Baruch 4 This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that hold it fast are appointed to life; but such as leave it shall die.

ERV⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that hold it fast [are appointed] to life; but such as leave it shall die. ² Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk towards her shining in the presence of the light thereof. ³ Give not thy glory to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation. ⁴ O Israel, happy are we: for the things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us. ⁵ Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel. ⁶ Ye were sold to the nations, [but] not for destruction: because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto your adversaries. ⁷ For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto demons, and not to God. ⁸ Ye forgat the everlasting God, that brought you up; ye grieved also Jerusalem, that nursed you. ⁹ For she saw the wrath that is come upon you from God, and said, Hearken, ye [women] that dwell about Sion: for God hath brought upon me great mourning; ¹⁰ for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them. ¹¹ For with joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning. ¹² Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many: for the sins of my children am I left desolate; because they turned aside from the law of God, ¹³ and had no regard to his statutes, neither walked they in the ways of God’s commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness. ¹⁴ Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them. ¹⁵ For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child. ¹⁶ And they have carried away the dear beloved sons of the widow, and left her that was alone desolate of her daughters. ¹⁷ But I, what can I help you? ¹⁸ For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies. ¹⁹ Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate. ²⁰ I have put off the garment of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my petition: I will cry unto the Everlasting as long as I live. ²¹ Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto God, and he shall deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies. ²² For I have trusted in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy is come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come unto you from the Everlasting your Saviour. ²³ For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever. ²⁴ For like as now they that dwell about Sion have seen your captivity: so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God, which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting. ²⁵ My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his destruction, and shalt tread upon their necks. ²⁶ My delicate ones have gone rough ways; they were taken away as a flock carried off by the enemies. ²⁷ Be of good cheer, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be remembered of him that hath brought [these things] upon you. ²⁸ For as it was your mind to go astray from God: [so,] return and seek him ten times more. ²⁹ For he that brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation. ³⁰ Be of good cheer, O Jerusalem: for he that called thee by name will comfort thee. ³¹ Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall. ³² Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy sons. ³³ For as she rejoiced at thy fall, and was glad of thy ruin: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation. ³⁴ And I will take away her exultation in her great multitude, and her boasting shall be turned into mourning. ³⁵ For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time. ³⁶ O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God. ³⁷ Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.