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Baruch 3
3 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul under great stress and a wearied spirit cry out to you. 2 Lord, listen and have mercy, because we’ve sinned in your presence, 3 because you are enthroned for all time, and we are perishing for all time. 4 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen now to the prayers of those who have died in Israel and the prayers of the children of those who kept sinning before you, who didn’t listen to the Lord their God. Horrible things continue to trouble us. 5 Don’t remember our ancestors’ unjust actions, but remember your power and your reputation at this time, 6 because you, Lord, are our God, and we’ll praise you. 7 You have planted respect for you in our hearts so that we’ll call on your name. We’ll praise you in this land far from home, for we have put away from our hearts all the injustice of our fathers who sinned before you. 8 Today we are far from home, where you have scattered us as an insult, a curse, and a penalty due to all the unjust actions of our ancestors, who deserted the Lord our God.
The glory of wisdom
9 Hear, Israel, the commandments of life.
Listen carefully, and you’ll come to know Wisdom.
10 Why is it, Israel, that you are in the enemies’ land,
growing old in a foreign land,
11 polluted by the dead,
and counted as people
already in the grave?
12 You have abandoned the fountain
from which wisdom flows.
13 If you had walked in the way of God,
you would be living in peace forever.
14 Learn where there are wisdom, strength, and understanding
so that you may know at the same time
where there are longevity, life, understanding, and peace.
15 Who has found her place of residence,
and who has entered
her storehouses?
16 Where are the leading officials
of the nations
and the masters of the animals
that are on the earth?
17 Where are those who entrap
the birds in the sky,
and those who store up silver and gold, in which humans have trusted?
There is no end to their attempts
to acquire more.
18 Where are those who anxiously schemed to acquire silver?
There is no trace of their actions.
19 They have all vanished
and gone to the grave,
and others have risen up in their place.
20 New generations have seen the light
and lived on the earth,
but they didn’t know
the way of knowledge.
21 They didn’t understand her paths
or take hold of her.
Their children also went far off course.
22 She hadn’t been heard of in Canaan
or seen in Teman.
23 Hagar’s children,
who seek earthly understanding,
the traders of Merran and Teman,
the storytellers and knowledge seekers,
haven’t learned the way of Wisdom,
nor have they remembered her paths.
24 Israel, how great is God’s house
and spacious is God’s domain!
25 It is great and has no end;
it is high and immeasurable!
26 The giants were born there,
the famous ones
from the beginning of time,
who were very large
and experts in war.
27 God didn’t select them or give them
the way of true knowledge.
28 So they perished
because they didn’t have Wisdom;
they perished
through their carelessness.
29 Who went into heaven, took Wisdom,
and brought her down from the clouds?
30 Who crossed over to the other side of the sea and found her,
and who will bring her back
with choice gold?
31 No one knows the road she takes
or thinks much about
the path she travels.
32 But the one who knows all things
knows her;
God found her by his understanding;
the one who made the earth
for time eternal,
and filled it with four-footed animals;
33 the one who sends the light
and it shines forth;
who called it
and it obeyed him with trembling.
34 The stars shone at their appointed posts and were delighted.
God called them,
and the stars said, “Here we are.”
They shone joyfully
for the one who made them.
35 This is our God.
No other will be compared to him.
36 God discovered every way of knowledge
and gave her to his child Jacob,
to Israel, whom he loved.
37 After this, she appeared on the earth
and lived among humans.