Baruch 1
1 And these
are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias,
the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in
Babylon, 2 in the fifth year, and in
the seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and
burnt it with fire.
3 And Baruch did read the words of
this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joachim king of Juda, and in
the ears of all the people that came to hear the book,
4 and in the hearing of the nobles,
and of the king's sons, and in the hearing of the elders, and of all the
people, from the lowest unto the highest, even of all them that dwelt at
Babylon by the river Sud. 5 Whereupon
they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.
6 They made also a collection of money
according to every man's power: 7 and
they sent it to Jerusalem unto Joachim the high priest, the son of Chelcias,
son of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people which were found with
him at Jerusalem, 8 at the same time
when he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, that were carried out
of the temple, to return them into the land of Juda, the tenth day of
the month Sivan, namely,
silver vessels, which Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda had made,
9 after that Nabuchodonosor king of
Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes, and the captives, and the
mighty men, and the people of the land, from Jerusalem, and brought them unto
Babylon.
10 And they said, Behold, we have
sent you money to buy you burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and incense, and
prepare ye manna, and offer upon the altar of the Lord our God;
11 and pray for the life of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar his son, that
their days may be upon earth as the days of heaven:
12 and the Lord will give us
strength, and lighten our eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Balthasar his son, and
we shall serve them many days, and find favour in their sight.
13 Pray for us also unto the Lord our
God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God; and unto this day the fury
of the Lord and his wrath is not turned from us.
14 And ye shall read this book which
we have sent unto you, to make confession in the house of the Lord, upon the
feasts and solemn days.
15 And ye shall say, To the Lord our
God belongeth righteousness, but unto us the
confusion of faces, as it is come to pass this day,
unto them of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
16 and to our kings, and to our
princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers:
17 for we have sinned before the
Lord, 18 and disobeyed him, and have
not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the commandments
that he gave us openly: 19 since the
day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, unto this
present day, we have been disobedient unto the Lord our God, and we have been
negligent in not hearing his voice.
20 Wherefore the evils cleaved unto
us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time
that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that
floweth with milk and honey, like as
it is to see this day.
21 Nevertheless we have not hearkened
unto the voice of the Lord our God, according unto all the words of the
prophets, whom he sent unto us:
22 but every man followed the
imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do evil in
the sight of the Lord our God.