1. These are the words of the book written by Baruch, the son of Neriah,
descended from Massiah, from Sedekiah,from Hasadiah, from Hilkiah.
2. They were written in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the
time when the Chaldeans had taken Jerusalem and burned it.
3. Baruch read the words of this book to Jeconiah, the son of Joachim, the king
of Judah, in the presence of all the people who had come together to hear it
read.
4. He read it in the hearing of the nobles and the king’s sons, of the elders and
all the people, from the smallest to the greatest—that is, all those who were
living in Babylon near the river Sudi.
5. Then the people wept and fasted and prayed before the Lord.
6. They also collected money according to what each one could afford
7. and this, they sent to Jerusalem, to the priest Jehoiakim, son of Hilkiah, the
son of Shallum, and to the other priests and people who dwelt in Jerusalem with
him.
8. This same Baruch had undertaken to carry back to Judea, on the tenth day of
the month of Sivan, the sacred vessels which had been taken away from the temple
of the Lord. These were the silver vessels made by Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king
of Judah,
9. after Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried off Jeconiah, the
artisans, the nobles and the people of the land and had taken them captive to
Babylon.
10. The letter said: Look, we are sending you money; buy with it victims for the
holocaust and for sin offerings and incense; prepare oblations and offer them on
the Altar of the Lord our God.
11. Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and of Balthasar, his
son, so that they may be successful in all that they do.
12. Thus the Lord will give strength and light to our eyes. We will live under
the protection of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and of his son, Balthasar. We
shall have a long life serving them and we shall fi nd favor before them.
13. Pray to the Lord our God for us also, for we have sinned against the Lord our
God; even to this day the anger of the Lord and his fury have not been turned
away from us.
14. Finally, read this book which we are sending to you, so that you can read it
publicly in the house of the Lord on the day of the Feast and on other suitable
days.
15. You will say: May everyone recognize the justice of our God but, on this day,
shame and confusion befi t the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—
16. our kings and princes, our priests, our prophets, and our fathers,
17. because we have sinned before the Lord.
18. We have disobeyed him and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God,
nor have we followed the commandments which the Lord had put before us.
19. From the day that the Lord brought our ancestors out of the land of Egypt
until this day, we have disobeyed the Lord our God and we have rebelled against
him instead of listening to his voice.
20. Because of this, from the day on which the Lord brought our ancestors out of
the land of Egypt, so as to give them a land fl owing with milk and honey, the
evils and the curse which the Lord pronounced by Moses, his servant, have dogged
our footsteps right down to the present day.
21. We did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God speaking through the words
of the prophets whom he sent to us,
22. but each one of us followed his perverted heart, serving false gods and doing
what displeases the Lord our God.
Chapter 2
1. That is why the Lord our God has carried out the word which he spoke against
us, against the judges who have governed Israel, against our kings, our princes
and the people of Israel and Ju - dah.
2. No one under the sky has ever seen the like of what happened in Jerusalem,
according to what is written in the Book of Moses.
3. For people among us came to eat their son’s and daughter’s flesh.
4. And he handed them over into the power of all the surrounding kingdoms, so
that they were cursed and humiliated among the neighboring peoples among whom
the Lord had scattered them.
5. Submission and not command has been our lot, because we have sinned against
the Lord our God and have not listened to his voice.
6. Just is the Lord our God, whereas shame and confusion befit us and our
ancestors right down to this day.
7. All those evils which the Lord prophesied concerning us have fallen upon us.
8. And we have not begged the Lord to make each of us turn away from the thoughts
of our evil hearts.
9. Then the Lord kept watch over the evils and allowed them to come upon us, for
the Lord is just in all that he has commanded us to do.
10. We have not listened to his voice nor followed the commands which the Lord
has ordered us to keep.
11. And now, Lord God of Israel, you who brought your people out of Egypt with a
strong hand, with miracles and wonders and great power, you who stretched out
your arm and made for yourself a name such as you have today,
12. we have sinned. We have been godless and unjust, Lord, careless about all
your commands.
13. May your fury be turned away from us, for there are very few of us left among
the nations in which you have scattered us.
14. Hear our supplication and our prayer, O Lord, deliver us, for your own honor
and let us fi nd favor with those who deported us.
15. Let all the earth know that you are the Lord our God, because Israel and its
people bear your name.
16. Lord, look down from your holy dwelling place and think of us; Lord, incline
your ear and listen;
17. Lord, open your eyes and consider: it is not the dead, lying in the
netherworld, who will praise your glory and justice,
18. since their spirit has been taken from their breast. Grieving under his
burden, and walking bowed down and exhausted, the man with eyes sore from
weeping and who is hungry—these are they, who can give you glory and justice, O
Lord.
19. For it is not on account of the merits of our ancestors and of our kings that
we pour out our cry for pity before you, O Lord our God.
20. You have sent down on us your fury and your anger as you announced through
your servants, the prophets, saying,
21. “Thus says the Lord: Bend your shoulders and serve the king of Babylon and
you will dwell in the land that I gave to your ancestors.
22. But if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God and serve the king
of Babylon,
23. I will bring to an end in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem the song of joy
and gladness, the song of the bridegroom and the bride, and the whole country
will become a desert without inhabitants.
24. We did not listen to your invitation to serve the king of Babylon and so you
carried out what you had foretold by your servants, the prophets, that the bones
of our kings and our ancestors would be taken from their graves.
25. See, they have been exposed to the heat of the day and the cold of the night;
they died in cruel sufferings, by famine, by the sword and by plagues.
26. And you have reduced the nation which bears your name to the state in which
it is today because of the wickedness of the people of Judah.
27. However, you have acted towards us, O Lord our God, indulgently and with
great tenderness,
28. as you foretold by your servant Moses, the day you ordered him to write down
your law in the presence of the children of Israel saying:
29. If you do not listen to my voice, this great and vast multitude will be
reduced to a small remnant among the nations where I shall scatter them;
30. for I know well that they will not listen to me because they are a
stiff-necked people. But in the land of their exile their hearts will be
converted
31. and they will know that I am the Lord their God.
32. And I will give them a heart and listening ears, that they may praise me in
the land of their exile and remember my name.
33. They will repent of their stiff-necked obstinacy and their evil deeds,
because they will remember what happened to their ancestors who had sinned
before the Lord.
34. And I will lead them into the land which I have promised by oath to their
ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and they will take possession of it. I
will increase their number and it will no longer diminish.
35. I will make with them an everlasting Covenant; I will be their God and they
shall be my people. I will no longer drive my people Israel from the land which
I have given them.
Chapter 3
1. Almighty Lord, God of Israel, a soul in anguish and a discouraged spirit cries
out to you.
2. Listen, Lord, and have pity, for we have sinned against you;
3. for you reign forever, while we perish forever.
4. Lord, all powerful God of Israel, listen, then, to the prayers of the dead of
Israel. We are the sons of those who sinned against you, who did not listen to
the voice of their God; and this is why disgrace has come upon us.
5. Do not remember any longer the wrongdoing of our fathers, but remember at this
time your power and your name;
6. for you are the Lord, our God and we will praise you, Lord.
7. That is why you have put your fear into our hearts and we call upon your name.
And we will praise you in our exile for we have removed from our hearts all the
wrong of our fathers who sinned against you.
8. We are here today, in our exile, where you have scattered us, to be insulted,
cursed and condemned for the wrongdoing of our fathers, who separated themselves
from the Lord our God. Who has found wisdom?
9. Listen, Israel, to the commands of life, give ear so as to learn prudence,
10. Why, Israel! Why are you in the land of your foes? Why are you growing old in
a foreign country, contaminated by pagans,
11. counted among those who go to the pit?
12. You have abandoned the source of Wisdom.
13. If you had walked in the way of God, peace would be your dwelling place
forever.
14. Learn where is Wisdom, where is Strength and Understanding, that you may
know, at the same time, where are length of days and life, light of the eyes and
Peace.
15. Who will fi nd Wisdom’s dwelling? Who will enter her storage rooms?
16. Where are the leaders of the nations, those who commanded the beasts of the
earth,
17. who played with the birds of the heavens, who piled up silver and gold—in
which people put their trust— and who never tired of collecting it?
18. Amassing money was their only concern, their business beyond measure.
19. But they have disappeared, they have gone down to the dead and others have
risen in their place.
20. A younger generation is there on the earth and enjoys the light, but they
have not known the ways of knowledge; they have not seen his tracks nor have
they met him,
21. and their children after them did not leave their paths.
22. No one in Canaan has heard of Wisdom, no one has seen her in Teman.
23. The sons of Agar, who seek knowledge of the earth, the traders of Midian and
Teman, the tellers of fables and philosophers, they have not known the path of
Wisdom, they have not discovered her ways.
24. O Israel, how great is the house of God, how vast his dominion!
25. It is great and has no limits. It is lofty, wide and immeasurable.
26. There were born the ancient and famous giants of high stature and skillful in
war.
27. God did not choose them, he did not teach them the ways of Wisdom,
28. and they perished because of their folly, because they lacked knowledge.
29. Who has ascended to Heaven that he may lay hold of her and bring her down
from the clouds?
30. Who has crossed seas and found her, and bought her with the purest of gold?
31. There is no one who knows her path, no one who thinks of her way.
32. But he who knows everything recognizes her. He has found her in his own
intellect. He who created the earth, for all time, and has filled it with
four-footed beings.
33. He who sends the light, and it goes, who recalls it, and trembling, it obeys.
34. The stars shine, full of joy, to keep their night watches. He calls them and
they answer, “Here we are.” They shine with joy for their Creator.
35. It is he who is our God, no other can be compared with him.
36. He has found the way of understanding and has given her to Jacob his servant
and to Israel his well-beloved.
37. Then Wisdom was seen on earth and lived among humans.
Chapter 4
1. She herself is the book of the commands of God, the law which endures forever.
All who hold fast to her will have life but those who abandon her will die.
2. Come back, Jacob, and embrace her, walk towards brightness under her light.
3. Do not give up what is your glory or sell your privileges to any strange
nation.
4. We are fortunate, O Israel, for we know what pleases the Lord! Consolation for
Jerusalem
5. Take courage, my people, you who pre serve the memory of Israel.
6. You have been sold to the nations but not for your destruction; because you
had aroused the anger of God, you were delivered to your enemies.
7. For you displeased your Creator in sacrificing to demons and not to God.
8. You have forgotten the Eternal God, the one who nourished you. You have filled
Jerusalem with sadness, she who brought you up.
9. For she saw the anger of God fall on you and she said, “Listen, you
neighboring cities of Zion, God has sent me a great sorrow. br>
10. I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal one
brought on them.
11. I had nurtured them in joy; with tears and sadness I saw them leave.
12. Let no one rejoice on seeing me a widow and abandoned by all. Because of the
sins of my children I am now alone, because they have turned away from the law
of God.
13. They have not remembered its precepts; nor have they walked in the ways of
his commandments, and followed the discipline which leads to uprightness.
14. Let them come, the neighbors of Zion, and remember the captivity which the
Eternal One laid on my sons and daughters.
15. For he caused a distant nation to come against them, a ruthless nation with
an unknown language. They had no respect for the old, and no pity for the
infant;
16. they took away the only son of the widow, as well as her daughter, and left
her alone.
17. But as for myself, how can I help you?
18. He who caused these evils to come upon you will deliver you from the hands of
your enemies.
19. Well, my children, go on your way; as for me, I am left alone.
20. I have taken off the garment of peace and put on again the sackcloth of
penance and prayer. I will cry out to the Eternal One all the rest of my days.
21. Come, take courage, my children, cry out to God. He will deliver you from the
violence of the enemy.
22. Because I hoped for your salvation from the Eternal One, joy has come to me
from the Holy One, because of the mercy that will come to you soon from the
Eternal One, our Savior.
23. In tears and mourning, I saw you leave, but in joy and gladness God will
bring you back to me forever.
24. As the neighbors of Zion have seen your captivity so they will soon see your
salvation from God, when he manifests to you the great glory and the splendor of
the Eternal God.
25. Children, bear patiently this punishment which came on you from God. The
enemy has persecuted you, but you will soon see his downfall and you will
trample him underfoot.
226. My well-beloved children have walked by difficult paths, carried off like a
herd stolen by enemies.
27. Take courage, my children, cry out to God, for he who sent you into exile
will remember you. br>
28. Thus, as you distanced yourself from God, return to him and seek him ten
times more earnestly.
29. For he who caused these evils to fall on you will bring you salvation and
eternal joy.
30. Take courage, Jerusalem. He who has named you will console you.
31. Cursed be those who did evil to you and rejoiced in your downfall.
32. Cursed be those cities in which your children were slaves, cursed the nation
in which they had to live.
333. Just as that nation rejoiced in your downfall and took pleasure in your
destruction so will she be afflicted and destroyed.
34. I will take from her the joy of being a numerous people; her pride will be
turned into mourning. br>
35. A fi re will descend on her from the Eternal One and burn for many days. She
will be inhabited by demons for a long time.
36. Jerusalem, look towards the East, and see the joy which is coming to you from
God.
37. Look, your children who were scattered are returning. They are assembling,
coming together, from the East and from the West, at the voice of the Holy One,
rejoicing in the glory of God.
Chapter 5
1. Jerusalem, put off your garment of mourning and unhappiness, put on the
splendor and glory of God forever.
2. Wrap yourself in the mantle of holiness that comes from God, put on your head
the crown of glory of the Eternal One.
3. For God will show your splendor to every being under heaven.
4. He will call your name forever, “peace in justice” and “glory in the fear of
the Lord.”
5. Rise up, Jerusalem, stand on the heights. Look towards the east and see your
children gathered together from the setting of the sun to its rising, by the
voice of the Holy One, rejoicing because God has remembered them.
6. They left you on foot, taken away by the enemy. God will lead them back,
carried gloriously like royal princes.
7. For God has resolved to bring low every high mountain and the everlasting
hills, to fill up the valleys and level out the ground, in order that Israel may
walk in safety under the glory of God.
8. Even the forests and the fragrant trees will give shade to Israel at God’s
command.
9. For God will lead Israel with joy by the light of his glory, escorting them
with his mercy and justice.
Chapter 6
1. “Because of the sins you have committed against God, you will be led captive
to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians.
2. After your arrival in Babylon you will remain there for a number of years—a
long time, for seven generations; but after that, I shall bring you home in
peace.
33. In Babylon you will see gods of silver, gold and wood, carried on men’s
shoulders and filling the people with fear.
4. Take care not to copy what foreigners do; and not to let yourselves be
terrified by them
5. when you see the crowds pressing in front and behind to adore them. br>
6. Say rather to yourselves: ‘Master, it is you we are to adore.’ My angel is
with you to take care of your lives.
7. Their tongues have been polished by a craftsman and even if they are of gold
and silver, they are false and are unable to speak.
8. As for a maiden conscious of her appearance, these pagans make golden crowns
for their gods.
9. Yet at times the priests steal the gold and silver from their gods for their
own use and for the prostitutes in their temples.
110. They give clothes to these gods as if they were people, but they are only
things of gold, silver and wood, which cannot defend themselves from rust or
woodworm.
11. So, after clothing them in purple, they wipe their faces because of the thick
dust of the temple that covers them.
12. The god has a scepter like a governor of a province, but he cannot destroy
the person who has wronged him. br>
13. He carries sword and ax in his right hand, but he is helpless both in war and
against thieves.
14. This clearly proves they are not gods; have no fear of them.
15. A broken pot is useless for anyone. So are those gods enshrined in their
temples.
16. Their eyes are full of the dust raised by those who enter.
17. Just as doors are carefully closed on a man who has offended the king or on a
convict sentenced to death, in the same way the priests lock and bolt the doors
of the temple for fear of thieves.
18. They light lamps, far more numerous than what they need for themselves, and
yet the god sees no one.
19. He is no more than any of the beams of the temple and some whisper that the
inner part is gnawed by termites; worms out of the ground devour both the god
and his clothes, but he feels nothing.
20. Their faces have become black because of the smoke of the temple.
21. Owls alight on their heads and shoulders, swallows and other birds perch on
them and cats prowl around them.
22. This tells you they are not gods, so have no fear of them.
23. If the rust on the gold that adorns them is not removed, they cannot shine.
Yet what does it matter? Even when they were cast they felt nothing.
24. They may be bought at a high price but there is not a breath of life in them.
25. As they are without feet, they are carried on men’s shoulders, showing
publicly their shame. What a confusion for their worshipers if the god falls!
They must lift him up.
26. Once he has been stood up, he does not move. If tilted, he is helpless to
straighten up. So you make offerings to these gods as you make to dead people.
227. The priests collect what has been offered for sacrifice, selling it, while
the wives salt some of it but give nothing to the poor and helpless. Do you
think these are true offerings? Even women giving birth or who are ritually
unclean touch them.
28. See that they are not gods and have no fear of them. br>
29. How can they be called gods? Women carry offerings to things made of silver,
wood and gold.
30. The priests remain seated in the temple, their garments torn, head and beard
shaved, and no covering on their heads.
31. They roar and cry in the presence of their gods as do certain people during
funeral meals.
32. With the garments taken from the gods the priests clothe their wives and
their children.
33. Whether they are treated well or shabbily, the gods can make no return,
neither can they make or unmake a king.
34. They are incapable of bestowing riches or money. If someone fails to keep a
vow, he is not called to account.
35. They can neither save anyone from death nor rescue a helpless person from the
clutch of the powerful.
36. They cannot restore sight to the blind or save someone in distress.
37. They will show no compassion to the widow nor do good to the orphan.
38. These pieces of wood plated with gold and silver are no more worthy than
rocks hewn out of a mountain and their worshipers shall be humiliated.
39. How then can anyone believe they are gods? How can they be called gods?
40. The Chaldeans themselves have put them to shame. If they see someone who is
dumb, unable to speak, they bring him be fore Bel, entreating him to make him
speak, as if the god could hear them!
41. And yet these thinking people are unable to abandon gods that are completely
devoid of sense.
42. Women with cord round their waists sit in the street burning bran.
43. When one of them has been picked up by a passerby and has slept with him, she
taunts her companion for not having been so highly regarded as herself and for
failing to have her cord broken.
44. All that goes on anywhere near these gods is false. How can they be
considered or declared to be gods?
45. They have been fashioned by craftsmen and goldsmiths; they are nothing more
than what the artisans decided they were to be.
46. Those who made them haven’t long to live; so how could the work of their
hands be gods?
47. What they leave to their descendants is nothing more than illusion and shame.
48. For when war or other disasters come upon them, they discuss among themselves
where they, with their gods, will hide.
49. How could anyone fail to be convinced that what cannot save from war and
disaster is not a god?
50. Later on, these pieces of wood plated with silver and gold will be known to
be false. It will be plain to all kings and nations that they are not gods, but
merely the work of human hands and God does nothing through them.
51. Is there anyone unconvinced that these are not gods?
52. They are incapable of establishing a king in a country or of sending rain to
people.
53. They are unable to discern what is just or to rescue a person who has been
wronged. They are as helpless as crows between the sky and the ground.
54. When fire breaks out in the temple of these wooden gods plated with silver
and gold, the priests flee to safety but their gods are burnt with the beams in
the midst of the flames.
55. They can neither resist a king nor a hostile army.
56. How can it be admitted or believed that they are gods?
57. These gods cannot escape either from thieves or brigands. These are more
powerful and despoil them of their gold, their silver and their robes. Such gods
are unable to defend themselves.
58. Better to be a king with a show of power, or even a household pot that is of
some use to its owner than to be a false god; better even to be the door of a
house that guards what is within, or a wooden column in a royal palace than to
be a false god.
59. The sun, moon and stars that shine and serve us are obedient to God;
60. likewise the lightning that is beautiful to see, and the wind that blows over
the country
61. and the clouds passing over the earth at God’s command, fire sent from on
high to consume mountain and forest—all do what is commanded.
62. But these wooden objects can in no way compare with them,
63. that is why it must not be either believed or said that these are gods, since
they are powerless to administer justice or benefit anyone in any way.
64. Since you know they are not gods, have no fear of them.
65. They can neither curse
66. nor bless kings, nor bring about signs in the heavens for the nations to see.
They can neither shine like the sun nor give light like the moon.
67. Animals are of more worth, since by taking cover they can look after
themselves.
68. So in no way whatever is it evident to us that these are gods; for that
reason have no fear of them.
69. For like a scarecrow in a field of melons, these gods plated with silver and
gold protect nothing.
70. Again these wooden gods may be compared to a thorn bush in a garden where any
bird can perch, or to a corpse thrown into a dark place.
71. You know by the purple and scarlet robes rotting on them that they are not
gods. They end up by being eaten away and become a disgrace to the country.
72. Better then a just man who has no idols, he will not be dishonored.