Part 360

2:21. Thus saith the Lord: Bow down your shoulder, and your neck, and serve the king of Babylon: and you shall remain in the land which I have given to your fathers.

2:22. But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to serve the king of Babylon: I will cause you to depart out of the cities of Juda, and from without Jerusalem.

2:23. And I will take away from you the voice of mirth, and the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, and all the land shall be without any footstep of inhabitants.

2:24. And they hearkened not to thy voice, to serve the king of Babylon: and thou hast made good thy words, which thou spokest by the hands of thy servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings, and the bones of our fathers should be removed out of their place:

2:25. And behold they are cast out to the heat of the sun, and to the frost of the night: and they have died in grievous pains, by famine, and by the sword, and in banishment.

2:26. And thou hast made the temple, in which thy name was called upon, as it is at this day, for the iniquity of the house of Israel, and the house of Juda.

2:27. And thou hast dealt with us, O Lord our God, according to all thy goodness, and according to all that great mercy of thine:

2:28. As thou spokest by the hand of thy servant Moses, in the day when thou didst command him to write thy law before the children of Israel,

2:29. Saying: If you will not hear my voice, this great multitude shall be turned into a very small number among the nations, where I will scatter them:

2:30. For I know that the people will not hear me, for they are a people of a stiff neck: but they shall turn to their heart in the land of their captivity:

2:31. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God: and I will give them a heart, and they shall understand: and ears, and they shall hear.

2:32. And they shall praise me in the land of their captivity, and shall be mindful of my name.

2:33. And they shall turn away themselves from their stiff neck, and from their wicked deeds: for they shall remember the way of their fathers, that sinned against me.

2:34. And I will bring them back again into the land which I promised with an oath to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they shall be masters thereof: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished.

2:35. And I will make with them another covenant that shall be everlasting, to be their God, and they shall be my people: and I will no more remove my people, the children of Israel, out of the land that I have given them.

Baruch Chapter 3

They pray for mercy, acknowledging that they are justly punished for forsaking true wisdom. A prophecy of Christ.

3:1. And now, O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, the soul in anguish, and the troubled spirit crieth to thee:

3:2. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for thou art a merciful God, and have pity on us: for we have sinned before thee.

3:3. For thou remainest for ever, and shall we perish everlastingly?

3:4. O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of their children, that have sinned before thee, and have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, wherefore evils have cleaved fast to us.

3:5. Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but think upon thy hand, and upon thy name at this time:

3:6. For thou art the Lord our God, and we will praise thee, O Lord:

3:7. Because for this end thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity, for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before thee.

3:8. And behold we are at this day in our captivity, whereby thou hast scattered us to be a reproach, and a curse, and an offence, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, who departed from thee, O Lord our God.

3:9. Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom.

3:10. How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land?

3:11. Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art counted with them that go down into hell.