HOLY BIBLE: Baruch 3 (original) (raw)

1 κύριε παντοκράτωρ ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ ψυχὴ ἐν στενοῖς καὶ πνεῦμα ἀκηδιῶν κέκραγεν πρὸς σέ 2 ἄκουσον κύριε καὶ ἐλέησον ὅτι ἡμάρτομεν ἐναντίον σου 3 ὅτι σὺ καθήμενος τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀπολλύμενοι τὸν αἰῶνα 4 κύριε παντοκράτωρ ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ ἄκουσον δὴ τῆς προσευχῆς τῶν τεθνηκότων Ισραηλ καὶ υἱῶν τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων ἐναντίον σου οἳ οὐκ ἤκουσαν τῆς φωνῆς κυρίου θεοῦ αὐτῶν καὶ ἐκολλήθη ἡμῖν τὰ κακά 5 μὴ μνησθῇς ἀδικιῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἀλλὰ μνήσθητι χειρός σου καὶ ὀνόματός σου ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ 6 ὅτι σὺ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν καὶ αἰνέσομέν σε κύριε 7 ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο ἔδωκας τὸν φόβον σου ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἡμῶν τοῦ ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομά σου καὶ αἰνέσομέν σε ἐν τῇ ἀποικίᾳ ἡμῶν ὅτι ἀπεστρέψαμεν ἀπὸ καρδίας ἡμῶν πᾶσαν ἀδικίαν πατέρων ἡμῶν τῶν ἡμαρτηκότων ἐναντίον σου 8 ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς σήμερον ἐν τῇ ἀποικίᾳ ἡμῶν οὗ διέσπειρας ἡμᾶς ἐκεῖ εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν καὶ εἰς ἀρὰν καὶ εἰς ὄφλησιν κατὰ πάσας τὰς ἀδικίας πατέρων ἡμῶν οἳ ἀπέστησαν ἀπὸ κυρίου θεοῦ ἡμῶν

1 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, here be lives in jeopardy, here be troubled hearts, that plead with thee! 2 Listen, Lord, and have mercy, none so merciful as thou; pardon the sins that lie open in thy sight. 3 Thou reignest for ever; must we for ever be lost? 4 Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen to the prayer Israel makes to thee from the grave![1] Our fathers it was that defied the Lord their God, and gave no heed to him; and to us, their sons, the punishment clings. 5 Forget the wrong they did, those fathers of ours; remember thy ancient power, thy own honour, this day; 6 only to thee, the Lord our God, shall praise of ours be given. 7 Why else hast thou inspired us with such dread of thee? Thou wouldst have us learn to invoke thy name, to utter thy praise, here as exiles, in proof that we disown the wrong our fathers did, when their sins defied thee. 8 Exiles we are this day, dispersed by thee to suffer scorn and reviling, until we have made amends for all the wrong our fathers did when they abandoned thee, abandoned the Lord our God.

Et nunc, Domine omnipotens, Deus Israël,
anima in angustiis, et spiritus anxius clamat ad te.

2
Audi, Domine, et miserere,
quia Deus es misericors:
et miserere nostri, quia peccavimus ante te: 3
quia tu sedes in sempiternum,
et nos, peribimus in ævum? 4
Domine omnipotens, Deus Israël,
audi nunc orationem mortuorum Israël,
et filiorum ipsorum qui peccaverunt ante te,
et non audierunt vocem Domini Dei sui,
et agglutinata sunt nobis mala. 5
Noli meminisse iniquitatum patrum nostrorum,
sed memento manus tuæ et nominis tui in tempore isto: 6
quia tu es Dominus Deus noster,
et laudabimus te, Domine: 7
quia propter hoc dedisti timorem tuum in cordibus nostris,
et ut invocemus nomen tuum,
et laudemus te in captivitate nostra,
quia convertimur ab iniquitate patrum nostrorum,
qui peccaverunt ante te. 8
Et ecce nos in captivitate nostra sumus hodie,
qua nos dispersisti in improperium,
et in maledictum, et in peccatum,
secundum omnes iniquitates patrum nostrorum,
qui recesserunt a te, Domine Deus noster.

9 ἄκουε Ισραηλ ἐντολὰς ζωῆς ἐνωτίσασθε γνῶναι φρόνησιν 10 τί ἐστιν Ισραηλ τί ὅτι ἐν γῇ τῶν ἐχθρῶν εἶ ἐπαλαιώθης ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ 11 συνεμιάνθης τοῖς νεκροῖς προσελογίσθης μετὰ τῶν εἰς ᾅδου 12 ἐγκατέλιπες τὴν πηγὴν τῆς σοφίας 13 τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰ ἐπορεύθης κατῴκεις ἂν ἐν εἰρήνῃ τὸν αἰῶνα 14 μάθε ποῦ ἐστιν φρόνησις ποῦ ἐστιν ἰσχύς ποῦ ἐστιν σύνεσις τοῦ γνῶναι ἅμα ποῦ ἐστιν μακροβίωσις καὶ ζωή ποῦ ἐστιν φῶς ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ εἰρήνη 15 τίς εὗρεν τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς καὶ τίς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τοὺς θησαυροὺς αὐτῆς 16 ποῦ εἰσιν οἱ ἄρχοντες τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ οἱ κυριεύοντες τῶν θηρίων τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς 17 οἱ ἐν τοῖς ὀρνέοις τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐμπαίζοντες καὶ τὸ ἀργύριον θησαυρίζοντες καὶ τὸ χρυσίον ᾧ ἐπεποίθεισαν ἄνθρωποι καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν τέλος τῆς κτήσεως αὐτῶν 18 οἱ τὸ ἀργύριον τεκταίνοντες καὶ μεριμνῶντες καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐξεύρεσις τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν

9 Listen, Israel, to the warnings that shall bring thee life; give attentive audience, if thou wouldst learn to be wise. 10 What means it, Israel, that thou findest thyself in the enemy’s land, 11 grown old in exile, unclean as a dead body, no more taken into account than men who have gone down into their graves? 12 It is because thou hast forsaken the fountain whence all wisdom comes. 13 If thou hadst but followed the path God shewed thee, thou mightest have lived in peace eternally. 14 Learn where to find wisdom, and strength, and discernment; so thou wilt find length of years, too, and true life, and cheerfulness, and peace. 15 Who can tell where wisdom dwells, who has made his way into her store-house? 16 What has become of those heathen princes, who gained mastery of the beasts that roam the earth, 17 tamed the birds for their pastime; 18 heaping up silver and gold, man’s confidence, man’s interminable quest? How anxiously they toiled for wealth! And now these devices of theirs are beyond our tracing.

Audi, Israël, mandata vitæ:
auribus percipe, ut scias prudentiam.

10
Quid est, Israël, quod in terra inimicorum es, 11
inveterasti in terra aliena,
coinquinatus es cum mortuis,
deputatus es cum descendentibus in infernum? 12
Dereliquisti fontem sapientiæ: 13
nam si in via Dei ambulasses,
habitasses utique in pace sempiterna. 14
Disce ubi sit prudentia,
ubi sit virtus, ubi sit intellectus,
ut scias simul ubi sit longiturnitas vitæ et victus,
ubi sit lumen oculorum, et pax. 15
Quis invenit locum ejus?
et quis intravit in thesauros ejus? 16
Ubi sunt principes gentium,
et qui dominantur super bestias quæ sunt super terram? 17
qui in avibus cæli ludunt, 18
qui argentum thesaurizant, et aurum,
in quo confidunt homines,
et non est finis acquisitionis eorum?
qui argentum fabricant, et solliciti sunt,
nec est inventio operum illorum?

[1] Literally, ‘the prayer of the dead of Israel’. Some think this refers to prayer offered by the dead on behalf of the living; others, that the race of Israel is, by a metaphor, described as ‘dead’; others, that the Hebrew text had simply ‘the folk of Israel’, and that the Greek translator, having no vowel-points to guide him, was deceived by the identical form of the two words.

[2] v. 24 sqq. God’s ‘house’ is usually identified as creation generally. But it must be confessed that this reference to the giants (Gen. 6.4) belongs to a stream of tradition about which we know little.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd