Baruch 4

This is the book of God's commandments, the law that lasts forever. Everyone who keeps it will come to life, but those who abandon it will die.

1This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die.

Note"This is the book" points back to the poem just before it, which praised wisdom. The speaker is identifying that wisdom with the written law of Moses: the book and the law are the same thing.

2Turn back, Jacob, and take hold of it. Walk in the presence of its light, so that light may be given to you.

2Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.

NoteJacob was the ancestor whose descendants made up Israel, and Hebrew poetry regularly addresses the whole nation by his name. "Jacob" and "Israel" here mean the same people.

3Do not give your honor to someone else, or the things that are good for you to a foreign nation.

3Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation.

NoteThe word behind "honour" is the Greek for glory or high standing. The warning is against handing over to foreigners the privileged position that belongs to Israel, meaning the law itself.

4Israel, we are happy, because the things that please God have been made known to us.

4O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.

5Take heart, my people, the memorial of Israel.

5Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.

Note"The memorial of Israel" is obscure in the Greek as well as in English. It can mean the people who serve as Israel's living reminder, or the people in whom Israel is remembered by God. The phrase is left unresolved because the original is.

6You were sold to the nations, but not so that you would be destroyed. You were handed over to your enemies because you stirred up God's anger.

6Ye were sold to the nations, not for your destruction: but because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies.

NoteThe book is set after the Babylonian armies took Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported much of its population. "Sold to the nations" is a figure of speech for being handed over to foreign powers, not a record of an actual slave sale.

7You made the one who made you angry, because you offered sacrifices to demons and not to God.

7For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto devils, and not to God.

NoteThe Greek word is daimonia, spirits or lesser divinities. Greek speaking Jewish writers used it for the gods of other nations, so the charge is worshiping foreign gods rather than dealings with what a modern reader pictures as a demon.

8You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up. And you brought grief to Jerusalem, who nursed you.

8Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you.

NoteFrom here on Jerusalem is spoken of as a woman, a mother who raised the people and has now lost her children. Cities were routinely personified this way in Hebrew and Greek poetry.

9When she saw God's anger coming upon you, she said, "Listen, all of you who live around Sion. God has brought great mourning on me.

9For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O ye that dwell about Sion: God hath brought upon me great mourning;

NoteSion is the older English spelling of Zion, the hill Jerusalem was built on and a standard name for the city itself. From this verse to verse 29 the speaker is Jerusalem, quoted in her own words.

10I have seen my sons and daughters taken away as prisoners, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

10For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

Note"Captivity" here means deportation. The Babylonians moved conquered populations away from their homeland and resettled them, which is what happened to Jerusalem's people.

11I fed and raised them with joy, but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.

11With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning.

12Let no one gloat over me, a widow, abandoned by many. Because of my children's sins I am left empty and alone, since they turned away from God's law.

12Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God.

NoteA widow in this world had lost her legal protector and her standing, which is why an emptied city is pictured as one. "Desolate" means stripped and left empty, not merely sad.

13They did not know his rules. They did not walk in the ways of his commandments or tread the paths of the training that belongs to his righteousness.

13They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

Note"Discipline" translates the Greek paideia, which covers upbringing, training and instruction as a whole, closer to an education than to punishment.

14Let those who live around Sion come, and remember my sons and daughters taken away as prisoners, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

14Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them.

15For he brought a nation against them from far away, a shameless nation with a foreign language, who showed no respect for an old man and no pity for a child.

15For 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.

NoteThe description of a distant, shameless nation speaking an unknown language, sparing neither the old nor the young, is borrowed almost word for word from the curses in Deuteronomy 28. In the setting of this book it means the Babylonians.

16They carried off the widow's dear, beloved children, and left her, who was already alone, with no daughters.

16These have carried away the dear beloved children of the widow, and left her that was alone desolate without daughters.

17But I, what can I do to help you?

17But what can I help you?

18For the one who brought these troubles on you will rescue you from the hands of your enemies.

18For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the hands of your enemies.

NoteIn 1611 English a "plague" was any blow or calamity, not specifically a disease. The word here means the disasters of conquest and exile.

19Go on your way, my children, go on your way, for I am left alone and empty.

19Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate.

20I have taken off the clothing of peace and put on the sackcloth of my prayer. I will cry out to the Everlasting as long as I live.

20I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days.

NoteSackcloth was a coarse, scratchy cloth of goat or camel hair, worn next to the skin as a public sign of mourning or of pleading with God. "The clothing of peace" is ordinary dress, what a person wears when life is going normally.

21Take heart, my children. Cry out to the Lord, and he will rescue you from the power and the grip of your enemies.

21Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto the Lord, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.

22My hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you. Joy has come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy that will soon come to you from the Everlasting, our Savior.

22For my hope is 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 our Saviour.

Note"Saviour" translates the Greek soter, meaning rescuer or deliverer. In this passage the rescue in view is being brought home from exile.

23I sent you away with mourning and weeping, but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness forever.

23For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever.

24Just as the neighbors of Sion have now seen you taken away as prisoners, so they will soon see God save you. It will come upon you with great glory and the brightness of the Everlasting.

24Like as now the neighbours of 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.

Note"The neighbours of Sion" are the peoples living around Jerusalem, who watched the deportation happen and will watch the return.

25My children, bear patiently the anger that has come on you from God. Your enemy has hunted you down, but soon you will see him destroyed, and you will step on his neck.

25My 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 his neck.

NotePutting a foot on a defeated enemy's neck was a standard image of total victory in the ancient Near East, shown in royal art and used in Joshua 10. It pictures the loser lying face down under the winner.

26My tender ones have walked rough roads. They were carried off like a flock seized by enemies.

26My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock caught of the enemies.

Note"Delicate" in 1611 English meant pampered, raised in comfort and used to soft living. It does not mean frail or sickly.

27Take comfort, my children, and cry out to God. The one who brought these things on you will remember you.

27Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be remembered of him that brought these things upon you.

28You made up your mind to wander away from God. Now that you have turned back, look for him ten times harder.

28For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek him ten times more.

Note"Ten times more" is an idiom for a great deal more, not a measurable quantity. Hebrew and Greek both used ten this way for an emphatic multiple.

29For the one who brought these troubles on you will bring you everlasting joy along with your rescue.

29For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.

30Take courage, Jerusalem. The one who gave you that name will comfort you.

30Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will comfort thee.

NoteThe one who gave Jerusalem her name is God. Naming carried the sense of claiming and defining something, so the argument is that the namer remains responsible for the city he named.

31How wretched are those who hurt you and were glad when you fell.

31Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall.

Note"Miserable" here is a cry of woe against someone, meaning wretched or doomed, in the sense of deserving pity. It does not describe how those people feel.

32How wretched are the cities your children served. How wretched is the city that received your sons.

32Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy sons.

NoteThe cities the children "served" are the places in Babylonia where deportees were put to work as subject labor. "She that received thy sons" is the city that took the exiles in, unnamed here but Babylon in the setting of the book.

33Just as she was glad at your ruin and rejoiced when you fell, so she will grieve when she herself is left empty.

33For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.

34I will take away the rejoicing of her great crowds, and her pride will be turned into mourning.

34For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride shall be turned into mourning.

35Fire will come on her from the Everlasting, and it will last a long time. Demons will live in her for a long time.

35For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time.

NoteRuined cities were commonly described as haunted by spirits and wild creatures; the same picture is used of Babylon in Isaiah 13. "Long to endure" is older English for lasting a long time.

36Jerusalem, look around you toward the east, and see the joy that is coming to you from God.

36O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God.

NoteBabylon lay east of Jerusalem, so the road home ran from east to west. Looking east is looking down the road the exiles would come by.

37Look, your sons are coming, the ones you sent away. They come gathered together from east to west at the word of the Holy One, glad because of God's glory.

37Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.

Note"From the east to the west" can mean the journey home, which ran westward from Babylon, or a gathering of scattered people from every direction. The Greek allows both.