4:1 This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endureth for ever: all they that keep it [shall come] to life; but such as leave it shall die.

4:2 Turn thee, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk in the presence of the light thereof, that thou mayest be illuminated.

4:3 Give not thine honour to another, nor the things that are profitable unto thee to a strange nation.

4:4 O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.

4:5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.

4:6 Ye were sold to the nations, not for [your] destruction: but because ye moved God to wrath, ye were delivered unto the enemies.

4:7 For ye provoked him that made you by sacrificing unto devils and not to God.

4:8 Ye have forgotten the everlasting God, that brought you up; and ye have grieved Jerusalem, that nursed you.

4:9 For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she said, Hearken, O ye that dwell about Sion: God hath brought upon me great mourning;

4:10 for I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

4:11 With joy did I nourish them; but sent them away with weeping and mourning.

4:12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God.

4:13 They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his righteousness.

4:14 Let them that dwell about Sion come, and remember ye the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting hath brought upon them.

4:15 For he hath brought a nation upon them from far, a shameless nation, and of a strange language, who neither reverenced old man, nor pitied child,

4:16 and they have carried away the dear beloved children of the widow, and left her that was alone desolate without daughters.

4:17 But what can I help you?

4:18 For he that brought these plagues upon you will deliver you from the hands of your enemies.

4:19 Go your way, O my children, go your way: for I am left desolate.

4:20 I have put off the clothing of peace, and put upon me the sackcloth of my prayer: I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days.

4:21 Be of good cheer, O my children, cry unto the Lord, and he shall deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.

4:22 For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you: and joy is come unto me from the Holy One, because of the mercy which shall soon come unto you from the Everlasting your Saviour.

4:23 For I sent you out with mourning and weeping: but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever.

4:24 Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity: so shall they see shortly your salvation from your God, which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.

4:25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God: for thine enemy hath persecuted thee; but shortly thou shalt see his destruction, and shalt tread upon his neck.

4:26 My delicate ones have gone rough ways, and were taken away as a flock caught of the enemies.

4:27 Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry unto God: for ye shall be remembered of him that brought these things upon you.

4:28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek him ten times more.

4:29 For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation.

4:30 Take a good heart, O Jerusalem: for he that gave thee that name will comfort thee.

4:31 Miserable are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced at thy fall.

4:32 Miserable are the cities which thy children served: miserable is she that received thy sons.

4:33 For as she rejoiced at thy ruin, and was glad of thy fall: so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.

4:34 For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude, and her pride shall be turned into mourning.

4:35 For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure; and she shall be inhabited of devils for a great time.

4:36 O Jerusalem, look about thee toward the east, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God.

4:37 Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.