AND I, Baruk, went thence and came to the people, and assembled them together from the greatest to the least, and said unto them:
Hear, ye children of Yashar'el, behold how many ye are who remain of the twelve tribes of Yashar'el.
For unto you and to your fathers Yahuah gave a Torah more excellent than to all peoples.
And because your brethren transgressed the commandments of El Elyon, he brought vengeance upon you and upon them, and he spared not the former, and the latter also he gave into captivity:
And he left not a remnant of them, but behold!, ye are here with me.
If, therefore, ye direct your ways aright, ye also shall not depart as your brethren departed, but they shall come to you.
For he is merciful whom ye worship, and he is gracious in whom ye hope, and he is true, so that he shall do good and not evil.
Have ye not seen here what has befallen Tsiyon?
Or do ye perchance think that the place had sinned, and that on this account it was overthrown? Or that the land had wrought foolishness, and that therefore it was delivered up?
And know ye not that on account of you who did sin, that which sinned not was overthrown, and on account of those who wrought wickedly, that which wrought not foolishness was delivered up to his enemies?
And the whole people answered and said unto me: So far as we can recall the good things which El Elohiym has done unto us, we do recall them; and those things which we do not remember he in his mercy knows.
Nevertheless, do this for us your people: write also to our brethren in Babel a cepher of doctrine and a scroll of hope, that you may confirm them also before you depart from us.
For the shepherds of Yashar'el have perished, and the lamps which gave light are extinguished, and the fountains have withheld their stream whence we used to drink.
And we are left in the darkness, and amidst the trees of the forest, and the thirst of the wilderness.
And I answered and said unto them: Shepherds and lamps and fountains come from the Torah: and though we depart, yet the Torah abides.
If therefore ye have respect to the Torah, and are intent upon wisdom, a lamp will not be wanting, and a shepherd will not fail, and a fountain will not dry up.
Nevertheless, as ye said unto me, I will write also unto your brethren in Babel, and I will send by means of men, and I will write in like manner to the nine tribes and a half, and send by means of a bird.
And it came to pass on the one and twentieth day in the eighth month that I, Baruk, came and sat down under the oak under the shadow of the branches, and no man was with me, but I was alone.
And I wrote these two cepheriym: one I sent by an eagle to the nine and a half tribes; and the other I sent to those that were at Babel by means of three men.
And I called the eagle and spoke these words unto it:
El Elyon has made you that you should be higher than all birds.
And now go and tarry not in any place, nor enter a nest, nor settle upon any tree, till you have passed over the breadth of the many waters of the river Perath, and have gone to the people that dwell there, and cast down to them this cepher.
Remember, moreover, that, at the time of the deluge, Noach received from a dove the fruit of the olive, when he sent it forth from the Ark.
Yea, also the Araviym ministered to Eliyahu, bearing him food, as they had been commanded.
Shalomah also, in the time of his kingdom, whithersoever he wished to send or seek for anything, commanded a bird to go thither, and it obeyed him as he commanded it.
And now let it not weary you, and turn not to the right hand nor the left, but fly and go by a direct way that you may guard the command of El Elohiym, according as I said unto you.