house of God! How large is the place of his possession! 25 It is great and has no end. It is high and unmeasurable. 26 Giants were born that were famous of old, great of stature, and expert in war. 27 God didn’t choose these, nor did he give the way of knowledge to them, 28 so they perished, because they had no wisdom. They perished through their own foolishness. 29 Who has gone up into heaven, taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? 30 Who has gone over the sea, found her, and will bring her for choice gold? 31 There is no one who knows her way, nor any who comprehend her path. 32 But he that knows all things knows her, he found her out with his understanding. He who prepared the earth for all time has filled it with four-footed beasts. 33 It is he who sends forth the light, and it goes. He called it, and it obeyed him with fear. 34 The stars shone in their watches, and were glad. When he called them, they said, “Here we are.” They shone with gladness to him who made them. 35 This is our God. No other can be compared to him. 36 He has found out all the way of knowledge, and has given it to Jacob his servant and to Israel who is loved by him. 37 Afterward she appeared upon earth, and lived with men.
4
1 This is the book of God’s commandments and the law that endures forever. All those who hold it fast will live, but those who leave it will die. 2 Turn, O Jacob, and take hold of it. Walk towards the shining of its light. 3 Don’t give your glory to another, nor the things that are to your advantage to a foreign nation. 4 O Israel, we are happy; for the things that are pleasing to God are made known to us.
5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel. 6 You were not sold to the nations for destruction, but because you moved God to wrath, you were delivered to your adversaries. 7 For you provoked him who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God. 8 You forgot the everlasting God who brought you up. You also grieved Jerusalem, who nursed you. 9 For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God, and said, “Listen, you who dwell near Zion; for God has brought upon me great mourning. 10 For I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting has brought upon them. 11 For with joy I nourished them, but sent them away with weeping and mourning. 12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow and forsaken by many. For the sins of my children, I am left desolate, because they turned away from the law of God 13 and had no regard for his statutes. They didn’t walk in the ways of God’s commandments or tread in the paths of discipline in his righteousness. 14 Let those who dwell near Zion come and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting has brought upon them. 15 For he has brought a nation upon them from afar, a shameless nation with a strange language, who didn’t respect old men or pity children. 16 They have carried away the dear beloved sons of the widow, and left her who was alone desolate of her daughters.”
17 But I—how can I help you? 18 For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies. 19 Go your way, O my children. Go your way, for I am left desolate. 20 I have put off the garment of peace, and put on the sackcloth of my petition. I will cry to the Everlasting as long as I live.
21 Take courage, my children. Cry to God, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies. 22 For I have trusted in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy has come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy that will soon come to you from your Everlasting Saviour. 23 For I sent you out with mourning and weeping, but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness forever. 24 For as now those who dwell near Zion have seen your captivity, so they will shortly see your salvation from our God which will come upon you with great glory and brightness of the Everlasting. 25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that has come upon you from God, for your enemy has persecuted you; but shortly you will see his destruction and will tread upon their necks. 26 My delicate ones have travelled rough roads. They were taken away like a flock carried off by enemies.
27 Take courage, my children, and cry to God; for you will be remembered by him who has brought this upon you. 28 For as it was your decision to go astray from God, return and seek him ten times more. 29 For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation. 30 Take courage, O Jerusalem, for he who called you by name will comfort you. 31 Miserable are those who afflicted you and rejoiced at your fall. 32 Miserable are the cities which your children served. Miserable is she who received your sons. 33 For as she rejoiced at your fall and was glad of your ruin, so she will be grieved at her own desolation. 34 And I will take away her pride in her great multitude and her boasting will be turned into mourning. 35 For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting for many days; and she will be inhabited by demons for a long time.
36 O Jerusalem, look around you towards the east, and behold the joy that comes to you from God. 37 Behold, your sons come, whom you sent away. They come gathered together from the east to the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.
5
1 Take off the garment of your mourning and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. 2 Put on the robe of the righteousness from God. Set on your head a diadem of the glory of the Everlasting. 3 For God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. 4 For your name will be called by God forever “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory”.
5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand upon the height. Look around you towards the east and see your children gathered from the going down of the sun to its rising at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. 6 For they went from you on foot, being led away by their enemies, but God brings them in to you carried on high with glory, on a royal throne. 7 For God has appointed that every high mountain and the everlasting hills should be made low, and the valleys filled up to make the ground level, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God. 8 Moreover the woods and every sweet smelling tree have shaded Israel by the commandment of God. 9 For God will lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
6
The Letter of Jeremy (Jeremiah)
1 A copy of a letter that Jeremy sent to those who were to be led captives into Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to give them the message that God commanded him.
2 Because of the sins which you have committed before God, you will be led away captives to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor king of the Babylonians. 3 So when you come to Babylon, you will remain there many years, and for a long season, even for seven generations. After that, I will bring you out peacefully from there. 4 But now you will see in Babylon gods of silver, gold, wood carried on shoulders, which cause the nations to fear. 5 Beware therefore that you in no way become like these foreigners. Don’t let fear take hold of you because of them when you see the multitude before them and behind them, worshipping them. 6 But say in your hearts, “O Lord, we must worship you.” 7 For my angel is with you, and I myself care for your souls. 8 For their tongue is polished by the workman, and they themselves are overlaid with gold and with silver; yet they are only fake, and can’t speak. 9 And taking gold, as if it were for a virgin who loves to be happy, they make crowns for the heads of their gods. 10 Sometimes also the priests take gold and silver from their gods, and spend it on themselves. 11 They will even give some of it to the common prostitutes. They dress them like men with garments, even the gods of silver, gods of gold, and gods of wood. 12 Yet these gods can’t save themselves from rust and moths, even though they are covered with purple garments. 13 They wipe their faces because of the dust of the temple, which is thick upon them. 14 And he who can’t put to death one who offends against him holds a sceptre, as though he were judge of a country. 15 He has also a dagger in his right hand,