Baruch 6 Because of the sinnes that ye haue done against God, ye shalbe led away captiue vnto Babylon, euen of Nabuchodonozor the king of Babylon.

Bishops⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Because of the sinnes that ye haue done against God, ye shalbe led away captiue vnto Babylon, euen of Nabuchodonozor the king of Babylon. ² So when ye be come into Babylon, ye shall remayne there many yeres, and for a long season, [namely] seuen generations: and after that will I bring you away peaceably from thence. ³ Nowe shall ye see in Babylon gods of golde, of siluer, of wood, and of stone, borne vpon mens shoulders, to cast out a fearfulnesse before the heathen. ⁴ But loke that ye do not as the other: be not ye afraide, & let not the feare of them ouercome you. ⁵ Therfore when ye see the multitude of people worshipping them behynde and before, say ye in your heartes: O Lorde, it is thou that oughtest only to be worshipped. ⁶ Myne angell also shalbe with you, and I my selfe will care for your soules. ⁷ As for the timber of those gods, the carpenter hath pullished them: yea gilted be they and layed ouer with siluer, yet are they but vayne thinges, and can not speake. ⁸ Like as a wench that loueth paramours is trimly dect: euen so are these made and hanged with golde. ⁹ Crownes of golde veryly haue their gods vpon their heades: so the priestes them selues take golde and siluer from them, and put it to their owne vses: ¹⁰ Yea they geue of the same vnto harlottes, & trimme their whores withall: againe, they take it from the whores, and decke their gods therwith: ¹¹ Yet can not these gods deliuer them selues from rust and mothes. ¹² When they haue couered them with clothing of purple, they wype their faces for the dust of the temple, whereof there is much among them. ¹³ One hath a scepter in his hande as though he were iudge of the countrey, yet can he not slay such as offende hym. ¹⁴ An other hath a sworde or an axe in his hand: for al that, he is neither able to defende hym selfe from battayle, nor from murtherers. ¹⁵ By this ye may vnderstande, that they be no gods: therefore see that ye neither worship them, nor feare them. ¹⁶ For like as a vessell that a man vseth, is nothing worth when it is broken, euen so is it with their gods: When they be set vp in the temple, their eyes be ful of dust thorowe the feete of those that come in. ¹⁷ And like as the doores are shut in round about vpon hym that hath offended the king, or as it were a dead body kept beside the graue: Euen so, the priestes kepe the doores with barres & lockes, lest their gods be spoyled with robbers. ¹⁸ They set vp candels before them, yea veryly and that many, wherof they can not see one: but euen as blockes, so stande they in the temple. ¹⁹ It is sayd, that the serpentes & wormes whiche come of the earth gnawe out their hartes, eating them & their clothes also, and yet they feele it not. ²⁰ Their faces are blacke, thorowe the smoke that is in the temple. ²¹ The owles, swalowes, and byrdes flee vpon them, yea and the cattes run ouer their heades. ²² By this ye may be sure that they are not gods, therfore feare them not. ²³ The golde that they haue is to make them beautifull: for all that, except some body dight of their rust they wil geue no shine, and when they were cast into a fourme, they felt it not. ²⁴ They are bought for money, and haue no breath of lyfe within them. ²⁵ They must be borne vpon mens shoulders as those that haue no feete, wherby they declare vnto men that they be nothing worth: confounded be they then that worship them. ²⁶ For if they fall to the ground, they can not rise vp againe of them selues: Yea though one helpe them vp and set them right, yet are they not able to stande alone, but must haue proppes set vnder them like dead men. ²⁷ As for the thing that is offred vnto them, their priestes sell it, & abuse it, yea the priestes wyues take thereof: but vnto the sicke & poore they geue nothing of it. ²⁸ The women with childe and the menstruous lay handes of their offringes: By this ye may be sure that they are no gods, therefore be not ye afrayde of them. ²⁹ From whence commeth it then that they be called gods? the women sit before the gods of siluer, golde, and wood, ³⁰ And the priestes sit in their temples, hauing open clothes, whose heades and beardes are shauen, and haue nothing vpon their heades, ³¹ Roaring and crying vpon their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead. ³² The priestes also take away the garmentes of the images, and decke their wyues and children withall. ³³ Whether it be good or euyll that any man do vnto them, they are not able to recompence it: they can neither set vp a king, nor put him downe. ³⁴ In like maner, they may neither geue riches, nor rewarde euyll: though a man make a vow vnto them and kepe it not, they will not require it. ³⁵ They can saue no man from death, neither deliuer the weake from the mightie. ³⁶ They can not restore a blind man to his sight, nor helpe any man at his neede. ³⁷ They can shewe no mercie to the widdowe, nor do good to the fatherlesse. ³⁸ Their gods of wood, stone, golde, and siluer, are but euen as other stones that be hewen of the mountayne: they that worship them, shalbe confounded. ³⁹ Howe shoulde they then be taken for gods? yea howe dare men call them gods? ⁴⁰ And though the Chaldees worshipped them not, hearing that they were but dombe and coulde not speake: ⁴¹ Yet they them selues offer vnto Bel, and woulde fayne haue hym to speake: as who say they coulde feele, that may not moue. ⁴² But when these men come to vnderstanding, they shall forsake them, for their gods haue no feeling. ⁴³ A great sort of women girde with coardes, sit in the streetes, & burne oliue beries: Now if one of them be conueyed away, and lye with such as come by, she casteth her neyghbours in the teeth, because she was not worthyly reputed, nor her coarde broken. ⁴⁴ What so euer is done for them, it is but in vayne and lost: Howe may it then be thought or sayde, that they are gods? ⁴⁵ Carpenters and goldesmithes make them: neither be they any other thing, but euen what the workemen wil make of them. ⁴⁶ Yea the goldsmithes them selues that make them are of no long continuaunce: howe shoulde then the thinges that are made of them, be gods? ⁴⁷ Uayne therfore are the thinges, yea very shame is it that they leaue behinde them for their posteritie. ⁴⁸ For assoone as there commeth any warre or plague vpon them, then the priestes imagine where they may hyde them selues with them. ⁴⁹ Howe can men thinke then that they be gods, whiche neither may defende them selues from warre, nor deliuer them from misfortune? ⁵⁰ For seyng they be but of wood, of stone, of siluer, and of golde, all people and kinges shall knowe hereafter that they be but vayne thinges: yea it shalbe openly declared that they be no gods, but euen the very workes of mens handes, and that God hath nothing to do with them. ⁵¹ It is manifest then that they are no gods, but the workes of mens handes, and no worke of God in them. ⁵² They can set no king in the lande, nor geue rayne vnto men. ⁵³ They can geue no sentence of a matter, neither defende the lande from wrong: for they are not able to do so much as a crowe that fleeth betwixt heauen and earth. ⁵⁴ When there happeneth a fire into the house of those gods of wood, and siluer, and of golde, the priestes will escape and saue them selues, but the gods burne as the balkes therin. ⁵⁵ They can not withstande any king or battell: howe may it then be thought or graunted that they be gods? ⁵⁶ Moreouer, these gods of wood, of stone, of gold and siluer, may neither defend them selues from theeues nor robbers: ⁵⁷ Yea the very wicked are stronger then they: these stryp them out of their apparell that they be clothed withall, these take their golde and siluer from them, & so get them away, yet can they not helpe them selues. ⁵⁸ Therfore it is much better for a man to be a king, and so to shewe his power, or els a profitable vessell in a house, wherin he that oweth it might haue pleasure, yea or to be a doore in a house, to kepe such thinges safe as be therein: then to be such a vayne god. ⁵⁹ The sunne, the moone, & al the starres, seing they geue their shine and light, are obedient, and do men good. ⁶⁰ When the lightning glistreth, all is cleare. ⁶¹ The winde bloweth in euery countrey: & when God commaundeth the cloudes to go rounde about the whole worlde, they do as they are bidden. ⁶² When the fire is sent downe from aboue and commaunded, it burneth vp hilles & woodes: but as for those gods, they are not like one of these thinges, neither in beautie, neither in strength. ⁶³ Wherfore, men shoulde not thinke nor say that they be gods, seing they can neither geue sentence in iudgement, nor do men good. ⁶⁴ Forsomuch nowe as ye are sure that they be no gods, then feare them not: ⁶⁵ For they can neither speake euyll nor good of kinges. ⁶⁶ They can shew no tokens in heauens for the heathen, neither shyne as the sunne, nor geue light as the moone: ⁶⁷ Yea the vnreasonable beastes are better then they: for they can get them vnder the roofe, and do them selues good. ⁶⁸ So can ye be certified by no maner of meanes that they be gods, therefore feare them not. ⁶⁹ For like as a scarcrowe in a garden of hearbes kepeth nothing: euen so are their gods of wood, of siluer, and golde. ⁷⁰ And like as a white thorne in an orcharde that euery byrd sitteth vpon, yea lyke as a dead body that is cast in the darke: euen so is it with those gods of wood, siluer, and golde. ⁷¹ By the purple & scarlet which they haue vpon them and soone faydeth away, ye may vnderstande that they be no gods: yea they them selues shall be consumed at the last, whiche shalbe a great confusion of the lande. ⁷² Blessed is the godly man that hath no images and worshippeth none: for he shalbe farre from reproofe.