Baruch 3:9-23
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
II. Praise of Wisdom[a]
A. Importance of Wisdom
9 Hear, Israel, the commandments of life:
listen, and know prudence!(A)
10 How is it, Israel,
that you are in the land of your foes,
grown old in a foreign land,
11 Defiled with the dead,
counted among those destined for Hades?(B)
12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!(C)
13 Had you walked in the way of God,
you would have dwelt in enduring peace.(D)
14 Learn where prudence is,
where strength, where understanding;
That you may know also
where are length of days, and life,
where light of the eyes, and peace.(E)
15 Who has found the place of wisdom?(F)
Who has entered into her treasuries?
16 Where are the rulers of the nations,
who lorded it over the wild beasts of the earth,(G)
17 made sport of the birds in the heavens,
Who heaped up the silver,
the gold in which people trust,
whose possessions were unlimited,
18 Who schemed anxiously for money,
their doings beyond discovery?
19 They have vanished, gone down to Hades,
and others have risen up in their stead.
20 Later generations have seen the light of day,
have dwelt on the earth,
But the way to understanding they have not known,
21 they have not perceived her paths or reached her;
their children remain far from the way to her.
22 She has not been heard of in Canaan,[b]
nor seen in Teman.(H)
23 The descendants of Hagar who seek knowledge on earth,
the merchants of Medan and Tema,(I)
the storytellers and those seeking knowledge—
These have not known the way to wisdom,
nor have they kept her paths in mind.
Footnotes
- 3:9–4:4 This poem in praise of personified Wisdom utilizes the theme of Jb 28 (where is wisdom to be found?) and it identifies wisdom and law, as in Sir 24:22–23.
- 3:22–23 Despite the renown for wisdom of the peoples of Canaan and Phoenicia (Ez 28:3–4), of Teman (Jer 49:7), of the descendants of Hagar or the Arabians of Medan and Tema, they did not possess true wisdom, which is found only in the law of God (Bar 4:1).
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