Baruch 3

Common English Bible

⁹ Hear, Israel, the commandments of life.
    Listen carefully, and you’ll come to know Wisdom.
¹⁰ Why is it, Israel, that you are in the enemies’ land,
    growing old in a foreign land,
¹¹     polluted by the dead,
    and counted as people
    already in the grave?^[a]
12 You have abandoned the fountain
from which wisdom flows.
¹³ If you had walked in the way of God,
    you would be living in peace forever.
¹⁴ Learn where there are wisdom, strength, and understanding
    so that you may know at the same time
    where there are longevity, life, understanding,^[b] and peace.
¹⁵ Who has found her place of residence,^[c]
    and who has entered
    her storehouses?
¹⁶ Where are the leading officials
of the nations
    and the masters of the animals
    that are on the earth?
¹⁷ Where are those who entrap
the birds in the sky,
    and those who store up silver and gold, in which humans have trusted?
There is no end to their attempts
to acquire more.
¹⁸ Where are those who anxiously schemed to acquire silver?
    There is no trace of their actions.
¹⁹ They have all vanished
and gone to the grave,^[d]
    and others have risen up in their place.
²⁰ New generations have seen the light
and lived on the earth,
    but they didn’t know
    the way of knowledge.
²¹ They didn’t understand her paths
or take hold of her.
    Their children also went far off course.
²² She hadn’t been heard of in Canaan
or seen in Teman.
²³     Hagar’s children,
    who seek earthly understanding,
        the traders of Merran and Teman,
        the storytellers and knowledge seekers,
        haven’t learned the way of Wisdom,
        nor have they remembered her paths.
²⁴ Israel, how great is God’s house
    and spacious is God’s domain!
²⁵ It is great and has no end;
    it is high and immeasurable!
²⁶ The giants were born there,
    the famous ones
    from the beginning of time,
    who were very large
    and experts in war.
²⁷ God didn’t select them or give them
the way of true knowledge.
²⁸     So they perished
    because they didn’t have Wisdom;
    they perished
    through their carelessness.
²⁹ Who went into heaven, took Wisdom,
    and brought her down from the clouds?
³⁰ Who crossed over to the other side of the sea and found her,
    and who will bring her back
    with choice gold?
³¹ No one knows the road she takes
    or thinks much about
    the path she travels.
³² But the one who knows all things
knows her;
    God found her by his understanding;
the one who made the earth
for time eternal,
    and filled it with four-footed animals;
³³     the one who sends the light
        and it shines forth;
        who called it
        and it obeyed him with trembling.
³⁴ The stars shone at their appointed posts and were delighted.
God called them,
    and the stars said, “Here we are.”
    They shone joyfully
    for the one who made them.
³⁵ This is our God.
    No other will be compared to him.
³⁶ God discovered every way of knowledge
    and gave her to his child^[e] Jacob,
    to Israel, whom he loved.
³⁷ After this, she appeared on the earth
    and lived among humans.