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Baruch 4
4 She is the scroll containing God’s commandments,
the Law that exists forever.
All who hold on to her will live,
but those who desert her will die.
2 Jacob, turn and grab on to her.
Travel toward the rays
coming from her light.
3 Don’t give your honor to another
or your advantages to a foreign nation.
4 Israel, we are blessed
because we know
what is pleasing to God.Poem of encouragement
5 Be confident, my people,
you who are the legacy of Israel!
6 You weren’t sold to the nations
for complete destruction,
but you were handed over
to your opponents
because you made God angry.
7 You upset your creator
when you sacrificed to demons
and not to God.
8 You forgot the eternal God
who raised you;
and you caused pain to Jerusalem,
who nurtured you.
9 Jerusalem saw the wrath of God
that came on you and said:
Neighbors of Zion, listen!
God has brought me great grief.
10 I have watched my sons and daughters taken captive,
the action of the eternal one.
11 I nursed them joyfully,
but I sent them away
with tears and mourning.12 Don’t any of you rejoice over me,
a widow deserted by many.
My children avoided God’s Law,
so I was stripped bare
because of their sins.
13 They didn’t acknowledge
God’s requirements,
walk in the ways of
God’s commandments,
or follow the paths in which
his righteousness trained them.
14 Neighbors of Zion, come!
Remember the exile
my sons and daughters suffered,
brought on them by the eternal one.
15 God brought a nation
from far away against them,
a nation that is shameless
and speaks a strange language,
that showed no respect for the elderly or pity for the child.
16 It took away the widow’s
dearly loved sons
and deprived the lonely woman
of her daughters.
17 But how am I able to help you?
18 The one who brought
the horrible things on you
will rescue you
from your enemies’ grasp.
19 Go, children, go,
for I have been left desolate.
20 I’ve stripped off the robe of peace and put on the rough cloth of mourners.
I’ll spend my days crying out
to the eternal one.
21 Children, be confident! Cry out to God!
God will rescue you from your enemies’ authority and grip.
22 I have placed hope in the eternal one
for your salvation;
the holy one has sent me joy,
because your eternal savior
will soon have mercy on you.
23 I sent you away
with mourning and wailing,
but God will restore you to me
with gladness and joy forever.
24 Just as Zion’s neighbors
have now seen your exile,
they’ll also soon see
God’s deliverance of you;
it will come to you with all the glory and splendor of the eternal one.
25 Children, bear up patiently
under God’s anger,
which has come on you.
Your enemy has hunted you down,
but you’ll soon see their destruction.
Then you’ll step on their throats.
26 My delicate children
have traveled rough roads.
They were taken as a flock
snatched away by enemies.
27 Children, be confident!
Cry out to God,
for the one who brought this on you will remember you.
28 Just as you plotted
to stray away from God,
return with ten times as much effort
to seek him out.
29 The one who brought
these horrible things on you
will bring you eternal joy
along with your deliverance.Comfort for Jerusalem
30 Jerusalem, be confident!
The one who named you will comfort you.
31 Misery will fall upon those
who mistreated you
and celebrated your fall.
32 Misery will fall upon the cities
that enslaved your young.
Misery will fall upon the cities
that received your children.
33 Just as the enemy celebrated your fall
and rejoiced at your misfortune,
she herself will feel the pain
of being left desolate.
34 I’ll strip away the pride
she has in her great population,
and turn her arrogance into grief.
35 The eternal one will send fire on her
for many days,
and demons will inhabit her
for a long time.
36 Jerusalem, look to the east
and see the joy that is coming
to you from God.
37 The children you sent away are coming.
By the holy one’s word,
they are coming from the east
and the west,
rejoicing in God’s glory.