Baruch 5

Jerusalem, take off the clothes you wear for mourning and hardship. Put on the beauty of the glory that comes from God, and wear it forever.

1Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever.

NoteThe whole chapter addresses Jerusalem as if the city were a bereaved mother whose children have been marched off; the setting is the deportation of Judah to Babylon. Mourning clothes were a real garment, coarse sackcloth worn for a death or a public disaster, and taking them off was the recognized signal that the period of grief had ended. The King James "comeliness" simply means beauty.

2Wrap around yourself the robe of the righteousness that comes from God. Set on your head a crown of the glory of the Everlasting One.

2Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness which cometh from God; and set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting.

NoteThe King James "double garment" renders a Greek word for the wide outer mantle thrown over ordinary clothes, the piece you put on to appear in public. A "diadem" was not a jeweled crown but a band of cloth or thin metal tied around the head, the ordinary mark of a king in the Greek-speaking world. "Righteousness" here carries its older and wider sense: not only moral correctness but the condition of having been put in the right and publicly vindicated.

3For God will show your brightness to every country under heaven.

3For God will shew thy brightness unto every country under heaven.

4For God will call you by this name forever: "The Peace of Righteousness" and "The Glory of Godly Worship."

4For thy name shall be called of God for ever The peace of righteousness, and The glory of God’s worship.

NoteIn this tradition a name is a description rather than a label, so a name given by God is a statement of what the thing has become. Both names translate compressed Greek phrases that can be turned more than one way: "peace of righteousness" or "righteous peace," and "glory of godliness" or "the glory that comes from worshiping God." In King James English "called of God" means called by God.

5Stand up, Jerusalem. Stand on the high ground and look around toward the east. See your children gathered from the west to the east at the word of the Holy One, glad that God has remembered them.

5Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and look about toward the east, and behold thy children gathered from the west unto the east by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the remembrance of God.

Note"Stand on high" means climb to a high point and look out from it. Behind "from the west unto the east" the Greek reads literally "from the setting of the sun to its rising," a stock way of saying from every quarter of the earth; it does not describe one journey traveling westward to eastward. "Thy children" are the city's own inhabitants, the people carried away from it. "The Holy One" is a title for God.

6For they left you on foot, led away by their enemies. But God is bringing them back to you carried high in glory, on a royal throne.

6For they departed from thee on foot, and were led away of their enemies: but God bringeth them unto thee exalted with glory, as children of the kingdom.

NoteIn King James English "led away of their enemies" means led away by their enemies. Prisoners of war were marched off on foot, often roped or chained together, while being carried in a litter was how royalty and honored guests traveled; the contrast is between the two ways of making the same journey. The Greek at the end of the verse says they are brought back "like a royal throne," a compressed phrase translators have handled differently: the King James took it to mean they return as children of the kingdom, others that they are carried in as a king is carried on his throne.

7For God has ordered that every high hill and the hills that have stood from ancient times be brought low, and the valleys filled in, to make the ground level, so that Israel may travel safely in the glory of God.

7For God hath appointed that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God,

Note"Banks of long continuance" is the King James rendering of a Greek phrase for the ancient, permanent hills or dunes, the ones that had stood as long as anyone could remember. The picture in this verse is road building: before a king traveled, gangs went ahead to cut down the high ground and fill in the hollows so the route ran level. The same image is used in Isaiah 40.

8And the woods and every sweet-smelling tree have given Israel shade, at God's command.

8Moreover even the woods and every sweetsmelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.

Note"Overshadow" in the King James means only to cast shade over, not to darken or blot out; the trees shelter the travelers from the sun along the road. The Greek verb is in the past tense, as though the shade had already been provided, which is why modern versions read "have shaded" where the King James has "shall overshadow."

9For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and the righteousness that come from him.

9For God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness that cometh from him.