the basket and hung them on the eagle’s neck; and Baruch blessed it, saying, “I say unto thee, O king of the birds, go in peace, and bring back an answer to me.  Be not like the raven, which Noah sent out, and it returned no more to the ark; but be like the dove, which returned the third day with an answer of peace.  And if the birds of the air come against thee, fight with them, and the power of God be with thee.  Turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but go straight as an arrow in the strength of the Most High.”

Then the eagle flew and rested not till it came to Babylon; and there it perched upon a tree in a desert place outside the city, and waited until Jeremiah and some of the people passed by, carrying a dead man to burial.  And it rose up and lighted upon the bier of the dead man, and he revived.  And the eagle said to Jeremiah, “Gather the people together, and take the letter which is upon my neck, and read it in their ears.”  And he did so; and the people rejoiced, because the time of their deliverance was at hand.  Then Jeremiah wrote a letter to Baruch, and put it upon the eagle’s neck.  And he blessed the eagle, and sent it away; but the figs he gave to the sick among the people.  And the eagle returned to Jerusalem, and gave the letter to Baruch; and when he read it he wept, because Jeremiah had written in it all the afflictions which the people suffered at the hands of the Chaldeans.

Now when the time was fulfilled, the people were set free from Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem.  And when they came back, they rejoiced and gave thanks for their deliverance for nine days.  And on the tenth day Jeremiah stood up before all of them and sang a hymn of praise; and when he had ended it, he fell on the ground and became as one dead.  When they saw that, Baruch and Ebed-melech lifted up their voices and wept, saying, “Our father Jeremiah, the priest of God, is departed from us!” And all the people ran together and saw Jeremiah lying as dead; and they rent their clothes and bewailed him, and then made ready to bury him.  But there came a voice, saying, “Bury not the living.”  And at that they left off preparing a sepulchre for him, and waited, keeping watch about his body, till he should revive again.

And after three days the spirit of Jeremiah returned to him again, and he rose up and prophesied; and in his prophecy he said, “There shall be a Tree set up, which shall make the barren trees fruitful, and the proud and fruitful trees barren; and the snow shall be turned to blackness, and the sweet waters become bitter, and the scarlet shall be white as wool.  Moreover, He shall bless the isles that they shall bear fruit by the word of His mouth; and He shall satisfy the hungry souls.”  And thereafter he began to speak to them of the coming of the Beloved into the world.