2 BARUCH 44
Baruch speaks to the people
44:1 And I, Baruch, went from there and came to my people and called my first-born son and the Gedaliahs, my friends, and seven of the elders of the people and said to them:
44:2 Behold, I go to my fathers in accordance with the way of the whole earth.
44:3 You, however, do not withdraw from the way of the Torah, but guard and admonish the people who are left lest they withdraw from the commandments of YAHWEH the Mighty One.
44:4 For you see that HE whom we serve is righteous and that our Creator is impartial.
44:5 And see what has befallen Zion and what happened to Yerusalem,
44:6 that the judgment of YAHWEH the Mighty One will be made known, as well as HIS ways which are inscrutable and right.
44:7 For when you endure and persevere in HIS fear and do not forget HIS Torah, the time again will take a turn for the better for you. And they will participate in the consolation of Zion.
44:8 For that which is now is nothing. But that which is in the future will be very great.
44:9 For everything will pass away which is corruptible, and everything that dies will go away, and all present time will be forgotten, and there will be no remembrance of the present time which is polluted by evils.
44:10 For he who runs now runs in vain and he who is happy will fall quickly and be humiliated.
44:11 For that which will be in the future, that is what one will look for, and that which comes later, that is what we shall hope for. For there is a time that does not pass away.
44:12 And that period is coming which will remain forever; and there is the new world which does not carry back to corruption those who enter into its beginning, and which has no mercy on those who come into torment or those who are living in it, and it does not carry to perdition.
44:13 For those are the ones who will inherit this time of which it is spoken, and to these is the heritage of the promised time.
44:14 These are they who prepared for themselves treasures of wisdom. And stores of insight are found with them. And they have not withdrawn from mercy and they have preserved the Truth of the Torah.
44:15 For the coming world will be given to these, but the habitation of the many others will be in the fire.