| 1 | This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die. |
| 2 | Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated. |
| 3 | Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation. |
| 4 | O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us. |
| 5 | Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel. |
| 6 | Ye were sold to the nations, not for [your] destruction: but because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies. |
| 7 | For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto devils, and not to God. |
| 8 | Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you. |
| 9 | For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O ye that dwell about Sion: God hath brought upon me great mourning; |
| 10 | For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. |
| 11 | With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning. |
| 12 | Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God. |
| 13 | They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness. |
| 14 | Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them. |
| 15 | For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child. |
| 16 | These have carried away the dear beloved children of the widow, and left her that was alone desolate without daughters. |
| 17 | But what can I help you? |
| 18 | For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the hands of your enemies. |
| 19 | Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate. |
| 20 | I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days. |
| 21 | Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto the Lord, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies. |
| 22 | For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy is come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come unto you from the Everlasting our Saviour. |
| 23 | For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever. |
| 24 | Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity: so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting. |
| 25 | My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his destruction, and shalt tread upon his neck. |
| 26 | My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock caught of the enemies. |
| 27 | Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be remembered of him that brought these things upon you. |
| 28 | For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek him ten times more. |
| 29 | For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy with your salvation. |
| 30 | Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will comfort thee. |
| 31 | Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall. |
| 32 | Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy sons. |
| 33 | For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation. |
| 34 | For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride shall be turned into mourning. |
| 35 | For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time. |
| 36 | O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God. |
| 37 | Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God. |