4 Baruch

Chapter 7

  1. 1 And Baruch arose and went out of the tomb.
  2. 2 And the eagle answered with a human voice and said: Hail, Baruch, steward of the faith.
  3. 3 And Baruch said to him: Thou that speakest art chosen out of all the birds of heaven; it is plain from the brightness of thine eyes.
  4. 4 Shew me then, what doest thou here?
  5. 5 And the eagle said to him: I was sent here, that thou mayest send by me whatever word thou wilt.
  6. 6 And Baruch said to him: Canst thou carry this word to Jeremiah in Babylon?
  7. 7 And the eagle said to him: For this very thing was I sent.
  8. 8 And Baruch took the letter, and fifteen figs from the basket of Abimelech, and tied them to the eagle's neck,
  9. 9 and said to him: I say unto thee, king of the birds, go in peace and in health, and bring me back word.
  10. 10 Be not like the raven which Noah sent forth, and which came back to him into the ark no more; but be like the dove, which the third time brought word to the righteous man.
  11. 11 So do thou also carry this good word to Jeremiah and to those with him, that it may be well with thee; carry this paper to the chosen people of God.
  12. 12 If all the birds of heaven surround thee, and all the enemies of the truth wish to make war with thee, strive; the Lord give thee strength. And turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but as an arrow goes straight, so go thou in the power of God.
  13. 13 Then the eagle flew away with the letter, and went to Babylon, and rested upon a tree outside the city in a desert place. And it kept silence until Jeremiah passed by, he and certain others of the people.
  14. 14 For they were going out to bury a dead man; for Jeremiah had asked of Nebuchadnezzar, saying: Give me a place where I may bury the dead of my people. And he gave it him.
  15. 15 And as they went weeping with the dead man, they came over against the eagle; and the eagle cried out, saying: I say unto thee, Jeremiah, chosen of God, go, gather all the people, and let them come here, that they may hear the good tidings which I have brought thee from Baruch and from Abimelech.
  16. 16 And when Jeremiah heard it, he glorified God; and he went and gathered the people, with the women and the children, and came where the eagle was.
  17. 17 And the eagle came down upon the dead man, and he came to life.
  18. 18 And this came to pass that they might believe. And all the people marvelled at what had happened, saying: Is not this the God who appeared to our fathers in the wilderness through Moses, and has made himself in the form of an eagle, and appeared to us through this great eagle?
  19. 19 And the eagle said to Jeremiah: Come, loose this letter and read it to the people.
  20. 20 So he loosed the letter and read it to the people. And when the people heard it, they wept, and put dust upon their heads, and said to Jeremiah:
  21. 21 Save us, and tell us what we must do, that we may enter again into our city.
  22. 22 And Jeremiah answered and said to them: Keep all that ye have heard from the letter, and he will bring us into our city.
  23. 23 And Jeremiah also wrote a letter to Baruch, saying thus: My beloved son, be not slack in thy prayers, entreating for us that he may prosper our way, until we come out from under the decrees of this lawless king. For thou wast found righteous before him, and he did not let thee come here with us, that thou mightest not see the affliction brought upon the people by the Babylonians.
  24. 24 For as when a father has an only son, and he is handed over to punishment, those who see his father and comfort him cover his face, that he may not see how his son is punished and be the more undone by grief: so God has had mercy on thee, and has not let thee come to Babylon, that thou mightest not see the affliction of the people. For since we came into this city, grief has not left us, sixty-six years to this day.
  25. 25 For often when I went out I found some of the people hanged by King Nebuchadnezzar, weeping and saying: Have mercy on us, O god Zar.
  26. 26 Hearing these things I grieved and wept a double weeping: not only because they were hanged, but because they called upon a strange god, saying: Have mercy on us. And I remembered the feast days which we kept in Jerusalem before we were carried away captive.
  27. 27 And remembering, I groaned, and returned to my house in pain and weeping.
  28. 28 Now therefore pray, in the place where thou art, thou and Abimelech, for this people, that they may hearken to my voice and to the judgements of my mouth, and that we may go out from here.
  29. 29 For I tell thee, all the time we have spent here they have kept us, saying: Sing us a song from the songs of Zion, the song of your God. And we answered them: How shall we sing to you, being in a strange land?
  30. 30 And after this he tied the letter to the eagle's neck, saying: Go in peace, and may the Lord watch over us both.
  31. 31 And the eagle flew and brought the letter and gave it to Baruch; and he loosed it and read it and kissed it, and wept when he heard of the griefs and afflictions of the people.
  32. 32 And Jeremiah took the figs and gave them out to the sick among the people. And he stayed, teaching them to keep themselves from the defilements of the Gentiles of Babylon.