When Baruch, son of Nerias, had written down the words dictated to him by Jeremias, in the fourth year of Joachim’s reign in Juda, this comfort Jeremias gave him:✻

A message from the Lord, the God of Israel, to thee, Baruch!

Woe is thee, heavy is thy heart; sorrow upon sorrow the Lord gives thee, and respite thou canst find none.

Yet this message the Lord has for thee: Here am I destroying what my own hands built, uprooting what my own hands planted;

and for thee must it be all prizes? For prizes never look thou; enough for thee that, go thou where thou wilt, safe-conduct of thy life I am granting thee.