Bar 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 Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,
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In the fifth year, and in the seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans
took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire.
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And Baruch did read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of
Joachim king of Juda, and in the ears of all the people that came to hear the book,
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And in the hearing of the nobles, and of the king’s sons, and in the hearing of the
elders, and of all the people, from the lowest to the highest, even of all them that
dwelt at Babylon by the river Sud.
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Whereupon they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.
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They made also a collection of money according to every man’s power:
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And they sent it to Jerusalem to Joachim the high priest, the son of Chelcias, son
of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people which were found with him at Jerusalem,
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At the same time when he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, that were
carried out of the temple, to return them into the land of Juda, the tenth day of
the month Sivan, namely, silver vessels, which Sedecias the son of Josias king of
Jada had made,
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After that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes,
and the captives, and the mighty men, and the people of the land, from Jerusalem,
and brought them to Babylon.
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And they said, Behold, we have sent you money to buy you burnt offerings, and sin
offerings, and incense, and prepare you manna, and offer upon the altar of the Lord
our God;
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And pray for the life of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar
his son, that their days may be upon earth as the days of heaven:
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And the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our eyes, and we shall live under
the shadow of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Balthasar his
son, and we shall serve them many days, and find favour in their sight.
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Pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God;
and to this day the fury of the Lord and his anger is not turned from us.
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And you shall read this book which we have sent to you, to make confession in the
house of the Lord, upon the feasts and solemn days.
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And you shall say, To the Lord our God belongs righteousness, but to us the confusion
of faces, as it is come to pass this day, to them of Juda, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
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And to our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and
to our fathers:
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For we have sinned before the Lord,
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And disobeyed him, and have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk
in the commandments that he gave us openly:
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Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, to this
present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent
in not hearing his voice.
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Wherefore the evils cleaved to us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses
his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give
us a land that flows with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day.
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Nevertheless we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, according to
all the words of the prophets, whom he sent to us:
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But every man followed the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods,
and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God.