Sixth reading: Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4

Listen, Israel, to commands that bring life; 
hear, and learn what knowledge means.
Why, Israel, why are you in the country of your enemies,
growing older and older in an alien land,
sharing defilement with the dead,
reckoned with those who go to Sheol?
Because you have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.
Had you walked in the way of God, 
you would have lived in peace for ever.
Learn where knowledge is, where strength,
where understanding, and so learn 
where length of days is, where life,
where the light of the eyes and where peace.
But who has found out where she lives, 
who has entered her treasure house?

But the One who knows all knows her,
he has grasped her with his own intellect,
he has set the earth firm for ever
and filled it with four-footed beasts.
He sends the light – and it goes,
he recalls it – and trembling it obeys;
the stars shine joyfully at their set times:
when he calls them, they answer, ‘Here we are’;
they gladly shine for their creator.
It is he who is our God,
no other can compare with him.
He has grasped the whole way of knowledge,
and confided it to his servant Jacob,
to Israel his well-beloved;
so causing her to appear on earth 
and move among men.

This is the book of the commandments of God, 
the Law that stands for ever;
those who keep her live, 
those who desert her die.
Turn back, Jacob, seize her, 
in her radiance make your way to light:
do not yield your glory to another,
your privilege to a people not your own.
Israel, blessed are we:
what pleases God has been revealed to us.