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THE BIBLE - DOUAY-RHEIMS - BOOK 30
THE BIBLE - DOUAY-RHEIMS - BOOK 30 TITLE THE HOLY BIBLE
Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew Greek
and Other Editions in Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752
THE PROPHECY OF BARUCH
BARUCH was a man of noble extraction and learned in the law secretary
and disciple to the prophet JEREMIAS and a sharer in his labours and
persecutions: which is the reason why the ancient fathers have
considered this book as a part of the prophecy of JEREMIAS and have
usually quoted it under his name.
Baruch Chapter 1
The Jews of Babylon send the book of Baruch with money to Jerusalem
requesting their brethren there to offer sacrifice and to pray for the
king and for them acknowledging their manifold sins.
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 Sedei the
son Helcias wrote in Babylonia.
1:2. In the fifth year in the seventh day of the month at the time
that the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burnt it with fire.
1:3. And Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias
the son of Joakim king of Juda and in the hearing of all the people
that came to hear the book.
1:4. And in the hearing of the nobles the sons of the kings and in the
hearing of the ancients and in the hearing of the people from the
least even to the greatest of them that dwelt in Babylonia by the river
Sedi.
1:5. And when they heard it they wept and fasted and prayed before the
Lord.
1:6. And they made a collection of money according to every man's power.
1:7. And they sent it to Jerusalem to Joakim the priest the son of
Helcias the son of Salom and to the priests and to all the people
that were found with him in Jerusalem:
1:8. At the time when he received the vessels of the temple of the Lord
which had been taken away out of the temple to return them into the
land of Juda the tenth day of the month Sivan the silver vessels which
Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda had made
1:9. After that Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon had carried away
Jechonias and the princes and all the powerful men and the people of
the land from Jerusalem and brought them bound to Babylon.
1:10. And they said: Behold we have sent you money buy with it
holocausts and frankincense and make meat offerings and offerings for
sin at the altar of the Lord our God:
1:11. And pray ye for the life of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon
and for the life of Balthasar his son that their days may be upon earth
as the days of heaven:
1:12. And that the Lord may give us strength and enlighten our eyes
that we may live under the shadow of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon
and under the shadow of Balthasar his son and may serve them many days
and may find favour in their sight.
1:13. And pray ye for us to the Lord our God: for we have sinned against
the Lord our God and his wrath is not turned away from us even to this
day.
1:14. And read ye this book which we have sent to you to be read in the
temple of the Lord on feasts and proper days.
1:15. And you shall say: To the Lord our God belongeth justice but to
us confusion of our face: as it is come to pass at this day to all Juda
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
1:16. To our kings and to our princes and to our priests and to our
prophets and to our fathers.
1:17. We have sinned before the Lord our God and have not believed him
nor put our trust in him:
1:18. And we were not obedient to him and we have not hearkened to the
voice of the Lord our God to walk in his commandments which he hath
given us.
1:19. From the day that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt
even to this day we were disobedient to the Lord our God: and going
astray we turned away from hearing his voice.
1:20. And many evils have cleaved to us and the curses which the Lord
foretold by Moses his servant: who brought our fathers out of the land
of Egypt to give us a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day.
1:21. And 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:
1:22. And we have gone away every man after the inclinations of his own
wicked heart to serve strange gods and to do evil in the sight of the
Lord our God.
Baruch Chapter 2
A further confession of the sins of the people and of the justice of
God.
2:1. Wherefore the Lord our God hath made good his word that he spoke
to us and to our judges that have judged Israel and to our kings and
to our princes and to all Israel and Juda:
2:2. That the Lord would bring upon us great evils such as never
happened under heaven as they have come to pass in Jerusalem according
to the things that are written in the law of Moses:
2:3. That a man should eat the flesh of his own son and the flesh of
his own daughter.
2:4. And he hath delivered them up to be under the hand of all the kings
that are round about us to be a reproach and desolation among all the
people among whom the Lord hath scattered us.
2:5. And we are brought under and are not uppermost: because we have
sinned against the Lord our God by not obeying his voice.
2:6. To the Lord our God belongeth justice: but to us and to our
fathers confusion of face as at this day.
2:7. For the Lord hath pronounced against us all these evils that are
come upon us:
2:8. And we have not entreated the face of the Lord our God that we
might return every one of us from our most wicked ways.
2:9. And the Lord hath watched over us for evil and hath brought it
upon us: for the Lord is just in all his works which he hath commanded
us:
2:10. And we have not hearkened to his voice to walk in the commandments
of the Lord which he hath set before us.
2:11. And now O Lord God of Israel who hast brought thy people out of
the land of Egypt with a strong hand and with signs and with wonders
and with thy great power and with a mighty arm and hast made thee a
name as at this day
2:12. We have sinned we have done wickedly we have acted unjustly O
Lord our God against all thy justices.
2:13. Let thy wrath be turned away from us: for we are left a few among
the nations where thou hast scattered us.
2:14. Hear O Lord our prayers and our petitions and deliver us for
thy own sake: and grant that we may find favour in the sight of them
that have led us away:
2:15. That all the earth may know that thou art the Lord our God and
that thy name is called upon Israel and upon his posterity.
2:16. Look down upon us O Lord from thy holy house and incline thy
ear and hear us.
2:17. Open thy eyes and behold: for the dead that are in hell whose
spirit is taken away from their bowels shall not give glory and justice
to the Lord:
Justice etc... They that are in hell shall not give justice to God;
that is they shall not acknowledge and glorify his justice as penitent
sinners do upon earth.
2:18. But the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil she hath
done and goeth bowed down and feeble and the eyes that fail and the
hungry soul giveth glory and justice to thee the Lord.
2:19. For it is not for the justices of our fathers that we pour out our
prayers and beg mercy in thy sight O Lord our God:
2:20. But because thou hast sent out thy wrath and thy indignation upon
us as thou hast spoken by the hand of thy servants the prophets
saying:
2:21. Thus saith the Lord: Bow down your shoulder and your neck and
serve the king of Babylon: and you shall remain in the land which I have
given to your fathers.
2:22. But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God to
serve the king of Babylon: I will cause you to depart out of the cities
of Juda and from without Jerusalem.
2:23. And I will take away from you the voice of mirth and the voice of
joy and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and
all the land shall be without any footstep of inhabitants.
2:24. And they hearkened not to thy voice to serve the king of Babylon:
and thou hast made good thy words which thou spokest by the hands of
thy servants the prophets that the bones of our kings and the bones of
our fathers should be removed out of their place:
2:25. And behold they are cast out to the heat of the sun and to the
frost of the night: and they have died in grievous pains by famine and
by the sword and in banishment.
2:26. And thou hast made the temple in which thy name was called upon
as it is at this day for the iniquity of the house of Israel and the
house of Juda.
2:27. And thou hast dealt with us O Lord our God according to all thy
goodness and according to all that great mercy of thine:
2:28. As thou spokest by the hand of thy servant Moses in the day when
thou didst command him to write thy law before the children of Israel
2:29. Saying: If you will not hear my voice this great multitude shall
be turned into a very small number among the nations where I will
scatter them:
2:30. For I know that the people will not hear me for they are a people
of a stiff neck: but they shall turn to their heart in the land of their
captivity:
2:31. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God: and I will give
them a heart and they shall understand: and ears and they shall hear.
2:32. And they shall praise me in the land of their captivity and shall
be mindful of my name.
2:33. And they shall turn away themselves from their stiff neck and
from their wicked deeds: for they shall remember the way of their
fathers that sinned against me.
2:34. And I will bring them back again into the land which I promised
with an oath to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and they shall
be masters thereof: and I will multiply them and they shall not be
diminished.
2:35. And I will make with them another covenant that shall be
everlasting to be their God and they shall be my people: and I will no
more remove my people the children of Israel out of the land that I
have given them.
Baruch Chapter 3
They pray for mercy acknowledging that they are justly punished for
forsaking true wisdom. A prophecy of Christ.
3:1. And now O Lord Almighty the God of Israel the soul in anguish
and the troubled spirit crieth to thee:
3:2. Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art a merciful God and have
pity on us: for we have sinned before thee.
3:3. For thou remainest for ever and shall we perish everlastingly?
3:4. O Lord Almighty the God of Israel hear now the prayer of the dead
of Israel and of their children that have sinned before thee and have
not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God wherefore evils have
cleaved fast to us.
3:5. Remember not the iniquities of our fathers but think upon thy
hand and upon thy name at this time:
3:6. For thou art the Lord our God and we will praise thee O Lord:
3:7. Because for this end thou hast put thy fear in our hearts to the
intent that we should call upon thy name and praise thee in our
captivity for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers who
sinned before thee.
3:8. And behold we are at this day in our captivity whereby thou hast
scattered us to be a reproach and a curse and an offence according to
all the iniquities of our fathers who departed from thee O Lord our
God.
3:9. Hear O Israel the commandments of life: give ear that thou mayst
learn wisdom.
3:10. How happeneth it O Israel that thou art in thy enemies' land?
3:11. Thou art grown old in a strange country thou art defiled with the
dead: thou art counted with them that go down into hell.
3:12. Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom:
3:13. For if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst surely
dwelt in peace for ever.
3:14. Learn where is wisdom where is strength where is understanding:
that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life where is the
light of the eyes and peace.
3:15. Who hath found out her place? and who hath gone in to her
treasures?
3:16. Where are the princes of the nations and they that rule over the
beasts that are upon the earth?
3:17. That take their diversion with the birds of the air.
3:18. That hoard up silver and gold wherein men trust and there is no
end of their getting? who work in silver and are solicitous and their
works are unsearchable.
3:19. They are cut off and are gone down to hell and others are risen
up in their place.
3:20. Young men have seen the light and dwelt upon the earth: but the
way of knowledge they have not known
3:21. Nor have they understood the paths thereof neither have their
children received it it is far from their face.
3:22. It hath not been heard of in the land of Chanaan neither hath it
been seen in Theman.
Theman... The capital city of Edom.
3:23. The children of Agar also that search after the wisdom that is of
the earth the merchants of Merrha and of Theman and the tellers of
fables and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of
wisdom they have not known neither have they remembered her paths.
Agar... The mother of the Ismaelites.
3:24. O Israel how great is the house of God and how vast is the place
of his possession!
3:25. It is great and hath no end: it is high and immense.
3:26. There were the giants those renowned men that were from the
beginning of great stature expert in war.
3:27. The Lord chose not them neither did they find the way of
knowledge: therefore did they perish.
3:28. And because they had not wisdom they perished through their
folly.
3:29. Who hath gone up into heaven and taken her and brought her down
from the clouds?
3:30. Who hath passed over the sea and found her and brought her
preferably to chosen gold?
3:31. There is none that is able to know her ways nor that can search
out her paths:
3:32. But he that knoweth all things knoweth her and hath found her
out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore and
filled it with cattle and fourfooted beasts:
3:33. He that sendeth forth the light and it goeth: and hath called it
and it obeyeth him with trembling.
3:34. And the stars have given light in their watches and rejoiced:
3:35. They were called and they said: Here we are: and with
cheerfulness they have shined forth to him that made them.
3:36. This is our God and there shall no other be accounted of in
comparison of him.
3:37. He found out all the way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his
servant and to Israel his beloved.
3:38. Afterwards he was seen upon earth and conversed with men.
Was seen upon earth etc... viz. by the mystery of the incarnation by
means of which the son of God came visibly amongst us and conversed
with men. The prophets often speak of things to come as if they were
past to express the certainty of the event of the things foretold.
Baruch Chapter 4
The prophet exhorts to the keeping of the law of wisdom and encourages
the people to be patient and to hope for their deliverance.
4:1. This is the book of the commandments of God and the law that is
for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life: but they that have
forsaken it to death.
4:2. Return O Jacob and take hold of it walk in the way by its
brightness in the presence of the light thereof.
4:3. Give not thy honour to another nor thy dignity to a strange
nation.
4:4. We are happy O Israel: because the things that are pleasing to
God are made known to us.
4:5. Be of good comfort O people of God the memorial of Israel:
4:6. You have been sold to the Gentiles not for your destruction: but
because you provoked God to wrath you are delivered to your
adversaries.
4:7. For you have provoked him who made you the eternal God offering
sacrifice to devils and not to God.
4:8. For you have forgotten God who brought you up and you have
grieved Jerusalem that nursed you.
4:9. For she saw the wrath of God coming upon you and she said: Give
ear all you that dwell near Sion for God hath brought upon me great
mourning:
4:10. For I have seen the captivity of my people of my sons and my
daughters which the Eternal hath brought upon them.
4:11. For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping
and mourning.
4:12. Let no man rejoice over me a widow and desolate: I am forsaken
of many for the sins of my children because they departed from the law
of God.
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