Baruch 1:15-3:8

Good News Translation

A Confession of Sin

¹⁵This is the confession you should make:

The Lord our God is righteous, but we are still covered with shame. All of us—the people of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, ¹⁶our kings, our rulers, our priests, our prophets, and our ancestors have been put to shame, ¹⁷because we have sinned against the Lord our God ¹⁸and have disobeyed him. We did not listen to him or live according to his commandments. ¹⁹From the day the Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt until the present day, we have continued to be unfaithful to him, and we have not hesitated to disobey him. ²⁰^(A)Long ago, when the Lord led our ancestors out of Egypt, so that he could give us a rich and fertile land, he pronounced curses against us through his servant Moses. And today we are suffering because of those curses. ²¹We refused to obey the word of the Lord our God which he spoke to us through the prophets. Instead, we all did as we pleased and went on our own evil way. We turned to other gods and did things the Lord hates. 2 ¹So the Lord carried out the threat he had made against us and against our judges, our kings, our rulers, and the people of Israel and Judah. ²Nowhere else on earth have such things happened as happened in Jerusalem when the Lord carried out the threats written in the Law of Moses. ³Things were so bad that we even ate the flesh of our own sons and daughters. ⁴The Lord scattered our people, handing us over to the control of all the nations around us, and they looked on us with reproach and horror. ⁵We sinned against the Lord our God and refused to obey him. Therefore, our nation was conquered, instead of being victorious. ⁶The Lord our God is always righteous, but we and our ancestors are still burdened with our guilt. ⁷Even though the Lord punished us as he had threatened, ⁸we still did not turn to him and pray that we would abandon our evil thoughts. ^9-10We did not obey him or live by his just commands, so the Lord brought on us all the punishments he had kept ready for us.

The Prayer for Deliverance

¹¹You, O Lord, are the God of Israel who brought your people out of Egypt with great power and with signs, miracles, and wonders. You showed your mighty strength and gained a glorious reputation, which is still recognized today. ¹²O Lord our God, we have sinned; we have been unfaithful; we have disobeyed all your commands. ¹³But do not be angry with us any longer. Here among the nations where you have scattered us, only a few of us are left. ¹⁴Listen to our prayer of petition, Lord, and rescue us for the sake of your own honor. Let those who have taken us into exile be pleased with us. ¹⁵Then the whole world will know that you are the Lord our God and that you have chosen the nation of Israel to be your own people. ¹⁶O Lord, look down from heaven and see our misery. Listen to our prayer. ¹⁷Open your eyes and look upon us. Those in the world of the dead with no breath left in their bodies cannot offer praises to you or proclaim how just you are. ¹⁸Only the living, O Lord, can offer you praise and acknowledge your justice, even though they may be suffering greatly, bent and weak, hungry and with failing eyesight. ¹⁹O Lord our God, we pray to you for mercy, but not because of any good things done by our ancestors and our kings. ²⁰You turned your anger and wrath against us, just as you had threatened to do when your servants the prophets spoke your word to us and said, ²¹^(B)

Bend your backs and serve the king of Babylonia, and you can remain in the land that I gave to your ancestors. ²²But if you refuse to obey my command to serve him, ²³I will bring to an end every sound of joy and celebration in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem. Even the happy sounds of wedding feasts will no longer be heard. The whole land will be desolate and uninhabited.

²⁴^(C)But we did not obey your command to serve the king of Babylonia, so you carried out the threat that you had made when you spoke through your servants the prophets, when you said that the bones of our kings and of our ancestors would be taken from their tombs and scattered. ²⁵And now here they lie exposed to the heat of the day and to the frost of the night. They died in torment from famine, war, and disease. ²⁶And because of the sin of the people of Israel and Judah, you have reduced your own Temple to ruins, even as it is today. ²⁷But, Lord, you have been patient with us and have shown us great mercy, ²⁸^(D)as you promised through your servant Moses on the day you commanded him to write your Law in the presence of the Israelites.

²⁹If you do not obey me, you said,
you will be reduced to a handful among the nations where I will scatter you. ³⁰I know that you will not obey me, because you are a stubborn people. But when you are taken into exile in another land, you will come to your senses. ³¹Then you will realize that I am the Lord your God, and I will give you a desire to know and a mind with which to understand. ³²There in the land of your exile you will praise me and remember me. ³³You will stop being so stubborn and wicked, for you will remember what happened to your ancestors when they sinned against the Lord. ³⁴Then I will bring you back to the land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it will be yours again. I will increase your population, and you will never again be reduced to a small number. ³⁵^(E)I will make an everlasting covenant with you; I will be your God and you will be my people. I will never again remove you, the people of Israel, from the land that I gave you.

3 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, from the depth of our troubled, weary souls we cry out to you. ²Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy on us, because we have sinned against you. ³You reign as king forever, but we die and are gone forever. ⁴O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear our prayer. We are no better off than the dead. Our ancestors sinned against you, the Lord their God. They refused to obey you, and we are suffering the consequences of their sin. ⁵Forget the sinful things that our ancestors did in the past; at a time like this, think only of your power and reputation, ⁶for you are the Lord our God, and we will praise you. ⁷You have made us fear you, so that we might pray to you. Here in exile we will praise you because we have turned away from the sins of our ancestors. ⁸You have scattered us among the nations, and you have made them despise and curse us. You are punishing us for the sins of our ancestors when they rebelled against you, the Lord our God.