A King with Integrity

¹Some day there will be a king who rules with integrity, and national leaders who govern with justice.

²Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind and a place to hide from storms. They will be like streams flowing in a desert, like the shadow of a giant rock in a barren land.

³Their eyes and ears will be open to the needs of the people.

⁴They will not be impatient any longer, but they will act with understanding and will say what they mean.

⁵No one will think that a fool is honorable or say that a scoundrel is honest.

⁶A fool speaks foolishly and thinks up evil things to do. What he does and what he says are an insult to the Lord, and he never feeds the hungry or gives thirsty people anything to drink.

⁷A stupid person is evil and does evil things; he plots to ruin the poor with lies and to keep them from getting their rights.

⁸But an honorable person acts honestly and stands firm for what is right.

Judgment and Restoration

⁹You women who live an easy life, free from worries, listen to what I am saying.

¹⁰You may be satisfied now, but this time next year you will be in despair because there will be no grapes for you to gather.

¹¹You have been living an easy life, free from worries; but now, tremble with fear! Strip off your clothes and tie rags around your waist.

¹²Beat your breasts in grief because the fertile fields and the vineyards have been destroyed,

¹³and thorn bushes and briers are growing on my people's land. Weep for all the houses where people were happy and for the city that was full of life.

¹⁴Even the palace will be abandoned and the capital city totally deserted. Homes and the forts that guarded them will be in ruins forever. Wild donkeys will roam there, and sheep will find pasture there.

¹⁵But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

¹⁶Everywhere in the land righteousness and justice will be done.

¹⁷Because everyone will do what is right, there will be peace and security forever.

¹⁸God's people will be free from worries, and their homes peaceful and safe.

¹⁹(But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.)

²⁰How happy everyone will be with plenty of water for the crops and safe pasture everywhere for the donkeys and cattle.

A Prayer for Help

¹Our enemies are doomed! They have robbed and betrayed, although no one has robbed them or betrayed them. But their time to rob and betray will end, and they themselves will become victims of robbery and treachery.

²Lord, have mercy on us. We have put our hope in you. Protect us day by day and save us in times of trouble.

³When you fight for us, nations run away from the noise of battle.

⁴Their belongings are pounced upon and taken as loot.

⁵How great the Lord is! He rules over everything. He will fill Jerusalem with justice and integrity

⁶and give stability to the nation. He always protects his people and gives them wisdom and knowledge. Their greatest treasure is their reverence for the Lord.

⁷The brave are calling for help. The ambassadors who tried to bring about peace are crying bitterly.

⁸The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more.

⁹The land lies idle and deserted. The forests of Lebanon have withered, the fertile valley of Sharon is like a desert, and in Bashan and on Mount Carmel the leaves are falling from the trees.

The Lord Warns His Enemies

¹⁰The Lord says to the nations, “Now I will act. I will show how powerful I am.

¹¹You make worthless plans and everything you do is useless. My spirit is like a fire that will destroy you.

¹²You will crumble like rocks burned to make lime, like thorns burned to ashes.

¹³Let everyone near and far hear what I have done and acknowledge my power.”

¹⁴The sinful people of Zion are trembling with fright. They say, “God's judgment is like a fire that burns forever. Can any of us survive a fire like that?”

¹⁵You can survive if you say and do what is right. Don't use your power to cheat the poor and don't accept bribes. Don't join with those who plan to commit murder or to do other evil things.

¹⁶Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink.

The Glorious Future

¹⁷Once again you will see a king ruling in splendor over a land that stretches in all directions.

¹⁸Your old fears of foreign tax collectors and spies will be only a memory.

¹⁹You will no longer see any arrogant foreigners who speak a language that you can't understand.

²⁰Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals. Look at Jerusalem! What a safe place it will be to live in! It will be like a tent that is never moved, whose pegs are never pulled up and whose ropes never break.

²¹The Lord will show us his glory. We will live beside broad rivers and streams, but hostile ships will not sail on them.

^22-23All the rigging on those ships is useless; the sails cannot be spread! We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies, and there will be so much that even the lame can get a share. The Lord himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us.

²⁴No one who lives in our land will ever again complain of being sick, and all sins will be forgiven.

Introduction

¹This book was written by Baruch son of Neraiah, grandson of Mahseiah, and a descendant of Zedekiah, Hasadiah, and Hilkiah. It was written in Babylon

²on the seventh day of the month in the fifth year after the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and burned it down.

^3-4Baruch read the book aloud to Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and to all the people who lived in Babylon by the Sud River. Everyone came to hear it read—nobles, children of royal families, elders, in fact, all the people, no matter what their status.

⁵When the book was read, everyone cried, fasted, and prayed to the Lord.

⁶Then they all gave as much money as they could,

⁷and the collection was sent to Jerusalem to Jehoiakim the High Priest, son of Hilkiah and grandson of Shallum, and to the other priests and to all the people who were with him in Jerusalem.

⁸On the tenth day of the month of Sivan, Baruch took the sacred utensils which had been carried away from the Temple and returned them to Judah. These were the silver utensils which Zedekiah son of King Josiah of Judah had ordered made

⁹after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had deported Jehoiachin, the rulers, the skilled workers, the nobles, and the common people and had taken them from Jerusalem to Babylon.

A Letter to Jerusalem

¹⁰The people wrote: Please use the money we are sending you to buy animals for the burnt offerings and the sin offerings, to buy incense, and to provide the grain offerings. Offer them on the altar of the Lord our God,

¹¹and pray for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his son Belshazzar, that they may live as long as the heavens last.

¹²Then the Lord will strengthen us and be our guide. Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar will protect us, and we will be loyal to them as long as we live; then they will be pleased with us.

¹³We ask you also to pray to the Lord God for us, because we have sinned against him, and he is still angry with us.

¹⁴Please read this book that we are sending you and make your own confession of sin in the Temple on the first day of the Festival of Shelters and on other holy days of assembly.

A Confession of Sin

¹⁵This is the confession you should make: The Lord our God is righteous, but we are still covered with shame. All of us—the people of Judah, the people of Jerusalem,

¹⁶our kings, our rulers, our priests, our prophets, and our ancestors have been put to shame,

¹⁷because we have sinned against the Lord our God

¹⁸and have disobeyed him. We did not listen to him or live according to his commandments.

¹⁹From the day the Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt until the present day, we have continued to be unfaithful to him, and we have not hesitated to disobey him.

²⁰Long ago, when the Lord led our ancestors out of Egypt, so that he could give us a rich and fertile land, he pronounced curses against us through his servant Moses. And today we are suffering because of those curses.

²¹We refused to obey the word of the Lord our God which he spoke to us through the prophets. Instead, we all did as we pleased and went on our own evil way. We turned to other gods and did things the Lord hates.

¹So the Lord carried out the threat he had made against us and against our judges, our kings, our rulers, and the people of Israel and Judah.

²Nowhere else on earth have such things happened as happened in Jerusalem when the Lord carried out the threats written in the Law of Moses.

³Things were so bad that we even ate the flesh of our own sons and daughters.

⁴The Lord scattered our people, handing us over to the control of all the nations around us, and they looked on us with reproach and horror.

⁵We sinned against the Lord our God and refused to obey him. Therefore, our nation was conquered, instead of being victorious.

⁶The Lord our God is always righteous, but we and our ancestors are still burdened with our guilt.

⁷Even though the Lord punished us as he had threatened,

⁸we still did not turn to him and pray that we would abandon our evil thoughts.

^9-10We did not obey him or live by his just commands, so the Lord brought on us all the punishments he had kept ready for us.

The Prayer for Deliverance

¹¹You, O Lord, are the God of Israel who brought your people out of Egypt with great power and with signs, miracles, and wonders. You showed your mighty strength and gained a glorious reputation, which is still recognized today.

¹²O Lord our God, we have sinned; we have been unfaithful; we have disobeyed all your commands.

¹³But do not be angry with us any longer. Here among the nations where you have scattered us, only a few of us are left.

¹⁴Listen to our prayer of petition, Lord, and rescue us for the sake of your own honor. Let those who have taken us into exile be pleased with us.

¹⁵Then the whole world will know that you are the Lord our God and that you have chosen the nation of Israel to be your own people.

¹⁶O Lord, look down from heaven and see our misery. Listen to our prayer.

¹⁷Open your eyes and look upon us. Those in the world of the dead with no breath left in their bodies cannot offer praises to you or proclaim how just you are.

¹⁸Only the living, O Lord, can offer you praise and acknowledge your justice, even though they may be suffering greatly, bent and weak, hungry and with failing eyesight.

¹⁹O Lord our God, we pray to you for mercy, but not because of any good things done by our ancestors and our kings.

²⁰You turned your anger and wrath against us, just as you had threatened to do when your servants the prophets spoke your word to us and said,

²¹Bend your backs and serve the king of Babylonia, and you can remain in the land that I gave to your ancestors.

²²But if you refuse to obey my command to serve him,

²³I will bring to an end every sound of joy and celebration in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem. Even the happy sounds of wedding feasts will no longer be heard. The whole land will be desolate and uninhabited.

²⁴But we did not obey your command to serve the king of Babylonia, so you carried out the threat that you had made when you spoke through your servants the prophets, when you said that the bones of our kings and of our ancestors would be taken from their tombs and scattered.

²⁵And now here they lie exposed to the heat of the day and to the frost of the night. They died in torment from famine, war, and disease.

²⁶And because of the sin of the people of Israel and Judah, you have reduced your own Temple to ruins, even as it is today.

²⁷But, Lord, you have been patient with us and have shown us great mercy,

²⁸as you promised through your servant Moses on the day you commanded him to write your Law in the presence of the Israelites.

²⁹If you do not obey me, you said, you will be reduced to a handful among the nations where I will scatter you.

³⁰I know that you will not obey me, because you are a stubborn people. But when you are taken into exile in another land, you will come to your senses.

³¹Then you will realize that I am the Lord your God, and I will give you a desire to know and a mind with which to understand.

³²There in the land of your exile you will praise me and remember me.

³³You will stop being so stubborn and wicked, for you will remember what happened to your ancestors when they sinned against the Lord.

³⁴Then I will bring you back to the land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it will be yours again. I will increase your population, and you will never again be reduced to a small number.

³⁵I will make an everlasting covenant with you; I will be your God and you will be my people. I will never again remove you, the people of Israel, from the land that I gave you.

¹⁷You do yourself a favor when you are kind. If you are cruel, you only hurt yourself.

¹⁸Wicked people do not really gain anything, but if you do what is right, you are certain to be rewarded.

¹⁹Anyone who is determined to do right will live, but anyone who insists on doing wrong will die.

²⁰The Lord hates evil-minded people, but loves those who do right.