2 Baruch

Historical printed page 506

23 24 26 21 28 29 30 31 33 33 34 36 Il BARUCH 48, 23-36 To all time are we blessed at all events in this that we have not mingled with the Gentiles. | ‘or we are all one celebrated people, Who have received one law from One: And the law which is amongst us will aid us, And the surpassing wisdom which is in us will help us.’ And when I had prayed and said these things, I was greatly weakened. And He answered and said unto me: ‘Thou hast prayed simply, O Baruch, And all thy words have been heard. But My judgement exacts its own And My law exacts its rights. For from thy words I will answer thee, And from thy prayer I will speak to thee. For this is as follows: he that is corrupted is not at all; he has both wrought iniquity so far as he could do anything, and has not remembered My goodness, nor accepted My long-suffering. There- fore thou shalt surely be taken up, as I before told thee. For,that time shall arise which brings affliction ; for it shall come and pass by with quick vehemence, and it shall be turbulent coming in the heat of indignation. And it shall come to pass in those days that all the inhabitants of the earth shall be moved one against another, because they know not that My judgement has drawn nigh. For there shall not be found many wise at that time, And the intelligent shall be but a few: Moreover, even those who know shall most of all be silent. And there shall be many rumours and tidings not a few, And the doings of phantasmata shall be manifest, And promises not a few be recounted. Some of them (shall prove) idle, And some of them shall be confirmed. And honour shall be turned into shame, And strength humiliated into contempt, tAnd probity destroyed,+ And beauty shall become ugliness. And many shall say to many at that time: “Where hath the multitude of intelligence hidden itself, And whither hath the multitude of wisdom removed itself?” 23. This verse is bracketed as a prosaic intrusion. 24. one law from One. Ixxxv. 14. This is directed against Christians. - ᾿ the law... will aid us. Cf. xxix. 2, note; and xxxii. 1. Cf., too, De singularitate cler. 15 (Cyprian, Ed. Hartel ii, 190) ‘ sicut Esaias ait, legem inquit in adiutorium dedit.’ 29. The Syriac text is unintelligible. 31-41. The last woes and the final judgement. Cf. xxvii-xxix. 1; Ixx. 2-10. ; 32. shall be moved. Text reads ΣΝ (ΞΞ ‘shall rest’) which I emended in 1896 into cosh ‘shall be moved’. 33. Cf. lxx. 5. This verse resembles what Cyprian (Zes¢¢m. iii. 29) quotes as from Baruch: ‘ Erit enim sapientia in paucis vigilantibus et taciturnis.’ 34. Cyprian again seems to quote ‘alii autem sapientes ad spiritum erroris et pronuntiantes sicut Altissimi et Fortis edicta’. For the many impostors cf. Matt. xxiv. 11, 24. 35. Of the four lines in this stanza three give a series of paronomasiae when retranslated into Hebrew, as in xxi. 14. Thus the first, second, and fourth run: popd yan nas na bx say ty ἜΤ nny vay As regards the third it is certainly corrupt. The analogy of the other three leads us to expect a paronomasia here also, The Syriac is Jasob JsMab, where the first word may be corrupt for JLasje. The text would then = ‘and understanding would become foolishness.’ This at once gives a good sense and a paronomasia on the Hebrew, i.e. Sond mar Sow. On the last line cf. xxi. 14; Ixxxiii. 12. 36. Cf. 4 Ezra v. 9-11. Does Cyprian refer to this in his quotation (7es¢#7. iii. 29) ?—‘ Quaeretis me et vos et qui post vos venerint audire verbum sapientiae et intellectus et non invenietis.’ 5c6 i ee a --....-. ὦ“.