BAROUCH
TO THE READER

EDITION OF GREEK TEXT

The New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) version of Barouch (Baruch) is based on the critical edition of Joseph Ziegler (Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctoritate Societatis Litterarum Gottingensis editum XV: Ieremias Baruch Threni Epistula Ieremiae [Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1957]).

LITERARY MAKE-UP

Barouch, an “apocryphal” text of five chapters, is a composite collection of different literary genres that divides easily into two sections.

Bar 1.1–3.8

The first section (1.1–3.8), written in prose, uses the historical background of the Babylonian captivity as a context for presenting what is essentially an admission of guilt read to the captives in Babylon. Included is an expression of hope that God will deliver them from their deserved fate. The liturgical purpose of offering sacrifices at the Jerusalem temple (1.10–11) places a focus on where the captives came from. Interestingly, God is continually addressed in the third person until 2.11 when suddenly there is a switch to second person followed by some first person references (2.23, 29–35) before returning to second person references until 3.8. There are considerable linguistic ties with the book of Ieremias in the first section suggesting, if not a shared authorship, then perhaps a common Greek translator.

Bar 3.9–5.9

The style of the second part turns suddenly into a poetic homily. Though the Greek itself from the perspective of Greek metrics is not poetry, it does reflect Hebrew poetic technique in terms of form and style. It begins at 3.9 with a plea to Israel, addressed in the second person, to contemplate wisdom and God’s law and the relationship between them. At 4.5 there is a change in the subject matter wherein the author seeks to comfort the captives (four times they are urged to “take courage”: 4.5, 21, 27, 30). This second section (3.9–5.9) shifts from focusing on the land they came from to the land they now reside in. Along with a genre and a subject change, there is also a noticeable adjustment in attitude toward the Babylonian captors in this second section. Whereas they are instructed to pray for the lives of their captors in the first section (1.11), they are informed of God’s future destruction of them in the second section (4.25, 31–32).

TRANSLATION PROFILE OF THE GREEK

Barouch as a Translation

Barouch is a fascinating book from the perspective of translation since, despite the fact that there are no extant Hebrew versions, it is held almost unanimously among scholars that the first section (1.1–3.8) was originally written in Hebrew. This conclusion is based on the kind of Greek that is apparent in the text and the fact that some phrases are unclear without recourse to a Hebrew retroversion. There are possible mistranslations of an original Hebrew. So, for example, 3.4, “those of Israel who have died,” might have been a misreading of “men,” which when unvocalized can be read as “dead” (see Esa 5.13), and 2.25, “by dispatch,” might have been a misreading of “famine.” There are also many pronounced Hebraisms of the Greek in this portion, such as sustained parataxis with (“and”) or (“person”) for distributive (“each”) or again pleonastic adverbs, (“where . . . there”) (2.4, 13, 29; 3.8), and pronouns, e.g., (“of whom …. of them”) in 2.17.

Emanuel Tov has made a Hebrew retroversion of this first section. His intent was to show how the translator of Barouch showed affinities with the translation of Jeremiah (Ieremias). Tov theorizes that the entire book of Jeremiah had originally been translated into Greek as a unit and then, subsequently, was revised but that only the second half of that revision (chaps. 29–52 of Ieremias) has survived. Tov furthermore postulates that the same reviser also revised Bar 1.1–3.8. Since Ieremias is clearly based on a Hebrew original, its affinities with the first section of Barouch (1.1–3.8) provide solid support for an original Hebrew of this section.

Barouch as Greek Composition

The second section (3.9–5.9) is the subject of much debate concerning its original language. On the one hand, there is a general Greek character to it. It also possesses one Septuagintal hapax legomenon, the “story-tellers” (3.23), and several words, many of which are neologisms, that only appear here in all of the Septuagint, i.e., “to be defiled with” (3.11), “longevity” (3.14), “to rise up against” (3.19), the “seekers” (3.23), “extensive” (3.24), “shining” (4.2) and “to multiply by ten” (4.28). Add to these data the facts that 4.36–5.9 has strong parallels with the Greek version of the Psalms of Salomon 11 and that the phraseology of 4.28 is difficult to reconstruct back into biblical Hebrew, and one might have good grounds to argue for an original Greek composition.

On the other hand, the literary style, especially the use of the vocative or the imperative and the strong use of parallelism, allow for the possibility of a Hebrew original. There are also a few instances where the Greek appears to be a mistranslation of the Hebrew, such as the unique appearance of the city Merran (3.23), which may have been a Hebrew corruption of Midian (the r and d in Hebrew are easily confused), followed by the Greek doubling of the r, which occurs occasionally in the transliteration of Hebrew proper names (e.g., Sarra in LXX Gen 17.19 and Gomorra in LXX Gen 18.20). David G. Burke has produced his own retroversion of this second section based on the conclusion that it was originally composed in Hebrew. Despite Burke’s ability to retrovert this section into Hebrew, however, the evidence for this section being translation Greek is by no means conclusive. It is just as possible that it was originally written in Greek. Much earlier, J. J. Kneucker was satisfied that the entire book had originally been written in Hebrew, and he created his own retroversion of what he thought to be the original Hebrew.

Ultimately though, since one does not find ties between Ieremias and this second section of Barouch as is clearly the case with the first section, it is likely that it was the work of a different author who could easily have composed in Greek. All of the biblical citations found here are based on the LXX rather than on the Hebrew and therefore are suggestive of a Greek origin. It is just as likely that the author of this section of Barouch was trained in a Septuagintal style of writing and deliberately created an original Greek text in this manner. Perhaps by the time of Barouch’s composition Hebraisms such as (4.34) “to mourning” (Hebrew , 2 Sam 19.3; Amos 8.10; Lam 5.15) were becoming commonplace in the Jewish tradition of biblical composition and therefore are nothing more than stylistic imitations of the Septuagint. Nevertheless, despite the apparent problems of determining the original language of composition for 3.9–5.9, since no Hebrew text for any part of Barouch has survived, NETS is based in its entirety solely on the Greek. That being the case, any attempt to create a translation profile for the book lacks credibility. Since the Hebrew “versions” we do have available are retroversions from the Greek and thus are based on assumed Hebrew-Greek equivalencies, using them as evidence is inherently problematic.

General Character of the Greek

There are subtle differences in the style or presentation of Greek between the two sections. Whereas the first section is replete with Hebraisms in the Greek, the second has far fewer. Nevertheless, since it attempts to imitate Hebrew poetry, the Greek is not altogether a fluid rendering.

Content

Barouch is a highly eclectic text. It reads like a patchwork of expressions and ideas borrowed from other parts of biblical material rather than an original work of its own. To give just a few examples, 1.15–2.12 shows considerable influence from Dan 9.7–14, and 2.13 compares well with Deut 28.62 and Ier 42.2. Barouch 3.29–4.4 is indebted to Iob 28.12–27 as well as Deutero-Isaiah (e.g., 3.36 and 5.5, 7), Ecclesiast (Qoheleth) and the Psalms of Salomon for most of its ideas and expressions. Barouch 3.14 is reminiscent of Prov 3.13–18, and 4.15 is based on Deut 28.49–50. There are faint echoes of Reigns as well. And, of course, the book of Jeremiah/Ieremias lies behind much of the content in the first section.

Barouch shows inconsistency in the use of divine titles. Though not problematic as Greek per se, such inconsistency might be indicative of multiple authors/translators and hence would constitute a way of noting different Greek usage. The first section (1.1–3.8) prefers to refer to the deity, whereas the first part of second section (3.9–4.4) commonly uses . The second part of the second section (4.5–5.9) then introduces “the everlasting one” as a preference. There is even the unique (to Barouch) and unexpected use of “Almighty” as a divine epithet in 3.1, which almost suggests a different author/translator for the first eight verses of chapter three.

The appearance of very different basic words and phrases in the second section, not evident in the first, is both interesting and significant. In the previous prose section, the Greek (probably translating the Hebrew is very prominent, but in this poetic section appears most often. As well, seems to be the translation of choice for the prose, but the translator prefers for the poetic material (both no doubt translating the Hebrew . Perhaps, all such “clues” to different translators/authors are merely due to a change in the content.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Along with standard grammars and lexica the following have proven very helpful: Burke, David. G. The Poetry of Baruch: A Reconstruction and Analysis of the Original Hebrew Text of Baruch 3:9–5:9 (SBLSCS 10; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1982); Dancy, J. C. “Baruch.” The Cambridge Bible Commentary: The Shorter Books of the Apocrypha (P. R. Ackroyd, et al., eds.; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1972) 169–196; Harwell, R. R. The Principle Versions of Baruch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915); Kneucker, J. J. Das Buch Baruch: Geschicte und Kritik, Uebersetzung und Erklärung (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1879); Moore, Carey A. Daniel, Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions (AB 44, Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977 [Paris: J. Gabalda et Cie, éditeurs, 1998]); Pfeiffer, History; Steck, Odil Hannes. Das apokryphe Baruchbuch (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993); Thackeray, H. St. John. “Baruch,” in A New Commentary on Holy Scripture Including the Apocrypha (Charles Gore, ed. London: SPCK, 1929) 102–111; Tov, Emanuel. The Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah and Baruch (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976); Whitehouse, O. C. “1 Baruch” in Charles 1.569–595.

I owe an immeasurable debt to Albert Pietersma for his precedent-setting initial translation of the Psalms that has been the beacon for all subsequent NETS work. I wish to express a heartfelt, sincere gratitude for his personal encouragement and inexhaustible patience in advising on and editing this particular translation. There is clearly a debt here that can never be wholly repaid.

TONY S. L. MICHAEL

______________________________________________________________________

1 And these are the words of the book which Barouch son of Nerias son of Maasaias son of Sedekias son of Hasadias son of Chelkias wrote in Babylon, ²in the fifth year, on the seventh of the month, at the time when the Chaldeans took Ierousalem and set it on fire.

3 And Barouch read the words of this book in the ears of Iechonias son of Ioakim, king of Iouda, and in the ears of all the people, those who came to the book, ⁴and in the ears of the mighty and the sons of the kings and in the ears of the elders and in the ears of all the people, from small to great, all who lived in Babylon by the river Soud.

5 And they kept weeping and fasting and praying before the Lord, ⁶and they collected silver as the hand of each was able ⁷and sent it to Ierou-salem to the priest Ioakim son of Chelkias son of Salom and to the priests and to all the people who were found with him in Ierousalem ⁸when he took the vessels of the house of the Lord which were carried out of the shrine to return to the land of Iouda on the tenth of Siouan—the silver vessels that King Sedekias of Iouda son of Iosias had made, ⁹after Nabouchodonosor, king of Babylon, exiled Iechonias and the magistrates and the prisoners and the mighty and the people of the land from Ierousalem, and he brought him^a to Babylon.

10 And they said: Look, we sent you silver; and buy with the silver whole burnt offerings and for sin and incense, and make manaa^b, and offer them on the altar of the Lord our God; 11and pray concerning the life of King Nabouchodonosor of Babylon and regarding the life of his son Baltasar so that their days on the earth may be like the days of the sky. ¹²And the Lord will give strength to us, and he will illuminate our eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of King Nabouchodonosor of Babylon and under the shadow of his son Baltasar, and we shall be subject to them many days, and we shall find favor before them. ¹³And pray concerning us to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, and the anger of the Lord and his wrath have not turned away from us until this day. ¹⁴And you shall read aloud this book, which we sent to you to declare in the house of the Lord on a feast day and on days of a season.

15 And you shall say: To the Lord, our God, belongs righteousness but to us shame of faces as this day, to a person of Iouda, to the inhabitants of Ierousalem, ¹⁶to our kings and to our magistrates and to our priests and to our prophets and to our fathers, ¹⁷for which things we have sinned before the Lord, ¹⁸and we disobeyed him and have not listened to the voice of the Lord, our God, to walk by the decrees of the Lord that he gave before us. ¹⁹From the day when the Lord brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt even until this day, we were being disobedient to the Lord our God, and we were acting carelessly so as not to listen to his voice. ²⁰And there have clung to us the bad things and the curse that the Lord instructed to his servant Moyses in the day he brought out our ancestors from the land of Egypt, to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey, as this day. ²¹And we did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God according to all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us, ²²and each of us went off in the intent of his evil heart to work for other gods, to do evil things in the eyes of the Lord our God.

2 And the Lord established his word which he spoke to us and to our judges who judged Israel and to our kings and to our magistrates and to a person of Israel and Iouda. ²It was not done under the whole sky as he did in Ierousalem, according to that which is written in the law of Moyses—³that we should eat, a person the flesh of his son and a person the flesh of his daughter. ⁴And he gave them as subjects to all the kingdoms around us as a disgrace and as something untrodden, among all the peoples around us there where the Lord scattered them. ⁵And they became beneath and not above, because we sinned against the Lord, our God, so as not to listen to his voice.

6 To the Lord, our God, belongs righteousness but to us and to our fathers shame of faces, as this day. ⁷All these bad things which the Lord spoke to us have come upon us. ⁸And we did not entreat the face of the Lord to turn away, each from the designs of their wicked heart. ⁹And the Lord kept watch over the bad things, and the Lord brought them upon us, for the Lord is just in all his works, which he commanded us. ¹⁰And we have not listened to his voice to walk by the decrees of the Lord that he gave before us.

11 And now, O Lord God of Israel, you who brought out your people from the land of Egypt by a mighty hand and with signs and with wonders and with great power and with a high arm and you made yourself a name, as this day. ¹²We have sinned; we have been impious; we have done wrong, O Lord our God, against all of your requirements. ¹³Let your anger turn away from us, for few of us have been left behind among the nations, there where you scattered us. ¹⁴Listen, O Lord, to our prayer and our petition, and deliver us for your sake, and give us favor before the face of those who carried us off to exile ¹⁵in order that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our God, for your name has been called upon Israel and upon his family.

16 O Lord, look down from your holy house, and think of us. Incline, O Lord, your ear, and listen. ¹⁷Open your eyes, and see, for the dead in Hades, those whose spirit has been taken from their inward parts, will not give glory and justification to the Lord. ¹⁸But the soul who is grieving over the magnitude^a, that walks bowed and is weak, and the eyes that are failing and the soul that is hungry—they shall give you glory and righteousness, O Lord.

19 For it is not because of acts deemed righteous of our fathers and our kings that we throw down our^b mercy before you, O Lord, our God. ²⁰For you have brought your anger and your wrath against us, as you had spoken by the hand of your servants the prophets, saying: ²¹Thus did the Lord say: Incline your shoulder, and work for the king of Babylon, and sit upon the land which I gave to your fathers. ²²And if you do not obey the voice of the Lord to work for the king of Babylon, ²³I will make to fail from the towns of Iouda and from outside of Ierousalem a voice of merriment and a voice of delight, a voice of bridegroom and a voice of bride, and all the land will become untrodden by inhabitants.

24 And we did not obey your voice to work for the king of Babylon, and you have established your words which you spoke by the hands of your servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers may be carried out from their place. ²⁵And look, they^c are cast out in the heat of the day and the frost of the night, and they died in wicked pains, by famine and by sword and by dispatch. ²⁶And you made the house, where your name was called over it, as this day because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Iouda.

27 And you have done to us, O Lord, our God, according to all your fairness and according to all your great compassion ²⁸as you spoke by the hand of your servant Moyses in the day when you commanded him to write your law before the sons of Israel, saying, ²⁹“If you do not obey my voice, surely this great, voluminous buzzing^d will turn into a small one among the nations, there where I will scatter them. ³⁰For I knew that they would not obey me, because the people are stiff-necked. And they will return to their heart in the land of their exile, ³¹and they will know that I am the Lord their God. And I will give them a heart and hearing ears,

³²and they will praise me in the land of their exile, and they will remember my name, ³³and they will turn away from their hard back and from their wicked deeds, because they will remember the way of their fathers who sinned before the Lord. ³⁴And I will return them to the land, which I swore to their fathers, to Abraam and to Isaak and to Iakob, and they will rule over it, and I will multiply them, and they will not diminish. ³⁵I will establish with them an everlasting covenant, that I be god to them and they be a people to me, and I will not disturb again my people Israel from the land that I have given them.”

3 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul in straits and a weary spirit calls out to you. ²Listen, O Lord, and show mercy, for we have sinned before you. ³For you are seated forever, and we are perishing forever. ⁴O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen now to the prayer of those of Israel who have died and of the sons of those who kept sinning before you, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord, their God, and bad things have clung to us. ⁵ Do not remember the injustices of our ancestors; rather, remember your hand and your name in this season. ⁶For you are the Lord, our God, and we will praise you, O Lord. ⁷For because of this you have given your fear in our heart in order that we call upon your name, and we will praise you in our exile, for we have put away from our heart all the injustice of our fathers who sinned before you. ⁸Look, we are today in our exile, there where you have scattered us for a reproach and for a curse and for a penalty according to all the injustices of our fathers who departed from the Lord our God.

⁹ Hear, O Israel, commandments of life;
give ear to learn insight.

¹⁰ Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in
         the enemies’ land,
that you became old in a foreign land;

¹¹ you were defiled with corpses,
you were counted among those in
         Hades?

¹² You have forsaken the spring of wisdom.

¹³ If in the way of God you had gone,
you would be living in peace forever.

¹⁴ Learn where there is insight,
where there is strength,
where there is intelligence,

to know at the same time
where there is longevity and life,
where there is light for eyes and peace.

¹⁵ Who has found her place,
and who entered into her treasuries?

¹⁶ Where are the magistrates of the nations
and those who have dominion over the
         beasts that are on the earth,

¹⁷ those who make sport among the birds of
         the sky

and who store up silver and gold,

in which humans have trusted,
and there is no end to their acquisition,

¹⁸ those who scheme for silver and are
         anxious,
and there is no trace of their works?

¹⁹ They have vanished and gone down to
         Hades,
and others have arisen in their place.

²⁰ Younger ones saw light,
and they lived upon the earth,

but they did not know the way of
         knowledge

²¹ nor understood her paths,
nor did they take hold of her.

Their sons ended up far away from their
         way.

²² She has neither been heard of in Chanaan
nor been seen in Thaiman—

²³ nor the sons of Hagar who seek out
         intelligence upon the earth,

the merchants of Merran and Thaiman

and the story-tellers and the seekers for
intelligence.

But they did not know the way of wisdom
         nor remembered her paths.

²⁴ Ah Israel, how great is the house of God,
and how extensive is the place of its^a
         estate!

²⁵ It is great and has no end;
it is high and immeasurable.

²⁶ The giants were born there, those
         renowned, those of old,

seeing that they were large, experts in
war.

²⁷ Not these did God choose,
nor did he give them the way of
         knowledge,

²⁸ and they perished because they had no
         insight;

they perished through their recklessness.

²⁹ Who has gone up into the sky and taken
         her

and brought her down from the clouds?

³⁰ Who has crossed over the sea and found
         her

and will bring her in exchange for choice
gold?

³¹ There is no one who is familiar with her
         way,

nor one who thinks much about her
path.

³² But he who knows all things is familiar with
         her;

he discovered her by his intelligence;

he who equipped the earth for all time,
he filled it with quadrupeds.

³³ He who sends the light, and it goes—
he summoned it and it obeyed him, with
          a shudder,

³⁴ but the stars shone in their watches and
         were glad;

³⁵     he called them, and they said, “We are
         present!”

They shone with gladness for him who
         made them.

³⁶ This is our God;
no other will be reckoned with him.

³⁷ He discovered the whole way of knowledge³⁵ For fire will come upon her from the
and gave her to his servant Iakob
and to Israel who was loved by him.

³⁸ After this she appeared on earth
and associated among humans.

4 She^a is the book of the decrees of God
    and the law that remains forever.

All who seize her are for life,
but those who forsake her will die.

² Turn, O Iakob, and take hold of her;
pass through toward the shining in the
         presence of her light.

³ Do not give your glory to another
and your benefits to a foreign nation.

⁴ Happy are we, O Israel,
because what is pleasing to God is known
         to us.

⁵ Take courage, my people,
reminder of Israel!

⁶ You were sold to the nations
not for destruction,

but because you angered God
you were delivered to your adversaries.

⁷ For you provoked the one who made you
by sacrificing to demons and not to God.

⁸ And you forgot the one who nursed you,
         God everlasting,

and you even grieved Ierousalem who
reared you.

⁹ For she saw the anger that came upon you
         from God,

and she said:

Listen, you neighbors of Sion,
God has brought great mourning upon
         me;

¹⁰ for they saw the captivity of my sons and
         daughters,

which the Everlasting brought upon
them.

¹¹ For I reared them with gladness,
but I sent them away with weeping and
         grief.

¹² Let no one rejoice against me, the widow
and one forsaken by many;

I was left desolate because of the sins of my
         children,
because they turned away from God’s law.

¹³ And they did not recognize his statutes;
neither did they walk in the ways of
         God’s commandments

nor tread on the paths of instruction by
his righteousness.

¹⁴ Let the neighbors of Sion come.

And remember the captivity of my sons
and daughters,

which the Everlasting brought upon
them.

¹⁵ For he brought against them a far off nation,
a shameless nation and one speaking an
         alien tongue,

who did not respect an old man nor showed
         mercy to a child.

¹⁶ And they led away the beloved sons of the
         widow

and isolated the lonely woman from her
daughters.

¹⁷ But I^b, how am I able to help you?

¹⁸ For he who brought these bad things upon
         you

will deliver you from the hand of your
enemies.

¹⁹ Walk, children, walk,
for I have been left desolate.

²⁰ I have taken off the robe of peace
and put on sackcloth for my petition;

I will cry out to the Everlasting in all my
days.

²¹ Take courage, O children; call out to God,
and he will deliver you from
         domination, from the hand of
         enemies.

²² For I have hoped in the Everlasting for your
         salvation,

and joy has come to me from the Holy
One

because of the mercy that will soon come to
         you

from your everlasting savior.

²³ For I dispatched out with mourning and
         weeping,

but God will give you back to me with
delight and merriment forever.

²⁴ For as the neighbors of Sion have seen your
         captivity now,

so they will quickly see your salvation
from God,

which will come to you with the great glory
and splendor of the Everlasting.

²⁵ O children, bear patiently the wrath that has
         come upon you from God.

The enemy has pursued you,
but you will quickly see their destruction
and will tread upon their necks.

²⁶ My pampered children have traveled rough
         roads;

they were taken away like a flock carried
off by enemies.

²⁷ Take courage, O children, and call out to
         God,

for there will be mention of you by the
one who brought this.

²⁸ For just as your intention became to go
         astray from God,

multiply by ten when you return to seek
him.

²⁹ For the one who brought these bad things
         upon you

will bring you everlasting merriment with
your salvation.

³⁰ Take courage, O Ierousalem;
he who named you will comfort you.

³¹ Wretched will be those who have harmed
         you
and who have rejoiced at your fall.

³² Wretched will be the cities that your
         children served as slaves;

wretched will be the one^a that received
your sons.

³³ For just as she rejoiced at your fall
and was glad for your ruin,

so she will be grieved at her own
desolation.

³⁴ And I will take away her rejoicing of her
         great population,

and her insolence will be turned to
mourning.

³⁵ For fire will come upon her from the
         Everlasting for long days,

and for a rather long time she will be
inhabited by demons.

³⁶ Look around toward the east, O Ierousalem,
and see the merriment that is coming to
         you from God.

³⁷ Behold, your sons are coming, whom you
         sent away;

they are coming, gathered from east until
west,

at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in
         the glory of God.

5 Take off your robe of mourning and
         affliction, O Ierousalem,

and put on the dignity of the glory from
God forever.

² Put on the ^bdouble-cloak^b of the
         righteousness that is from God;

put on your head the headband of the
glory of the Everlasting.

³ For God will show your splendor in the
         all that is beneath heaven.

⁴ For your name will be called by God
         forever,

“Peace of righteousness and glory of
piety.”

⁵ Arise, O Ierousalem, and stand upon the
         height,

and look around toward the east,

and see your children gathered from the
         setting of the sun until its rising

at the word of the Holy One,

rejoicing at God’s remembering.

⁶ For they went out from you on foot,
led away by enemies,

but God will bring them to you,
taken up with glory, as on a royal
         throne.

⁷ For God has instructed that every high
         mountain

and the everlasting mounds be made low

and the valleys be filled to make level the
ground

so that Israel may walk safely by the glory
of God.

⁸ And even the woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s ordinance.

⁹ For God will lead Israel with merriment,
by the light of his glory,
together with the mercy and
         righteousness that is from him.