9 Hear the commandments of life, O Israel;

give ear, and learn wisdom!

10 Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies,

that you are growing old in a foreign country,

that you are defiled with the dead,

11 that you are counted among those in Hades?

12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.

13 If you had walked in the way of God,

you would be dwelling in peace for ever.

14 Learn where there is wisdom,

where there is strength,

where there is understanding,

that you may at the same time discern

where there is length of days, and life,

where there is light for the eyes, and peace.

15 Who has found her place?

And who has entered her storehouses?

16 Where are the princes of the nations,

and those who rule over the beasts on earth;

17 those who have sport with the birds of the air,

and who hoard up silver and gold,

in which men trust,

and there is no end to their getting;

18 those who scheme to get silver, and are anxious,

whose labors are beyond measure?

19 They have vanished and gone down to Hades,

and others have arisen in their place.

20 Young men have seen the light of day,

and have dwelt upon the earth;

but they have not learned the way to knowledge,

nor understood her paths,

nor laid hold of her.

21 Their sons have strayed far from herf way.

22 She has not been heard of in Canaan,

nor seen in Teman;

23 the sons of Hagar, who seek for understanding on the earth,

the merchants of Merran and Teman,

the story-tellers and the seekers for understanding,

have not learned the way to wisdom,

nor given thought to her paths.

24 O Israel, how great is the house of God!

And how vast the territory that he possesses!

25 It is great and has no bounds;

it is high and immeasurable.

26 The giants were born there, who were famous of old,

great in stature, expert in war.

27 God did not choose them,

nor give them the way to knowledge;

28 so they perished because they had no wisdom,

they perished through their folly.

29 Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her,

and brought her down from the clouds?

30 Who has gone over the sea, and found her,

and will buy her for pure gold?

31 No one knows the way to her,

or is concerned about the path to her.

32 But he who knows all things knows her,

he found her by his understanding.

He who prepared the earth for all time

filled it with four-footed creatures;

33 he who sends forth the light, and it goes,

called it, and it obeyed him in fear;

34 the stars shone in their watches, and were glad;

he called them, and they said, “Here we are!”

They shone with gladness for him who made them.

35 This is our God;

no other can be compared to him!

36 He found the whole way to knowledge,

and gave her to Jacob his servant

and to Israel whom he loved.

37 Afterward she appeared upon earth

and lived among men.

Chapter 4

1 She is the book of the commandments of God,

and the law that endures for ever.

All who hold her fast will live,

and those who forsake her will die.

2 Turn, O Jacob, and take her;

walk toward the shining of her light.

3 Do not give your glory to another,

or your advantages to an alien people.

4 Happy are we, O Israel,

for we know what is pleasing to God.

5 Take courage, my people,

O memorial of Israel!

6 It was not for destruction

that you were sold to the nations,

but you were handed over to your enemies

because you angered God.

7 For you provoked him who made you,

by sacrificing to demons and not to God.

8 You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up,

and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.

9 For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God,

and she said:

“Hearken, you neighbors of Zion,

God has brought great sorrow upon me;

10 for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters,

which the Everlasting brought upon them.

11 With joy I nurtured them,

but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow.

12 Let no one rejoice over me, a widow

and bereaved of many;

I was left desolate because of the sins of my children,

because they turned away from the law of God.

13 They had no regard for his statutes;

they did not walk in the ways of God’s commandments,

nor tread the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

14 Let the neighbors of Zion come;

remember the capture of my sons and daughters,

which the Everlasting brought upon them.

15 For he brought against them a nation from afar,

a shameless nation, of a strange language,

who had no respect for an old man, and had no pity for a child.

16 They led away the widow’s beloved sons,

and bereaved the lonely woman of her daughters.

17 “But I, how can I help you?

18 For he who brought these calamities upon you

will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.

19 Go, my children, go;

for I have been left desolate.

20 I have taken off the robe of peace

and put on the sackcloth of my supplication;

I will cry to the Everlasting all my days.

21 “Take courage, my children, cry to God,

and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy.

22 For I have put my hope in the Everlasting to save you,

and joy has come to me from the Holy One,

because of the mercy which soon will come to you

from your everlasting Savior.g

23 For I sent you out with sorrow and weeping,

but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness for ever.

24 For as the neighbors of Zion have now seen your capture,

so they soon will see your salvation by God,

which will come to you with great glory

and with the splendor of the Everlasting.

25 My children, endure with patience the wrath that has come upon you from God.

Your enemy has overtaken you,

but you will soon see their destruction

and will tread upon their necks.

26 My tender sons have traveled rough roads;

they were taken away like a flock carried off by the enemy.

27 “Take courage, my children, and cry to God,

for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you.

28 For just as you purposed to go astray from God,

return with tenfold zeal to seek him.

29 For he who brought these calamities upon you

will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.”

30 Take courage, O Jerusalem,

for he who named you will comfort you.

31 Wretched will be those who afflicted you

and rejoiced at your fall.

32 Wretched will be the cities which your children served as slaves;

wretched will be the city which received your sons.

33 For just as she rejoiced at your fall

and was glad for your ruin,

so she will be grieved at her own desolation.

34 And I will take away her pride in her great population,

and her insolence will be turned to grief.

35 For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting for many days,

and for a long time she will be inhabited by demons.

36 Look toward the east, O Jerusalem,

and see the joy that is coming to you from God!

37 Behold, your sons are coming, whom you sent away;

they are coming, gathered from east and west,

at the word of the Holy One,

rejoicing in the glory of God.

Chapter 5

1 Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,

and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.

2 Put on the robe of the righteousness from God;

put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting.

3 For God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.

4 For your name will for ever be called by God,

“Peace of righteousness and glory of godliness.”

5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height

and look toward the east,

and see your children gathered from west and east,

at the word of the Holy One,

rejoicing that God has remembered them.

6 For they went forth from you on foot,

led away by their enemies;

but God will bring them back to you,

carried in glory, as on a royal throne.

7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low

and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,

so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.

8 The woods and every fragrant tree

have shaded Israel at God’s command.

9 For God will lead Israel with joy,

in the light of his glory,

with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.