1. AND these be the wordes of the booke, that Baruch the sonne of Nerias, the sonne of Maasias, the sonne of Sedecias, the sonne of Sedei, the sonne of Helcias wrote in Babylon,
2. in the fifth yeare, in the seuenth day of the moneth, at the time that the Chaldees tooke Ierusalem, and burnt it with fyre.
3. And Baruch redde the wordes of this booke vnto the cares of Iechonias the sonne of Ioakim the king of Iuda, and to the eares of al the people comming to the booke,
4. and to the eares of the mightie, the sonnes of the kinges, and to the eares of the ancients, and to the eares of the people, from the least euen to the greatest of them, that dwelt in Babylon, by the riuer Sodi.
5. Who hearing it wept, and fasted, and prayed in the sight of our Lord.
6. And they gathered money, according as euerie mans hand was able,
7. and they sent into Ierusalem to Ioakim the sonne of Helcias, the sonne of Salom, priest, and to the priests, and to al the people, that were found with him in Ierusalem.
8. When he tooke the vessels of the temple of our Lord, which had bene taken away out of the temple, to returne them into the Land of Iuda the tenth day of the moneth Siuan, the siluer vessels, which Sedecias the sonne of Iosias the king of Iuda made,
9. after that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had taken Iechonias, and the princes, and al the mightie, and the people of the land from Ierusalem, and brought them bound into Babylon.
10. And they said: Behold we haue sent you money, with the which bye ye holocausts, and frankincense, and make manna, and offer for sinne at the altar of the Lord our God:
11. and pray ye for the life of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar his sonne, that their dayes may be as the dayes of heauen vpon the earth:
12. and that our Lord geue vs strength, and illuminate our eyes, that we may liue vnder the shadow of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and vnder the shadow of Balthasar his sonne, and may serue them manie dayes, and may find grace in their sight.
13. And for our selues pray ye to the Lord our God: because we haue sinned to the Lord our God, and his furie is not turned away from vs euen to this day.
14. And read ye this booke, which we haue sent to you to be recited in the temple of our Lord, in a solemne day, and in a day couenient.
15. And you shal say: To the Lord our God iustice: but to vs confusion of our face: as is this day to al Iuda, and them that dwel in Ierusalem,
16. to our kinges, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophetes, and to our fathers.
17. We haue sinned before the Lord our God, and beleued him not, hauing diffidence in him:
18. and we would not be made subiect to him, and we haue not heard the voice of the Lord our God, to walke in his commandments, which he hath geuen vs.
19. From the day, that he brought our fathers out of the Land of Ægypt, euen to this day, we would not be brought to beleue the Lord our God: and dissipated we reuolted, that we might not heare his voice.
20. And manie euils and maledictions haue clouen to vs, which our Lord appoynted to Moyses his seruant: who brought our fathers out of the Land of Ægypt, to geue vs a land flowing with milke and honie, as at this present day.
21. And we haue not heard the voice of the Lord our God according to al the wordes of the prophets, which he hath sent to vs:
22. and we haue gone away euerie man into the sense of our malignant hart, to serue strange goddes, doing euils before the eyes of the Lord our God.