Baruch 1
Baruch wrote a book in Babylon, which he read to the people, including King Jeconiah, and they wept, fasted, and prayed upon hearing it. They collected money to send to Jerusalem to buy offerings and to return the temple vessels that had been taken away. The people asked for prayers to be said for the life of King Nebuchadnezzar and his son, and for forgiveness for their sins, acknowledging that they had not listened to the Lord's voice and had gone astray, serving strange gods and doing evil.
And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Neraiah, the son of Mahseiah, the son of Zedekiah, the son of Hasadiah, the son Hilkiah, wrote in Babylonin the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, since the time when the Chaldeans captured Jerusalem and set it on fireAnd Baruch read the words of this book to the ears of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and to the ears of the entire people, who came to the bookeven to the ears of the powerful sons of kings, and to the ears of the elders, and to the ears of the people, from the least to the greatest of them, of all those living in Babylon, near the river SudAnd upon hearing it, they wept and fasted and prayed in the sight of the LordAnd they collected money in accordance with whatever each one was able to handoverAnd they sent it to Jerusalem to Jehoiakim, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shalum the priest, and to the priests, and to all the people, who were found with him in JerusalemAt that time, he received the vessels of the temple of the Lord (which had been carried away from the temple) so as to return them to the land of Judah, on the tenth day of the month Sivan. These were the silver vessels, which Zedekiah, the son of Josiah king of Judah, had madeAfter this, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, captured Jeconiah, and the leaders, and all the powerful, and the people of the land, and led them captive from Jerusalem to BabylonAnd they said, "Behold we have sent you money with which to buy holocausts and frankincense. Therefore, make manna and offer it for sin at the altar of the Lord our GodAnd pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, so that their days may be just like the days of the heaven above the earthand so that the Lord may give virtue to us, and enlighten our eyes, so that we may live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and so that we may serve them for many days and may find favor in their sightAnd pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, and the madness of our sin has not been driven away from us even to this dayAnd read this book, which we have sent to you to be recited in the temple of the Lord, on solemn days and on other suitable daysAnd you will say, ‘To the Lord our God is justice, but to us is confusion of our face, just as it is this day for all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalemeven for our kings, and our leaders, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathersWe have sinned before the Lord our God and we have not believed, lacking confidence in himAnd we have not been submissive to him, and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, so as to walk in his commandments, which he has given to usFrom the day that he led our fathers out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, we were unfaithful to the Lord our God, and, having been scattered, we fell away. We did not listen to his voiceAnd we joined ourselves to many evils and to the curses which the Lord established through Moses, his servant, who led our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is in the present dayAnd we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, according to all the words of the prophets whom he sent to usAnd we have gone astray, each one after the inclinations of his own malignant heart, serving strange gods and doing evil before the eyes of the Lord our God
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