1This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever. All who hold it fast will live, but those who forsake it will die.
2Return, Jacob, and take hold of it; journey toward the radiance in the presence of its light.
3Do not give your glory to another, nor your advantages to a foreign nation.
4We are blessed, Israel, because the things pleasing to God are known to us.
5Take courage, my people, O memorial of Israel.
6You were sold to the nations not for destruction, but because you provoked God to anger, you were handed over to your adversaries.
7For you provoked the one who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God.
8You forgot the everlasting God who nurtured you, and you also grieved Jerusalem who raised you.
9For she saw the wrath from God that came upon you, and she said: “Listen, you neighbors of Zion, God has brought great mourning upon me.
10For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal One brought upon them.
11For I nourished them with gladness, but I sent them away with weeping and mourning.
12Let no one gloat over me, a widow forsaken by many. I was made desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned aside from the law of God
13and they did not know his ordinances, nor did they walk in the ways of God’s commandments, nor did they tread the paths of discipline in his righteousness.
14Let the neighbors of Zion come, and remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Eternal One brought upon them.
15For he brought upon them a nation from afar, a shameless and foreign-tongued nation; for they did not respect the elderly nor have mercy on a child,
16and they led away the beloved sons of the widow, and left the solitary one bereft of her daughters.
17But as for me, how can I help you?
18For the one who brought these evils upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.
19Go, children, go, for I am left desolate.
20I have taken off the robe of peace and put on the sackcloth of my supplication; I will cry out to the Eternal One all my days.
21Take courage, children, cry out to God, and he will deliver you from the tyranny, from the hand of your enemies.
22For I have hoped in the Eternal One for your salvation, and joy has come to me from the Holy One because of the mercy that will soon come to you from the Eternal One, your Savior.
23For I sent you away with mourning and weeping, but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness forever.
24For just as the neighbors of Zion have now seen your captivity, so they will soon see the salvation from your God, which will come upon you with great glory and the splendor of the Eternal One.
25Children, patiently endure the wrath that has come upon you from God. Your enemy has pursued you, but you will soon see his destruction, and you will tread upon their necks.
26My delicate ones have walked on rough roads; they were carried off like a flock seized by enemies.
27Take courage, children, and cry out to God, for you will be remembered by the one who brought this upon you.
28For just as your mind was intent on straying from God, so, upon returning, be ten times more zealous to seek him.
29For the one who brought the evils upon you will bring you everlasting gladness with your salvation.”
30Take courage, Jerusalem; the one who named you will comfort you.
31Wretched are those who mistreated you and rejoiced over your fall.
32Wretched are the cities that your children served; wretched is she who received your sons.
33For just as she rejoiced at your fall and was glad at your ruin, so she will be grieved at her own desolation.
34And I will strip away her exultation in her great crowd, and turn her pride into mourning.
35For fire will come upon her from the Eternal One for many days, and she will be inhabited by demons for a very long time.
36Look around toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy coming to you from God.
37Behold, your sons whom you sent away are coming; they are coming, gathered from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.
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