Chapter 3
1 “Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the anguished soul and the troubled spirit cry out to you. 2 Listen to us, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against you. 3 While we are perishing forever, you are enthroned forever. 4 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen to the prayer of the people of Israel, the children of those who have sinned against you. They have not heeded the voice of the Lord, their God, and therefore, evils continue to befall us. 5 Do not call to mind the iniquity of our fathers, but during this time of calamity, remember instead your power and your name. 6 For you are the Lord, our God, and it is you, O Lord, whom we will praise. 7 To effect this, you have put the fear of you into our hearts so that we will invoke your name. We now praise you in exile, for we have cast away from our hearts all the iniquity of our fathers who sinned against you. 8 Look upon us today in our exile, where you scattered us. We have become a reproach and a curse, to be condemned for all the iniquities of our fathers who turned away from the Lord, our God.”
Praise of Wisdom[a]
9 Pay heed, O Israel, to the commandments that offer life;
lend an ear to obtain prudence.
10 Why is it, O Israel, that you dwell in the land of your enemies,
growing ever older in a foreign country?
Why do you defile yourself with the dead,
11 numbered among those who descend to the netherworld?
12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!
13 If you had walked in the way of God,
you would have dwelt in peace forever.
14 Learn where there is prudence,
where there is strength,
where there is wisdom,
so that you may also know
where may be found length of days, and life,
where there is light for the eyes, and peace.
15 Who has discovered where wisdom dwells;
who has entered her treasure house?
16 Where now are those who ruled nations,
those who had dominion over the animals of the earth
17 and made sport of the birds of the heavens?
Where are those who amassed hoards of silver and gold
in which people place their trust,
those whose greed knew no limit?
18 Where are those silversmiths expert in their craft
of whose work not a trace remains?
19 They have all vanished, descending into the netherworld,
and others have risen up to take their place.
20 Succeeding generations have seen the light of day
and have come to dwell in the land,
but the way to knowledge they have not learned;
21 they have not discerned her paths or embraced her.
Not even their children have reached her;
indeed, they have strayed far from her way.
22 Wisdom has not been heard of in Canaan,
nor has she been seen in Teman.
23 The descendants of Hagar who seek after worldly wisdom,
the merchants of Midian and Teman,
the storytellers and the searchers for understanding—
these have not discovered the way to wisdom
or even remembered her paths.[b]
24 O Israel, how great is the house of God,
how vast the region of his dominion.
25 It is immense and without bounds,
lofty and immeasurable.
26 There were born the giants,[c] renowned of old,
mighty in stature, skilled in war.
27 Yet these were not the ones chosen by God,
nor did he teach them the way of understanding.
28 They perished because of their lack of prudence;
they perished through their own folly.
29 Who has ever gone up to heaven to get her
and bring her down from the clouds?
30 Who has ever traversed the oceans and found her,
and will exchange the finest gold for her?
31 No one knows the way to her,
nor is anyone concerned with the path to her.
32 However, he who knows all things knows her;
by his understanding he has discovered her.
He it is who established the earth for all time
and filled it with four-footed creatures.
33 He who sends forth the light and it takes flight,
summons it and, trembling, it obeys.
34 Before him the stars in their designated places shine and rejoice;
35 he summons them, and they reply, “Here we are,”
and shine with delight for the one who made them.
36 This is our God;
no other can compare to him.
37 He has discerned the entire path to wisdom
and revealed her to Jacob, his servant,
and to Israel, whom he loved.
38 After that, she appeared on earth
and lived with humankind.
Footnotes
- Baruch 3:9 In this beautiful hymn, a wise prophet wishes to teach his people—like all his ancient colleagues—the secret of happiness: to find anew the wisdom that God had given with the law.
- Baruch 3:23 The wisdom of the Phoenicians and Arabians was proverbial.
- Baruch 3:26 Giants: this is doubtless a reference to the legendary giants of antediluvian times (Gen 6:4). According to later Jewish speculations, they had communicated to human beings wondrous knowledge—which had brought about the flood.