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Chapter 45[a]

Encouraging Message to Baruch. This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah addressed to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when Baruch inscribed these words on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah:

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch: You said, “Woe is me, for the Lord has added further grief to my pain. I am exhausted from groaning, and I can find no respite.”

Say this to him, “Thus says the Lord: I intend to tear down what I have built, and to uproot what I have planted throughout the entire land. Should you therefore seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them, for I intend to inflict evil upon all mankind, says the Lord. However, I will allow you to escape with your life wherever you may go.”

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 45:1 The faithful secretary concludes his memoirs by citing a short oracle addressed to him personally.

A Message to Baruch

45 When Baruch(A) son of Neriah(B) wrote on a scroll(C) the words Jeremiah the prophet dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim(D) son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah said this to Baruch: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You said, ‘Woe(E) to me! The Lord has added sorrow(F) to my pain;(G) I am worn out with groaning(H) and find no rest.’(I) But the Lord has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot(J) what I have planted,(K) throughout the earth.(L) Should you then seek great(M) things for yourself? Do not seek them.(N) For I will bring disaster(O) on all people,(P) declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape(Q) with your life.’”(R)

45 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:

Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.

Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus; Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.

And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.