many days, and she will be inhabited by demons for a very long time.

36Look toward the east, Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God.

37Look, your sons are coming, whom you sent away; they are coming, gathered from east to west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.