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[1]This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die.
[2]Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.
[3]Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation.
[4]O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.
[5]Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.
[6]Ye were sold to the nations, not for [your] destruction: but because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies.
[7]For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto devils, and not to God.
[8]Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you.
[9]For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O ye that dwell about Sion: God hath brought upon me great mourning;
[10]For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.
[11]With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning.
[12]Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God.
[13]They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.
[14]Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them.
[15]For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child.
[16]These have carried away the dear beloved children of the widow, and left her that was alone desolate without daughters.
[17]But what can I help you?
[18]For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the hands of your enemies.
[19]Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate.
[20]I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days.
[21]Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto the Lord, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.
[22]For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy is come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come unto you from the Everlasting our Saviour.
[23]For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever.
[24]Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity: so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.
[25]My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his destruction, and shalt tread upon his neck.
[26]My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock caught of the enemies.
[27]Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be remembered of him that brought these things upon you.
[28]For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek him ten times more.
[29]For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.
[30]Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will comfort thee.
[31]Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall.
[32]Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy sons.
[33]For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.
[34]For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride shall be turned into mourning.
[35]For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time.
[36]O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God.
[37]Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.
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