Baruch 3

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 "LORD Almighty, God of Israel, afflicted souls and dismayed spirits call to you.	1 This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law, that is for ever: all they that keep it, shall come to life: but they that have forsaken it, to death.
2 Hear, O LORD, for you are a God of mercy; and have mercy on us, who have sinned against you:	2 Return, O Jacob, and take hold of it, walk in the way by its brightness, in the presence of the light thereof.
3 for you are enthroned forever, while we are perishing forever.	3 Give not thy honour to another, nor thy dignity to a strange nation.
4 LORD Almighty, God of Israel, hear the prayer of Israel's few, the sons of those who sinned against you; they did not heed the voice of the LORD, their God, and the evils cling to us.	4 We are happy, O Israel: because the things that are pleasing to God, are made known to us.
5 Remember at this time not the misdeeds of our fathers, but your own hand and name:	5 Be of good comfort, O people of God, the memorial of Israel:
6 for you are the LORD our God; and you, O LORD, we will praise!	6 You have been sold to the Gentiles, not for your destruction: but because you provoked God to wrath, you are delivered to your adversaries.
7 For this, you put into our hearts the fear of you: that we may call upon your name, and praise you in our captivity, when we have removed from our hearts all the wickedness of our fathers who sinned against you.	7 For you have provoked him who made you, the eternal God, offering sacrifice to devils, and not to God.
8 Behold us today in our captivity, where you scattered us, a reproach, a curse, and a requital for all the misdeeds of our fathers, who withdrew from the LORD, our God."	8 For you have forgotten God, who brought you up, and you have grieved Jerusalem that nursed you.
9 Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: listen, and know prudence!	9 For she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, and she said: Give ear, all you that dwell near Sion, for God hath brought upon me great mourning:
10 How is it, Israel, that you are in the land of your foes, grown old in a foreign land, Defiled with the dead,	10 For I have seen the captivity of my people, of my sons, and my daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them.
11 accounted with those destined for the nether world?	11 For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.
12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!	12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and desolate: I am forsaken of many for the sins of my children, because they departed from the law of God.
13 Had you walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in enduring peace.	13 And they have not known his justices, nor walked by the ways of God's commandments, neither have they entered by the paths of his truth and justice.
14 Learn where prudence is, where strength, where understanding; That you may know also where are length of days, and life, where light of the eyes, and peace.	14 Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them.
15 Who has found the place of wisdom, who has entered into her treasuries?	15 For he hath brought a nation upon them from afar, a wicked nation, and of a strange tongue:
16 Where are the rulers of the nations, they who lorded it over the wild beasts of the earth,	16 Who have neither reverenced the ancient, nor pitied children, and have carried away the beloved of the widow, and have left me all alone without children.
17 and made sport of the birds of the heavens: They who heaped up the silver and the gold in which men trust; of whose possessions there was no end?	17 But as for me, what help can I give you?
18 They schemed anxiously for money, but there is no trace of their work:	18 But he that hath brought the evils upon you, he will deliver you out of the hands of your enemies.
19 They have vanished down into the nether world, and others have risen up in their stead.	19 Go your way, my children, go your way: for I am left alone.
20 Later generations have seen the light, have dwelt in the land, But the way to understanding they have not known,	20 I have put off the robe of peace, and have put upon me the sackcloth of supplication, and I will cry to the most High in my days.
21 they have not perceived her paths, or reached her; their offspring were far from the way to her.	21 Be of good comfort, my children, cry to the Lord, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the princes your enemies.
22 She has not been heard of in Canaan, nor seen in Teman.	22 For my hope is in the Eternal that he will save you: and joy is come upon me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall come to you from our everlasting Saviour.
23 The sons of Hagar who seek knowledge on earth, the merchants of Midian and Teman, the phrasemakers seeking knowledge, These have not known the way to wisdom, nor have they her paths in mind.	23 For I sent you forth with mourning and weeping: but the Lord will bring you back to me with joy and gladness for ever.
24 O Israel, how vast is the house of God, how broad the scope of his dominion:	24 For as the neighbours of Sion have now seen your captivity from God: so shall they also shortly see your salvation from God, which shall come upon you with great honour, and everlasting glory.
25 Vast and endless, high and immeasurable!	25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you: for thy enemy hath persecuted thee, but thou shalt quickly see his destruction: and thou shalt get up upon his neck.
26 In it were born the giants, renowned at the first, stalwarts, skilled in war.	26 My delicate ones have walked rough ways, for they were taken away as a flock made a prey by the enemies.
27 Not these did God choose, nor did he give them the way of understanding;	27 Be of good comfort, my children, and cry to the Lord: for you shall be remembered by him that hath led you away.
28 They perished for lack of prudence, perished through their folly.	28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God; so when you return again you shall seek him ten times as much.
29 Who has gone up to the heavens and taken her, or brought her down from the clouds?	29 For he that hath brought evils upon you, shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation.
30 Who has crossed the sea and found her, bearing her away rather than choice gold?	30 Be of good heart, O Jerusalem: for he exhorteth thee, that named thee.
31 None knows the way to her, nor has any understood her paths.	31 The wicked that have afflicted thee, shall perish: and they that have rejoiced at thy ruin, shall be punished.
32 Yet he who knows all things knows her; he has probed her by his knowledge-- He who established the earth for all time, and filled it with four-footed beasts;	32 The cities which thy children have served, shall be punished: and she that received thy sons.
33 He who dismisses the light, and it departs, calls it, and it obeys him trembling;	33 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.
34 Before whom the stars at their posts shine and rejoice;	34 And the joy of her multitude shall be cut off: and her gladness shall be turned to mourning.
35 When he calls them, they answer, "Here we are!" shining with joy for their Maker.	35 For fire shall come upon her from the Eternal, long to endure, and she shall be inhabited by devils for a great time.
36 Such is our God; no other is to be compared to him:	36 Look about thee, O Jerusalem, towards the east, and behold the joy that cometh to thee from God.
37 He has traced out all the way of understanding, and has given her to Jacob, his servant, to Israel, his beloved son.	37 For behold thy children come, whom thou sentest away scattered, they come gathered together from the east even to the west, at the word of the Holy One rejoicing for the honour of God.
38 Since then she has appeared on earth, and moved among men.