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Chapter 1
The words which follow were committed to writing in the country of Babylon. The writer of them, Baruch, was descended from Helcias, through Nerias, Maasias, Sedecias and Sedei, and wrote in the fifth year,... on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chaldaeans took Jerusalem and burnt it to the ground. Baruch read this book of his aloud to Jechonias, son of Joakim, king of Juda. All the people, too, flocked to hear the reading of it, nobles and royal princes, and elders, and common folk high and low; all that were then living in the country of Babylon, near the river Sodi.
And as they heard it, all was weeping and fasting and prayer offered in the Lord's presence; they made a collection of money besides, each according to his means, which they sent to the chief priest, Joachim, son of Helcias, son of Salom, and his fellow priests and fellow citizens at Jerusalem. ... when he travelled to Juda on the tenth day of Sivan, taking with him the sanctuary ornaments which had been removed from the temple, and were now to be restored. They were of silver; Sedecias, the son of Josias, that now reigned in Juda, had had them made, when Jechonias, with the princes and all the nobles and many other citizens of Jerusalem, was carried off by Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, to his own country.
Here is money, they said, with which to you are to buy victims for burnt-sacrifice, and incense; bloodless offerings too you must make, and amends for fault committed, at the altar of the Lord our God. You shall pray long life for king Nabuchodonosor of Babylon, and his son Baltassar, that their reign on earth may last as long as heaven itself. May the Lord grant courage to all of us, and send us a gleam of hope; long thrive we under the protection of king Nabuchodonosor and his son Baltassar, persevering loyally in their service and winning their favour! And intercede with the Lord our God for us exiles; against his divine will we have rebelled, and to this hour he has not relented. Scan closely, too, this book we are sending to you; it is to be read aloud on feast-days and in times of solemn assembly. You shall make your prayer in these words following.
The fault was never with him, the Lord our God; ours the blush of shame, as all Juda this day and all the citizens of Jerusalem can witness. With king and prince of ours, priest and prophet of ours the fault lies, and with our fathers before us. We have defied the will of the Lord our God; trust and loyalty we had none to give him, nor ever shewed him submission, by listening to his divine voice and following the commands he gave us. Ever since the day when he rescued our fathers from Egypt we have been in rebellion against the Lord our God, straying ever further from the sound of his voice; till at last, as these times can witness, bale and ban have caught us by the heels, the very same he pronounced to his servant Moses long ago, when he had rescued our fathers from Egypt and was leading them on to a land all milk and honey. Unheeded, that divine voice, when message after message came to us through his prophets; each must follow the whim of his own false heart, doing sacrifice to alien gods, and setting the will of the Lord, our own God, at defiance.
Chapter 2
That is why the Lord our God has made good his threats against us; against the rulers of Israel, whether kings or nobles, and against the common folk of Israel and Juda. Here was a threat made in the law of Moses, that went beyond all hitherto seen on earth, and yet in Jerusalem it came true; that men would be eating the flesh of their own sons and daughters! Neighbouring kings had the mastery, and in all the far countries to which the Lord had banished us, we became a thing of scorn and horror. Slaves are we, that might have ruled; and the reason of it? Because by sinning we offended the Lord our God, and left his voice unheeded; his was never the fault; for us and for our fathers the blush of shame, as this day can witness. No calamity has befallen us but he, the Lord, had prophesied it; and still we would not sue for the divine mercy, but each of us went on straying by false paths. That is why the Lord's jealous care was for our undoing; he has but fulfilled what he threatened; in all he has imposed upon us, the Lord our God is without fault. It was our fault if we would not listen to his warnings, would not follow the divine commands which he set before us.
Lord God of Israel, whose constraining hand rescued your people from Egypt with portents and wonders, with sovereign power signally manifested, and won you renown that is yours yet, we are sinners! We have wronged you, revolted against every claim you have upon us. But oh, would your vengeance give over the pursuit! So wide you have parted us, and we are left so few. Grant a hearing, Lord, to this our plaint and plea; for your own honour, be our rescuer still, and win over the hearts of our captors; prove to the whole world that you are the Lord our God, that it was your name Israel bore, and Israel's race yet bears. Look down upon us, Lord, from the sanctuary where you dwell; yours be the attentive ear, the watchful eye! Once breath has left body, and a man lies in the grave, honour and devoir is none he can pay you; but let a man be downcast over his great misfortune, so that he goes bowed and tottering, dim eyes and hungry belly, there, Lord, you shall have the honour that is your due.
Well for us, Lord our God, as we pour out our supplications for your mercy, if we could plead that fathers of ours, kings of ours, did loyally your will. But no; you had given them due warning, through those prophets that were servants of yours, before letting your angry vengeance have its way, and the warning went unheeded. Bow shoulder and bow neck, said the divine voice, and be vassals to the king of Babylon; and the land I gave to your fathers shall still be your home. Refuse to serve the king of Babylon at my divine bidding, and Jerusalem with her daughter cities shall mourn their loss; no more the cry of joy and mirth, no more the voice of bridegroom and of bride; untrodden the whole land shall be, and uninhabited. But all your threats could not persuade them to be the king of Babylon's vassals; your servants prophesied in vain. And so your threats were performed; kings of ours and fathers of ours might not rest quiet in their graves; their bones were cast out to endure sun's heat and night frost, and great anguish they endured in their deaths, from the sword, and famine, and pestilence. As for the temple that was the shrine of your name, you made it into the thing it is this day, for Israel's sin, for Juda's sin.
No greater proof we could have had of your consideration, of that abundant mercy which is yours. And merciful was the promise you did make to your servant Moses, when you bade him write down your law for Israel's acceptance. Out of all this swarming multitude, you did say to him, what a sorry remnant of scattered exiles will be left, if my voice goes unheeded! And go unheeded it will; this is a race that ever spurns the yoke. What then if they come back to a right mind, there in the country of their banishment? What if they learn to recognize that I, the Lord, am their God (the heedful heart, the listening ear, are mine to give them); what if they remember to honour me, to invoke my name, in their exile? What if they follow the example of their fathers, that were sinners before them, repent of their stubborn indifference and of all their ill doings? Then they shall come home again; back to the country I promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they shall be masters of it, and their dwindled strength shall thrive anew. A fresh covenant I will make with them, that shall last for ever; I their God, and they my people; never again will I banish my people, the sons of Israel, from the land I have made theirs.
Chapter 3
Lord Almighty, God of Israel, here be lives in jeopardy, here be troubled hearts, that plead with you! Listen, Lord, and have mercy, none so merciful as you; pardon the sins that lie open in your sight. you reign for ever; must we for ever be lost? Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen to the prayer Israel makes to you from the grave! Our fathers it was that defied the Lord their God, and gave no heed to him; and to us, their sons, the punishment clings. Forget the wrong they did, those fathers of ours; remember your ancient power, your own honour, this day; only to you, the Lord our God, shall praise of ours be given. Why else have you inspired us with such dread of you? You would have us learn to invoke your name, to utter your praise, here as exiles, in proof that we disown the wrong our fathers did, when their sins defied you. Exiles we are this day, dispersed by you to suffer scorn and reviling, until we have made amends for all the wrong our fathers did when they abandoned you, abandoned the Lord our God.
Listen, Israel, to the warnings that shall bring you life; give attentive audience, if you would learn to be wise. What means it, Israel, that you find yourself in the enemy's land, grown old in exile, unclean as a dead body, no more taken into account than men who have gone down into their graves? It is because you have forsaken the fountains from where all wisdom comes. If you had but followed the path God shewed you, you might have lived in peace eternally. Learn where to find wisdom, and strength, and discernment; so you will find length of years, too, and true life, and cheerfulness, and peace. Who can tell where wisdom dwells, who has made his way into her store-house? What has become of those heathen princes, who gained mastery of the beasts that roam the earth, tamed the birds for their pastime; heaping up silver and gold, man's confidence, man's interminable quest? How anxiously they toiled for wealth! And now these devices of theirs are beyond our tracing.
They disappeared, went to their graves, and other succeeded them; a younger generation saw the light and peopled the earth in its turn; but still they could not find their way to the true wisdom, the path to it was hidden still. Their children, too, clutched at it in vain, it was as far as ever from their reach. In Chanaan, none had heard tell of it, in Theman none had caught sight of it; even the sons of Agar, so well schooled in earthly wisdom, even the merchants of Merrha and Theman, with all their store of legend, their skill and cunning laboriously gained, never found the track of true wisdom, or told us what its haunts were.
Israel, how wide is God's house, how spacious is his domain, large beyond all bound, high beyond all measure! The heroes of old were nurtured there, men whose fame has come down to us from the beginning of time, huge in stature, great warriors; but it was not these God had chosen; they died without ever attaining true knowledge. Not for them was the possession of wisdom, and in their folly they perished.
What man ever scaled heaven, gained wisdom there, and brought it back from the clouds? What man ever crossed the sea, and found it there, brought it back like a cargo of pure gold? The path to it none may know, the clue of it none may find. Only he who knows all things possesses it, only his mind conceives it. He it is who framed the abiding earth, and filled it with cattle and four-footed beasts of every kind. It is on his errand that the light goes forth, his summons that it obeys with awe; joyfully the stars shine out, keeping the watches he has appointed, answer when he calls their muster-roll, and offer their glad radiance to him who fashioned them. Such a God is ours; what rival will be compared to him? He it is who has the key to all knowledge, and gave it to his servant Jacob, to the well-loved race of Israel; not till then would he reveal himself on earth, and hold converse with mortal men.
Chapter 4
Here is the book in which you may read God's commandments, that law of his which stands for ever; holding fast by it or forsaking it, a man makes life or death his goal. Jacob, your steps retrace, and this path follow, guiding your steps by glow of the light that beckons you; this is your pride, would you yield it up to another? Your prize, shall an alien race enjoy it? Israel, a blessed race is ours, that has knowledge of God's will.
People of God, take courage, all that is left of Israel's muster-roll! Sold as slaves though you be, he does not mean your ruin. He has given your enemies the mastery, none the less; had you not defied his vengeance? Had you not challenged the eternal power that made you, by sacrificing to evil powers, that gods were none? To God that fostered you, what ingratitude, to Jerusalem that nursed you, what bitter pain!
Alas, she cried, as she saw the divine vengeance falling on you, listen, neighbour cities all, to my complaint; here is a heavy load of grief God has charged me with! Sentence of banishment he, the eternal, so has pronounced upon my people, sons and daughters of mine; how joyously I nurtured them, with what tears of anguish I saw them depart! And let none boast over my widowing, that so much have lost; if I am thus forlorn, it is because of my sons transgression, that refused God's will; his claim disowned, his paths left untrodden; not for them the straight road of loyal observance. Come, neighbours, tell we the sad tale again, how he, the eternal, would sentence these sons and daughters of mine to exile. A cruel race he summoned to the attack from far away, men of an alien speech; for old age they had no reverence, for childhood no pity; robbed widow of her darling sons, and left her desolate.
Alas, my children, look not to me for aid! He it is must save you from the power of your enemies, who is the author of your calamity. Go your ways, my children, go your ways; I am left desolate; the festal robe of happier times I have put aside, clothed myself in sackcloth as the suppliants do; I will spend my days pleading with him, the eternal. Take courage, my children, and raise your voices, too, in appeal; from the enemy's tyrant grasp the Lord shall deliver you. Upon him, the eternal, I pin evermore my hopes of your happiness, the holy God, evermore our deliverer! Light grows my heart, to think of the mercy he has in store for you. With lamentation I bade farewell to you, and with tears; with joy and triumph he will bring you back to me, and for ever; these neighbours of mine, that saw you banished at his decree, shall witness ere long a divine deliverance; what renown shall be yours when it comes, what dawn unending! Bear patiently, my children, with the punishment that has overtaken you. What if your enemy hunts you down? Ere long you shall see the ruin of him, set your foot on his neck! Ah, the rough roads delicate feet of yours have travelled! Like a plundered flock the enemy drove you. Yet take courage, my children, and cry out upon the Lord; he, the author of your exile, has not forgotten you. hearts that loved to stray, ten times more eagerly retrace your steps, and come back to him! And he, that compassed your woe, in unfading joy will compass your deliverance.
Yourself, Jerusalem, take courage! He that called you by your name brings you comfort. Woe to the men that harassed you, and triumphed in your ruin, woe to every city that enslaved and harboured children of yours! No smile of content greeted the disaster of your fall, but shall be paid for with a sigh of desolation; the city that was once so populous, all its boasting gone, all its pride of yesterday turned into lament! Long shall the fires of eternal justice smoulder there, long shall it be the haunt of devils. Turn you about, Jerusalem, and look to the sun's rising; see what rejoicing the Lord has in store for you; sons of yours, in many lands lost to you, gathered by his call from east to west shall come back again, praising joyfully God's holy will.
Chapter 5
Enough, Jerusalem; lay aside now the sad garb of your humiliation, and put on bright robes, befitting the eternal glory God means for you; cloak of divine protection thrown about you, your temples bearing a diadem of renown. In you God will manifest the splendour of his presence, for the whole world to see; and the name by which he will call you for ever is, Loyalty rewarded, Piety crowned. Up, Jerusalem, to the heights! Look to the sun's rising, and see if your sons be not coming to you, gathered from east to west, joyfully acknowledging God's holy will! Afoot they were led off by the enemy; it is the Lord that shall lead them home, borne aloft like royal princes. He will have the ground made level; high mountain must stoop, and immemorial hill, and the valleys be filled up, for Israel's safe passage and God's glory; spinneys of every scented tree shall grow, by his divine command, to give Israel shade. So merciful he is, and so faithful! In great content, their journey lit by the majesty of his presence, Israel shall come home.
Chapter 6
Here follows a copy of the letter Jeremias sent to the prisoners whom the king of Babylon was carrying off to his own country, with the warnings God bade him give them.
In atonement for the sins by which you have offended God, you shall now be carried off to Babylon, by Nabuchodonosor that is king of it. Babylon once reached, you shall have a long exile there, years a many, till seven generations have passed; then I will grant you a safe return. And you must know that you will see, in that country, gods of gold and silver, gods of stone and wood, that are carried about on men's shoulders; to the heathen, things of great dread. Look well to it that you do not fall in with these alien customs, by the same fear overmastered. What though a great throng of worshippers attends them, before and behind? Let your hearts whisper in adoration, To you, Lord, all worship belongs! My angel is at your side, and your lives shall be held to account for it.
Puppets of gold and silver, speak they cannot, for all the craftsman has given them tongues to speak with. Ay, gold must go to their fashioning, never was maid so bravely tricked out; gods they are, and must wear golden crowns. And of this gold and silver the priests will steal some part for their own uses, and spend it on their so minions; what the gods wore, harlots wear, what harlots wore, the gods. From rust they cannot protect themselves, nor from the moth; alas for the purple robes that deck them! And the temple dust lies thick upon them, so that their faces must be wiped clean. Here is an idol bearing a sceptre, human-fashion, as though it ruled the country-side, yet has it no power to kill the blasphemer; another carries sword or axe, yet from alarm of war or of robbers cannot defend itself; be sure, then, gods they are not. Never fear them; broken jar a man throws away as useless can be matched with such gods as these.
There they sit in their temples, with eyes full of dust from the feet of passers-by, mewed up by their priests with bolt and bar for fear of robbery, like king's enemy at in his dungeon, dead man in his tomb; of all the lights that burn before them, they see none; roof-beam is not more senseless. Yet men will have it that serpents creep out of the earth and drink in the secrets of their hearts! Worms, more like, that eat the idol up, clothes and all, and it none the wiser. Smoke of the temple blackens their faces; about their bodies and heads fly owl and swallow; birds hover and cats prowl. Be sure they are no gods; never fear them.
Fair, golden faces! Yet will they not shine on the worshipper, till he rub off the stains on them; cast once for all in a mould, without feeling. Cost what they will, there is never a breath of life in them; never a pace they walk, but must still be carried on men's shoulders, putting their own worshippers to shame by the betrayal of their impotence. Fall they to earth, they cannot rise from it, and though they be set up again, it is in no power of their own that they stand. As well bring gifts to dead men as to these; the victim you offer yonder priest will sell, or put to his own use, nor ever a slice his wife cuts shall find its way to the sick and the needy. Those offerings every woman may touch if she will, child-birth and monthly times notwithstanding. And are these gods? Are these to be feared? Things of silver and gold and wood, that have women for their ministers, shall the divine name be theirs?
In their temples you shall find priests sitting by with clothes rent, shaven and shorn, heads uncovered, raising lament over their gods as at a dead man's dirge. Vestments their idols wore they will carry away, to dress their wives and children; so powerless are these gods to requite injury or reward service done. Not theirs to make kings or unmake them, grant riches, or wreak vengeance; the unpaid vow they cannot exact, nor deliver men from death, and the tyrant's oppression, give sight to the blind, succour in time of peril, shew mercy to the widow, or cheer the orphan's lot. Things of wood and stone, gold and silver, no more than rock on the mountainside can they speed their worshippers; gods do we reckon them, gods do we call them?
And indeed the Chaldaeans themselves have but scant reverence for these idols of theirs; hear they of a dumb child that can utter no word, Bel's image must be brought to it and petitioned for the gift of speech; as if the senseless thing which cannot move could yet hear them! Sense neither god nor worshipper has, else god should find no worship. See where their women sit in the streets, with ropes about them, each before a fire of olive-stones, each waiting till some passer-by drags her away and beds her, then taunting her less coveted neighbours, that have ropes about them still! All lies, the worship of them, and shall they claim the title of gods?
Carpenters made them and goldsmiths, only at the priests whim; and shall the handicraft of mortal craftsmen be divine? One day, their descendants will reproach them with a legacy of imposture. Come war, come peril, the priest thinks only of hiding himself and his gods both; gods who shall think them, that from war and peril their own selves cannot deliver? Recognize it at last they will, kings and peoples everywhere, that gods of wood, gold and silver are false gods, creatures of man, not creators. Man's handiwork, with nothing in them of the divine, who can doubt it? Not through them comes king to throne, comes rain to country folk; redress wrong they may not, nor rid a people of tyranny; dead crow hung between heaven and earth is not more powerless. Does a temple catch fire? You shall see priests taking refuge in flight, and the wooden gods, for all the silver and gold on them, burning among the woodwork. Against the king's power, against the enemy's attack, they can make no head; who shall reckon them or name them divine?
Wood and stone, gold and silver, how to protect themselves against the superior strength of house-breaker and robber, that will carry off sheathes of silver and gold, carry off the clothes from their backs, and leave them powerless? Better some golden emblem of royal prowess, cup of silver meant for use, not only for display, door of wood that keeps safe the treasures of a house, than these deceiving idols! How fair to look upon are sun and moon and stars! Yet theirs is loyal and useful service; and so it is with yonder lightning, that dazzles the view. Everywhere winds blowing, clouds drifting across the earth as God bade them, fulfil an appointed task; an appointed task, too, has the heaven-lit fire that burns mountain-side and forest. What beauty have the idols, or what power, that they should be compared with any of these? Gods never think them, gods never call them, that have no power to execute judgement, to do men good or ill. And, since gods they are not, need is none to fear them; can they pronounce a curse or a blessing on kings? Can they startle the world with portents, shine like the sun, light up darkness like the moon? Why, the very beasts are their betters, that know at least how to take shelter for their own safety!
Fear we never the gods that ungod themselves so plainly! Wood and silver and gold, that watch over the world as a scarecrow over a herb-garden; wood and silver and gold, patient of the birds that perch on them as bush of white-thorn, or corpse left to lie in a dark alley! From the purple robes that rot on them, you may learn they are no gods; they, too, shall be eaten away when their time comes, and be a disgrace to the country-side.
Well it is for God's loyal servants, that eschew idolatry, and live from all censure far removed.