4:22. Thau. Thy iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Sion, he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he hath visited thy iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he hath discovered thy sins.
THE PRAYER OF JEREMIAS THE PROPHET
Lamentations Chapter 5
5:1. Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.
5:2. Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.
5:3. We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
5:4. We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.
5:6. We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.
5:6. We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the a.s.syrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.
5:7. Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities.
5:8. Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.
5:9. We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.
5:10. Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.
5:11. They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.
5:12. The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.
5:13. They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.
5:14. The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.
5:15. The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.
5:16. The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned.
5:17. Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.
5:18. For mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.
5:19. But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.
5:20. Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?
5:21. Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.
5:22. But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry with us.
THE PROPHECY OF BARUCH
BARUCH was a man of n.o.ble extraction, and learned in the law, secretary and disciple to the prophet JEREMIAS, and a sharer in his labours and persecutions: which is the reason why the ancient fathers have considered this book as a part of the prophecy of JEREMIAS, and have usually quoted it under his name.
Baruch Chapter 1
The Jews of Babylon send the book of Baruch with money to Jerusalem, requesting their brethren there to offer sacrifice, and to pray for the king and for them, acknowledging their manifold sins.
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 Sedei, the son Helcias, wrote in Babylonia.
1:2. In the fifth year, in the seventh day of the month, at the time that the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire.
1:3. And Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joakim king of Juda, and in the hearing of all the people that came to hear the book.
1:4. And in the hearing of the n.o.bles, the sons of the kings, and in the hearing of the ancients, and in the hearing of the people, from the least even to the greatest of them that dwelt in Babylonia, by the river Sedi.
1:5. And when they heard it they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord.
1:6. And they made a collection of money according to every man"s power.
1:7. And they sent it to Jerusalem to Joakim the priest, the son of Helcias, the son of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people, that were found with him in Jerusalem:
1:8. At the time when he received the vessels of the temple of the Lord, which had been taken away out of the temple, to return them into the land of Juda the tenth day of the month Sivan, the silver vessels, which Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda had made,
1:9. After that Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes, and all the powerful men, and the people of the land from Jerusalem, and brought them bound to Babylon.
1:10. And they said: Behold we have sent you money, buy with it holocausts, and frankincense, and make meat offerings, and offerings for sin at the altar of the Lord our G.o.d:
1:11. And pray ye for the life of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar his son, that their days may be upon earth as the days of heaven:
1:12. And that the Lord may give us strength, and enlighten our eyes, that we may live under the shadow of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Balthasar his son, and may serve them many days, and may find favour in their sight.
1:13. And pray ye for us to the Lord our G.o.d: for we have sinned against the Lord our G.o.d, and his wrath is not turned away from us even to this day.
1:14. And read ye this book, which we have sent to you to be read in the temple of the Lord, on feasts, and proper days.
1:15. And you shall say: To the Lord our G.o.d belongeth justice, but to us confusion of our face: as it is come to pa.s.s at this day to all Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
1:16. To our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers.
1:17. We have sinned before the Lord our G.o.d, and have not believed him, nor put our trust in him:
1:18. And we were not obedient to him, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our G.o.d, to walk in his commandments which he hath given us.