Baruch 1

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Baruch and the Jews in Babylon

1 These are the words of the book which Baruch the son of Nera′iah, son of Mahse′iah, son of Zedeki′ah, son of Hasadi′ah, son of Hilki′ah, wrote in Babylon, ² in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chalde′ans took Jerusalem and burned it with fire. ³ And Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jeconi′ah the son of Jehoi′akim, king of Judah, and in the hearing of all the people who came to hear the book, ⁴ and in the hearing of the mighty men and the princes, and in the hearing of the elders, and in the hearing of all the people, small and great, all who dwelt in Babylon by the river Sud.

⁵ Then they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord; ⁶ and they collected money, each giving what he could; ⁷ and they sent it to Jerusalem to Jehoi′akim the high priest,^[a] the son of Hilki′ah, son of Shallum, and to the priests, and to all the people who were present with him in Jerusalem. ⁸ At the same time, on the tenth day of Sivan, Baruch^[b] took the vessels of the house of the Lord, which had been carried away from the temple, to return them to the land of Judah—the silver vessels which Zedeki′ah the son of Josi′ah, king of Judah, had made, ⁹ after Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon had carried away from Jerusalem Jeconi′ah and the princes and the prisoners and the mighty men and the people of the land, and brought them to Babylon.

A Letter to Jerusalem

¹⁰ And they said: “Herewith we send you money; so buy with the money burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense, and prepare a cereal offering, and offer them upon the altar of the Lord our God; ¹¹ and pray for the life of Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon, and for the life of Belshaz′zar his son, that their days on earth may be like the days of heaven. ¹² And the Lord will give us strength, and he will give light to our eyes, and we shall live under the protection^[c] of Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon, and under the protection^[d] of Belshaz′zar his son, and we shall serve them many days and find favor in their sight. ¹³ And pray for us to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, and to this day the anger of the Lord and his wrath have not turned away from us. ¹⁴ And you shall read this book which we are sending you, to make your confession in the house of the Lord on the days of the feasts and at appointed seasons.

Confession of Sins

¹⁵ “And you shall say: ‘Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but confusion of face, as at this day, to us, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ¹⁶ and to our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers, ¹⁷ because we have sinned before the Lord, ¹⁸ and have disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord which he set before us. ¹⁹ From the day when the Lord brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent, in not heeding his voice. ²⁰ So to this day there have clung to us the calamities and the curse which the Lord declared through Moses his servant at the time when he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey. ²¹ We did not heed the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us, but we each followed the intent of his own wicked heart by serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.