Baruch 3

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Almighty Lord, God of Israel, a soul in anguish, a troubled heart now cries 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 Listen and have pity, Lord, for we have sinned before 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 You sit enthroned for ever, while we are perishing for ever.	3 Give not thy honour to another, nor thy dignity to a strange nation.
4 Almighty Lord, God of Israel, hear the prayer of the dead of Israel, of the children of those who havesinned against you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord their God; hence the disasters which dog us.	4 We are happy, O Israel: because the things that are pleasing to God, are made known to us.
5 Do not cal to mind the misdeeds of our ancestors, but remember instead your power and your name.	5 Be of good comfort, O people of God, the memorial of Israel:
6 You are indeed the Lord our God and we wil praise you, Lord,	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 since you have put respect for you in our hearts to encourage us to cal on your name. We long topraise you in our exile, for we have rid our hearts of the wickedness of our ancestors 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 Look, today we are still in exile where you have scattered us as something contemptible, accursed,condemned, for al the misdeeds of our ancestors who had abandoned the Lord our God.	8 For you have forgotten God, who brought you up, and you have grieved Jerusalem that nursed you.
9 Listen, Israel, to commands that bring life; hear, and learn what knowledge means.	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 Why, Israel, why are you in the country of your enemies, growing older and older in an alien land,	10 For I have seen the captivity of my people, of my sons, and my daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them.
11 defiling yourselves with the dead, reckoned with those who go to Sheol?	11 For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.
12 It is because 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 be living in peace for ever.	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 knowledge is, where strength, where understanding, and so learn where length of days is,where life, where the light of the eyes and where 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 But who has found out where she lives, who has entered her treasure house?	15 For he hath brought a nation upon them from afar, a wicked nation, and of a strange tongue:
16 Where now are the leaders of the nations and those who ruled even the beasts of 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 those who sported with the birds of heaven, those who accumulated silver and gold on which alpeople rely, and whose possessions had no end,	17 But as for me, what help can I give you?
18 those who worked so carefully in silver -but of whose works no trace is to be found?	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, gone down to Sheol. Others have risen to their places,	19 Go your way, my children, go your way: for I am left alone.
20 more recent generations have seen the day and peopled the earth in their turn, but the way ofknowledge they have not found;	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 recognised the paths she treads. Nor have their children had any grasp of her, remainingfar from her way.	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 Nothing has been heard of her in Canaan, nothing has been seen of her 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 children of Hagar in search of worldly wisdom, the merchants of Midian and Teman, the tale-spinners and the philosophers have none of them found the way to wisdom or remembered the paths shetreads.	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 How great, Israel, is the house of God, how wide his domain,	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 immeasurably wide, infinitely lofty!	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, famous from the beginning, immensely tal , expert 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 God's choice did not fall on these, he did not show them the way of knowledge;	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 wisdom, perished by their own 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 ever climbed the sky and seized her to bring 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 ever crossed the ocean and found her to bring her back in exchange for the finest gold?	30 Be of good heart, O Jerusalem: for he exhorteth thee, that named thee.
31 No one can learn the way to her, no one can understand the path she treads.	31 The wicked that have afflicted thee, shall perish: and they that have rejoiced at thy ruin, shall be punished.
32 But the One who knows al discovers her, he has grasped her with his own intel ect, he has set theearth firm for evermore 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 sends the light -- and it goes, he recal s it -- and trembling it obeys;	33 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.
34 the stars shine joyful y at their posts;	34 And the joy of her multitude shall be cut off: and her gladness shall be turned to mourning.
35 when he cal s them, they answer, 'Here we are'; they shine to delight their Creator.	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 It is he who is our God, no other can compare with him.	36 Look about thee, O Jerusalem, towards the east, and behold the joy that cometh to thee from God.
37 He has uncovered the whole way of knowledge and shown it to his servant Jacob, to Israel his wel -beloved;	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 only then did she appear on earth and live among human beings.