Baruch 4

NEW JERUSALEM	DIODATI
1 She is the book of God's commandments, the Law that stands for ever; those who keep her shal live,those who desert her shal die.
2 Turn back, Jacob, seize her, in her radiance make your way to light:
3 do not yield your glory to another, your privilege to a people not your own.
4 Israel, blessed are we: what pleases God has been revealed to us!
5 Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel!
6 You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered toyour enemies,
7 since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons, and not to God.
8 You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,
9 for when she saw God's anger fal ing on you, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent megreat sorrow.
10 I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.
11 I had reared them joyful y; in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.
12 Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sinsof my children, who turned away from the Law of God,
13 who did not want to know his precepts and would not fol ow the ways of his commandments or treadthe paths of discipline as his justice directed.
14 Come here, neighbours of Zion! Remember my sons' and daughters' captivity, which the Eternalbrought down on them.
15 How he brought a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language, theyshowed neither respect for the aged, nor pity for the child;
16 they carried off the widow's cherished sons, they left her quite alone, bereft of her daughters.
17 For my part, how could I help you?
18 He who brought those disasters down on you, is the one to deliver you from your enemies' clutches.
19 Go, my children, go your way! I must stay bereft and lonely;
20 I have taken off the clothes of peace and put on the sackcloth of entreaty; al my life I shal cry to theEternal.
21 Take courage, my children, cal on God: he wil deliver you from tyranny, from the clutches of yourenemies;
22 for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soonto reach you from your Saviour, the Eternal.
23 In sorrow and tears I watched you go away, but God wil give you back to me in joy and gladness forever.
24 As the neighbours of Zion have now witnessed your captivity, so wil they soon see your rescue byGod, which wil come upon you with great glory and splendour of the Eternal.
25 My children, patiently bear the anger brought on you by God. Your enemy has persecuted you, butsoon you wil witness his destruction and set your foot on his neck.
26 My favourite children have travel ed by rough roads, carried off like a flock by a marauding enemy.
27 Take courage, my children, cal on God: he who brought this on you wil remember you.
28 As by your wil you first strayed from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times harder;
29 for as he has been bringing down those disasters on you, so wil he rescue you and give you eternaljoy.
30 Take courage, Jerusalem: he who gave you your name wil console you.
31 Disaster wil come to al who have il -treated you and gloated over your fal .
32 Disaster wil come to the cities where your children were slaves; disaster to whichever one receivedyour children,
33 for just as she rejoiced at your fal and was happy to see you ruined, so wil she grieve over her owndesolation.
34 I shall deprive her of the joy of a populous city, and her insolence wil turn to mourning;
35 fire from the Eternal wil befall her for many a day, and demons wil dwel in her for ages.
36 Jerusalem, turn your eyes to the east, see the joy that is coming to you from God.
37 Look, the children you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, theyare on their way home at the Holy One's command, rejoicing in God's glory.