1 These are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maasiah, the son of Zedekiah, the son of Hasadiah, the son of Hilkiah, wrote in Babylon, 2 in the fifth year, and on the seventh day of the month, since the time when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burnt it with fire. 3 Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and to the ears of all the people who came to hear the book, 4 and in the hearing of the nobles, and of the king’s sons, and in the hearing of the elders, and of all the people, from the lowest to the highest, even of all those who dwelt at Babylon by the river Sud; 5 whereupon they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.

6 They also made a collection of money according to each man’s ability, 7 and they sent it to Jerusalem to Joachim the high priest, the son of Hilkiah, son of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people who were with him at Jerusalem, 8 at the same time when he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, which had been carried out of the Temple, to return them into the land of Judah, in the tenth day of the month Sivan, namely, silver vessels, which Zedekiah, the son of Josiah king of Judah, had made. 9 After that, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah and the princes and the captives and the mighty men and the people of the land, from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon.

10 And they said, “Behold, we have sent you money to buy you burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense, and to prepare you cereal offerings, to offer upon the altar of the Lord our God, 11 and to pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, that their days on earth may be as the days of heaven. 12 And the Lord will give us strength and lighten our eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and we shall serve them for many days and find favor in their sight. 13 Pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God; and until this day the fury of the Lord and his wrath has not turned from us. 14 And you shall read this book, which we have sent to you, to make confession in the house of the Lord on the feasts and solemn days.

15 “And you shall say, ‘To the Lord our God belongs righteousness, but to us, confusion of face, as has happened this day, unto those of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’ 16 And to our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers, you shall say: 17 ‘For we have sinned before the Lord, 18 and disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God to walk in the commandments which he gave us openly. 19 Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, until this present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God and we have been negligent in not hearing his voice. 20 Therefore the evils clung to us and also the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give us a land that flows with milk and honey, as is clear on this day. 21 Nevertheless we have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, according to all the words of the prophets, whom he sent to us, 22 but every man followed the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God.