Baruch 3

1 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul in anguish and a weary spirit cry out to you.

2 Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned before you.

3 You sit enthroned forever, but we are perishing forever.

4 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayers of the dead of Israel and of their children who sinned before you. They did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God, and so these disasters cling to us.

5 Do not remember the wrongdoing of our fathers. Remember your hand and your name at this time.

6 You are the Lord our God, and we will praise you, Lord.

7 You put reverence for you in our hearts so we would call on your name and praise you in our exile, because we have turned away from our hearts all the wrongdoing of our fathers who sinned before you.

8 Look, today we are still in the exile where you scattered us, a reproach, a curse, and a penalty because of all the wrongdoing of our fathers who departed from the Lord our God.

9 Listen, Israel, to the commands of life; listen closely and learn discernment.

10 Why, Israel, are you in your enemies’ land? Why have you grown old in a foreign country?

11 You have been defiled with the dead and counted among those who go down to Hades.

12 You abandoned the fountain of wisdom.

13 If you had walked in God’s way, you would have lived in peace forever.

14 Learn where discernment is, where strength is, and where understanding is, so you may also know where length of days and life are, where the light of the eyes is, and where peace is.

15 Who found her place, and who entered her treasuries?

16 Where are the rulers of the nations and those who ruled the beasts of the earth,

17 those who amused themselves with the birds of the sky, stored up the silver and gold in which people trust, and there was no end to their getting?

18 Where are those who worked silver so carefully, whose works could not be searched out?

19 They vanished and went down to Hades, and others rose in their place.

20 A younger generation saw light and lived on earth, but they did not know the way of knowledge.

21 They did not understand her paths or take hold of her, and their children were far from her way.

22 She was not heard of in Canaan or seen in Teman.

23 The sons of Hagar who seek understanding on earth, the merchants of Merran and Teman, the storytellers and seekers of understanding—none of them knew the way of wisdom or remembered her paths.

24 Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast the place he possesses!

25 It is great and has no end, high and immeasurable.

26 There the famous giants of ancient times were born, immense in size and skilled in war.

27 God did not choose them or give them the way of knowledge.

28 They were destroyed because they had no discernment; they perished through their own foolishness.

29 Who went up to heaven, took her, and brought her down from the clouds?

30 Who crossed the sea, found her, and will bring her in exchange for pure gold?

31 No one knows her way or considers her path.

32 But the one who knows everything knows her and found her through his understanding. The one who established the earth for all time filled it with four-footed animals.

33 He sends out the light, and it goes. He calls it, and it obeys him with trembling.

34 The stars shone at their watches and rejoiced.

35 He called them, and they said, “Here we are!” They shone joyfully for the one who made them.

36 This is our God; no other can be compared with him.

37 He found the whole way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel, whom he loved.

38 Afterward she appeared on earth and lived among human beings.