The Church is gone into Captivity
1 How doth the Church sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as without her Husband! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary?
2 She weepeth sore in her darkest hours, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her clergymen she hath none to reestablish her: for all the religions have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
3 The Church is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of the Books of Moses: she dwelleth among the heathens, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between her teachings.
4 The Saints do mourn, because none come to the Passover Feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her pure teachings are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for Almighty God hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her babes in Christ are gone into captivity before the enemy.
6 And being the wife of Jesus all her beauty is departed: her pastors are become like the religious that find no spiritual nourishment, for they are gone without strength into the religions.
7 Jesus do remember the days of her beauty and of her honour, all her pleasant teachings that she had in the days of the Garden of Eden, before her people fell into the hands of the religions, and none did help her: the religions saw her, and did mock her Holy Day calling it the sabbath.
8 The Church hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
9 Her filthiness is in her teachings; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down shamefully when Jesus had returned to heaven. O Almighty God, behold her affliction: for the enemy hath magnified itself.
10 The religions hath spread out their hands upon all her Holy Teachings: for she hath allowed the false prophets to enter into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregations.
11 All her people now sigh, they seek salvation; for they have forsaken their Holy Teachings for religious teachings to relieve their soul: see, O Almighty God, and consider; for she has become vile.
12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto her sorrow, which is done unto her, wherewith Almighty God hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger.
13 From above hath He sent fire into her aisles, and it prevaileth against her: He hath spread a net for her feet, He hath turned her back: He hath made her desolate and faint all the days.
14 The yoke of her transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon her neck: He hath made her strength to fall, Almighty God hath delivered her into their hands, from whom she was not able to rise up.
15 Almighty God hath trodden under foot all her mighty men in the midst of her: He hath called an assembly against her to crush her babes in Christ: Almighty God hath trodden her because she have touched the prohibited teachings, the teachings of the Books of Moses, she is as in a wine press.
16 For these things she weep; her eye, her eye runneth down with water, because Jesus the Messiah that should relieve her soul is far from her: her congregations are desolate, because the religions prevailed.
17 The Church spreadeth forth her hands, but there is none to comfort her: Almighty God hath commanded concerning Jesus, that his adversaries would be round about her: The Church is as a menstruous woman among them.
18 Almighty God is righteous; but she have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold her sorrows: her untouched teachings and her holy men are gone into captivity.
19 I called for her high priest, but they deceived her: her priests and her elders gave up the empty Books of Moses to the religions, while they sought there salvation to relieve their souls.
20 Behold, O Almighty God; for she is in distress: her teachings were troubled; so her heart is turned within her; for she have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
21 They have heard that she sigh: but there is none to comfort her: all her enemies have heard of her trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto her.
22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto her for all their transgressions: for her sighs are many, and her heart is faint.
2
1 How hath Almighty God exposed the clergymen of his Church as a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of his first love, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
2 Almighty God hath swallowed up all the habitations of the Church, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in his wrath the priests of the congregation of the Church; He hath brought them down to the ground: For they hath polluted the Church and its teachings thereof.
3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the tenants of the Church: He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and they burned against the Church like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: He stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the congregation of the Church: He poured out his fury like fire.
5 Almighty God was as an enemy: He hath swallowed up the Church, He hath swallowed up all her branches: He hath destroyed her strong holds, and hath increased in the congregation of the Church mourning and lamentation.
6 And He hath violently taken away his Church, as if it were a flower of a garden: He hath destroyed its places of the assembly: Almighty God hath caused the Passover Feasts and the Holy Day to be forgotten in the Church, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the high priest and the priest.
7 Almighty God hath cast off his altar, He hath abhorred his sanctuary, He hath given up into the hand of the religions the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the Church of Almighty God, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8 Almighty God hath purposed to destroy the teachings of the congregation of the Church: He hath stretched out a line, He hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore He made the Saints and the believers to lament; they languished together.
9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her altars: for her clergymen and her Saints are among the religions: the Holy Teachings are no more; so her clergymen also find no vision from GOD.
10 The elders of the congregation of the Church sat upon the ground, and kept silent: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the clergymen of the Church hang down their heads to the ground.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the Church of my people; because the Saints and the babes in Christ swoon in the aisles of the religions.
12 They say to their clergymen, Where is our salvation and our holiness? when they swooned as the wounded in the aisles of the religions, then their souls were sold out unto the religions by their clergymen.
13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O congregation of the Church? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O clergymen of the Church? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
14 Thy clergymen have ministered vain and foolish things to thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity; but have given thee false teachings the causes of thy
banishment.
15 All that passes by clap their hands at her; they hiss and wag their head at the congregation of the Church, saying, Is this the Church that men call The Perfection of Beauty, The Joy of the Whole Earth?
16 All her enemies have opened their mouth against her: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
17 Almighty God hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled his word that He had commanded in the days of old: He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and He hath caused her enemy to rejoice over her, He hath stirred up the horn of her adversaries.
18 Cry unto Almighty God, O congregation of the Church, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of Almighty God: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy babes in Christ, that faint for spiritual nourishment at the top of every altar.
20 Behold, O GOD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children be hungry? shall the priest and the pastors be slain in the sanctuary of GOD?
21 The young and the old lie on the ground at the altar: her clergymen and her babes in Christ are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast destroyed, and not pitied.
22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day her terrors round about, so that in the day of GOD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that she have swaddled and brought up hath her enemy consumed.
3
1 I Andrew am also that Man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light.
3 Surely against me is He turned; He turneth his hand against me all the day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath He made old; He hath broken my bones.
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He hath made my chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer.
9 He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, He hath made my paths crooked.
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
11 He hath turned aside my ways, but pulled me in pieces: He hath made me desolate.
12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14 I was a derision to all my people; and they gossip all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, He hath made me burdened with heaviness.
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He hath covered me with ashes.
17 And He hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.
18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from Almighty God:
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the torment and the pain.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of GOD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is his faithfulness.
24 Almighty God is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 He is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the recompense of Almighty God.
27 It is good for a man that he should seek salvation in his youth.
28 He should sit alone and keep silent, because he hath borne it upon himself.
29 He putteth his eyes in the word; if so be there may be hope.
30 He giveth forgiveness to him that smiteth him: he who is filled with reproach.
31 For Almighty God will not cast off for ever:
32 But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33 For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under his feet all the sinners of the earth.
35 But to turn aside a man to do the right that he may stand before the face of the Most High,
36 To subvert a man in his cause, Almighty God approveth not.
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when Almighty God commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil but good?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Almighty God.
41 Let us lift up our heart and our hands unto the GOD in the heavens.
42 For those who have transgressed and have rebelled: He hast not pardoned.
43 He hast covered with reincarnation, those who have persecuted us: and those who hast committed murder, these He hast not pardoned.
44 He hast covered himself with a cloud, that such prayers should not pass through.
45 He hast made such as the off scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46 All their enemies will opened their mouths against them.
47 Fear and a snare shall come upon them, desolation and destruction.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of my people.
49 Mine tears trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.
50 Till Almighty God look down, and behold from heaven.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the sin of my city.
52 Enemies chased each other, like birds, without cause.
53 They have cut off each other lives in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon them.
54 Waters flowed over their heads; then they say, We are cut off.
55 I called upon thy name, O Almighty God, out of this lowly earth.
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my pleading, or at my cry.
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
58 O GOD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
59 O GOD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O GOD, and all their imaginations against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
64 Render unto them a recompense, O GOD, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens O GOD.
4
1 Remember, O GOD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our scriptures are turned to strange teachings, our Church to religions.
3 We are as orphans and fatherless, our clergymen are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our Church is under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6 We have given our hearts to the religions, and to the cults, to be satisfied with half holiness.
7 Our clergymen have sinned, and knew not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Religious servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9 We got our salvation with the peril of our lives because of their word which was barren.
10 Our hearts were black like an oven because of their terrible spiritual starvation.
11 They ravished the teachings in the Church, as our pastors entered into the churches of religions.
12 Priests are hanged up as by their hands: the office of the clergymen is not honoured.
13 They took the babes in Christ and grind them, and the congregation fell under their burden.
14 The clergymen have ceased from the altars of the Church, the babes in Christ from their witnessing.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; from these teachings our eyes grew dim.
18 Because of the teachings of the religions, which are desolate, the cunning false prophets walked upon us.
19 Thou, O GOD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn thou unto us, O GOD, and we shall returned; renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
5
1 How have the Holy Teachings become religious! how was the most Holy Teachings changed! the Corner Stone's teachings of the sanctuary are no longer preached at the top of every altar.
2 The precious teachings of the Church are comparable to fine gold, how were they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of Jesus the Messiah!
3 Even the sinners once drew out this spiritual nourishment, and give holiness to their young ones: but the Saints of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the congregation cleaveth to the roof of their mouth for spiritual starvation: the babes in Christ ask spiritual nourishment, and no man bringeth it unto them.
5 The Church that did feed delicately is desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet now embrace the religions.
6 For the punishment and the iniquity of the religions to my people will be greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her clergymen were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in teachings than rubies, their ministering was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is now blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets: their holiness is skin deep; for it is withered, it is become like a stick.
9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that reincarnate with spiritual hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of salvation of the Church.
10 The hands of the pitiful clergymen have sodden their own congregation: they were the leaders in the destruction of the Church of my people.
11 Almighty God hath accomplished his fury; He hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in the Church, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could have entered into the gates of the Church.
13 For the sins of her pastors, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with religious teachings, so that men would not touch their office.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the religions, The Church shall no more sojourn here.
16 The anger of Almighty God hath divided the religions, He will not regard them: they respected not the office of the priests, they gave heed not to the pastors.
17 As for us, our hearts have yet failed because of our vain helpers: in our preaching we have preached from a teaching that could not save us.
18 This halted our steps, that we could not go into heaven: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19 The religions were swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the altars, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The Holy First Covenant our teachings, the anointed of Almighty God, was taken away in these religions, of whom we said, Under their protection we shall live among the holy.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O Saints of the Church, that dwellest in the anointing of Almighty God; thy Holy Teachings again shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be anointed, and shalt make thyself holy.
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O Saints of the Church; He will no more carry thee away into captivity: He have visited thine iniquities, O Saints of the Church; and He has forgiven thy sins.