Home Master Index
←Prev   Baruch 4 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


4:1  She is the scroll containing God’s commandments, the Law that exists forever. All who hold on to her will live, but those who desert her will die.
4:2  Jacob, turn and grab on to her. Travel toward the rays coming from her light.
4:3  Don’t give your honor to another or your advantages to a foreign nation.
4:4  Israel, we are blessed because we know what is pleasing to God.
4:5  Be confident, my people, you who are the legacy of Israel!
4:6  You weren’t sold to the nations for complete destruction, but you were handed over to your opponents because you made God angry.
4:7  You upset your creator when you sacrificed to demons and not to God.
4:8  You forgot the eternal God who raised you; and you caused pain to Jerusalem, who nurtured you.
4:9  Jerusalem saw the wrath of God that came on you and said: Neighbors of Zion, listen! God has brought me great grief.
4:10  I have watched my sons and daughters taken captive, the action of the eternal one.
4:11  I nursed them joyfully, but I sent them away with tears and mourning.
4:12  Don’t any of you rejoice over me, a widow deserted by many. My children avoided God’s Law, so I was stripped bare because of their sins.
4:13  They didn’t acknowledge God’s requirements, walk in the ways of God’s commandments, or follow the paths in which his righteousness trained them.
4:14  Neighbors of Zion, come! Remember the exile my sons and daughters suffered, brought on them by the eternal one.
4:15  God brought a nation from far away against them, a nation that is shameless and speaks a strange language, that showed no respect for the elderly or pity for the child.
4:16  It took away the widow’s dearly loved sons and deprived the lonely woman of her daughters.
4:17  But how am I able to help you?
4:18  The one who brought the horrible things on you will rescue you from your enemies’ grasp.
4:19  Go, children, go, for I have been left desolate.
4:20  I’ve stripped off the robe of peace and put on the rough cloth of mourners. I’ll spend my days crying out to the eternal one.
4:21  Children, be confident! Cry out to God! God will rescue you from your enemies’ authority and grip.
4:22  I have placed hope in the eternal one for your salvation; the holy one has sent me joy, because your eternal savior will soon have mercy on you.
4:23  I sent you away with mourning and wailing, but God will restore you to me with gladness and joy forever.
4:24  Just as Zion’s neighbors have now seen your exile, they’ll also soon see God’s deliverance of you; it will come to you with all the glory and splendor of the eternal one.
4:25  Children, bear up patiently under God’s anger, which has come on you. Your enemy has hunted you down, but you’ll soon see their destruction. Then you’ll step on their throats.
4:26  My delicate children have traveled rough roads. They were taken as a flock snatched away by enemies.
4:27  Children, be confident! Cry out to God, for the one who brought this on you will remember you.
4:28  Just as you plotted to stray away from God, return with ten times as much effort to seek him out.
4:29  The one who brought these horrible things on you will bring you eternal joy along with your deliverance.
4:30  Jerusalem, be confident! The one who named you will comfort you.
4:31  Misery will fall upon those who mistreated you and celebrated your fall.
4:32  Misery will fall upon the cities that enslaved your young. Misery will fall upon the cities that received your children.
4:33  Just as the enemy celebrated your fall and rejoiced at your misfortune, she herself will feel the pain of being left desolate.
4:34  I’ll strip away the pride she has in her great population, and turn her arrogance into grief.
4:35  The eternal one will send fire on her for many days, and demons will inhabit her for a long time.
4:36  Jerusalem, look to the east and see the joy that is coming to you from God.
4:37  The children you sent away are coming. By the holy one’s word, they are coming from the east and the west, rejoicing in God’s glory.