A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Baruch 3:9-15, 32–4:4
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life:/ listen, and know prudence!/ How is it, Israel,/ that you are in the land of your foes,/ grown old in a foreign land,/ defiled with the dead,/ accounted with those destined for the netherworld?/ You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!/ Had you walked in the way of God,/ you would have dwelt in enduring peace./ Learn where prudence is,/ where strength, where understanding;/ that you may know also/ where are length of days, and life,/ where light of the eyes, and peace./ Who has found the place of wisdom,/ who has entered into her treasuries?
The One who knows all things knows her;/ he has probed her by his knowledge—/ the One who established the earth for all time,/ and filled it with four-footed beasts;/ he who dismisses the light, and it departs,/ calls it, and it obeys him trembling;/ before whom the stars at their posts/ shine and rejoice;/ when he calls them, they answer, “Here we are!”/ shining with joy for their Maker./ Such is our God;/ no other is to be compared to him:/ he has traced out the whole way of understanding,/ and has given her to Jacob, his servant,/ to Israel, his beloved son.
Since then she has appeared on earth,/ and moved among people./ She is the book of the precepts of God,/ the law that endures forever;/ all who cling to her will live,/ but those will die who forsake her./ Turn, O Jacob, and receive her:/ walk by her light toward splendor./ Give not your glory to another,/ your privileges to an alien race./ Blessed are we, O Israel;/ for what pleases God is known to us!
The word of the Lord.
