Now that Jerusalem has been told that Babylon is to fall (4.30-35) and that her children will come back to her (4.36-37), she is told in this subsection to prepare herself for their coming (5.1-4).

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem: In Greek this subsection also is opened with a strong imperative verb, followed by “Jerusalem.” It is literally “Take off, Jerusalem, the garment of your sorrow and affliction.” This verse consciously refers back to Bar 4.20, where the despairing Jerusalem took off the robe of peace to put on the sackcloth of supplication. See the comments there on the symbolic use of the clothing.

Put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God: “God’s glory” (Good News Translation) is not precisely how the Greek text puts this, although Good News Translation is merely shifting focus. The idea is that the glory Jerusalem puts on comes from God; for example, “put on for ever the glorious majesty that is the gift of God” (New English Bible). Earlier in this book we have interpreted glory as “power” (Bar 4.3, 24, 37), but in this context it is more appropriate to see it as it is used in Exo 16.7, where God’s splendor is expressed as “dazzling light.”

This verse should be translated in such a way that it echoes Bar 4.20, but also leads well into the next verse, where the clothing symbolism is continued. One possibility is:

• Stop your sorrowing, Jerusalem; lay it aside like clothes of mourning. Dress yourself with the bright [or, beautiful] glory God gives you and wear it forever [or, from this time on].

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.