Baruch 4: 5 - 12, 27 - 29
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| 5
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Take courage, my people, O memorial of Israel!
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| 6
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It was not for destruction that you were sold to the nations, but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God.
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| 7
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For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to demons and not to God.
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| 8
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You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up, and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.
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| 9
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For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God, and she said: "Hearken, you neighbors of Zion, God has brought great sorrow upon me;
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| 10
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for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.
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| 11
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With joy I nurtured them, but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow.
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| 12
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Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and bereaved of many; I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God.
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| 27
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"Take courage, my children, and cry to God, for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you.
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| 28
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For just as you purposed to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him.
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| 29
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For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation."
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