2 BARUCH 77
Baruch speaks to the people
77:1 And I, Baruch, went away from there and came to the people, and assembled them from the greatest to the smallest and said to them:
77:2 Hear, O children of Yisrael, behold how many are left from the twelve tribes of Yisrael.
77:3 To you and to your fathers YAHWEH gave the Torah above all nations.
77:4 And because your brothers have transgressed the commandments of YAHWEH the Most High, HE brought vengeance upon you and upon them and did not spare the ancestors, but HE also gave the descendants into captivity and did not leave a remnant of them.
77:5 And, behold, you are here, with me.
77:6 If, therefore, you will make straight your ways, you will not go away as your brothers went away, but they will come to you.
77:7 For HE is merciful whom you honor, and kind in whom you hope, and True so that HE will do tov to you and not evil.
77:8 Have you not seen what has befallen Zion?
77:9 Or do you think that the place has sinned and that it has been destroyed for this reason, or that the country has done some crime and that it is delivered up for that reason?
77:10 And do you not know that because of you who sinned the one who did not sin was destroyed, and that because of those who acted unrighteously, the one who has not gone astray has been delivered up to the enemies?
The people invite Baruch to write a letter
77:11 And the whole people answered and they said to me: Everything which we can remember of the excellent things which YAHWEH the Mighty One has done to us we shall remember, and that which we do not remember HE knows in HIS free unmerited favor and pardon.
77:12 But do this for us, YOUR people: Write also to our brothers in Babylon a letter of doctrine and a roll of hope so that you might strengthen them also before you go away from us.
77:13 For the shepherds of Yisrael have perished, and the Lamps which gave Light are extinguished, and the fountains from which we used to drink have withheld their streams.
77:14 Now we have been left in the darkness and in the thick forest and in the aridness of the desert.
77:15 And I answered and said to them: Shepherds and lamps and fountains came from the Torah and when we go away, the Torah will abide.
77:16 If you, therefore, look upon the Torah and are intent upon wisdom, then the lamp will not be wanting and the shepherd will not give way and the fountain will not dry up.
77:17 Nevertheless, I shall also write to your brothers in Babylon as you have said to me, and I shall send it by means of men. Also I shall write to the nine and a half tribes, and send it by means of a bird.
77:18 And it happened on the twenty-first day of the ninth month that I, Baruch, came and sat down under the oak in the shadow of the branches, and nobody was with me; I was alone.
77:19 And I wrote two letters. One I sent by means of an eagle to the nine and a half tribes, and the other I sent by means of three men to those who were in Babylon.
77:20 And I called an eagle and said to him these words:
77:21 You have been created by YAHWEH the Most High that you should be higher than any other bird.
77:22 But now go and do not stay in any place, do not go into a nest, do not sit on any tree until you have flown over the breadth of the many waters of the river Euphrates and have come to the people that live there and cast down to them this letter.
77:23 Remember that Noah at the time of the flood received the fruit of the olive tree from a dove when he sent it away from the ark.
77:24 And also the ravens served EliYah when they brought food to him as they were commanded.
77:25 Also Solomon, in the time of his kingship, commanded a bird where he wanted to send a letter and in whatever he was in need of and it obeyed him as he commanded it.
77:26 And do not be reluctant and do not deviate to the right nor to the left, but fly and go straight away that you may preserve the command of YAHWEH the Mighty One as I said to you.