1 The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2 Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch: 3 You said, Woe is me now! for Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. 4 You shall tell him, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. 5 Do you seek great things for yourself? Don't seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, says Yahweh; but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.
The long catalogue of calamities so consistently denounced by Jeremiah against his country Jeremiah 45:1-5, made a most painful impression upon Baruch's mind. He was of ambitious temperament Jeremiah 45:5, and being of noble birth as the grandson of Maaseiah, the governor of Jerusalem in Josiah's time 2-Chronicles 34:8, and a scribe, he appears to have looked forward either to high office in the state, or far more probably to being invested with prophetic powers. This address tells Baruch to give up his ambitious hopes, and be content with escaping with life only. Like the prophecy of the 70 years of exile, it would become a prediction of good only after really troubles had been undergone and pride was quelled. As regards the place of this prophecy it would come in order of time next to Jeremiah. 36, but as that was a public, and this a private prophecy, they would not be written upon the same scroll. When the last memorials of Jeremiah's life were added to the history of the fall of Jerusalem, Baruch attached to them this prediction, which - humbled by years, and the weight of public and private calamity - he now read with very different feelings from those which filled his mind in his youth.
This chapter is evidently connected with the subject treated of in the thirty-sixth. Baruch, who had written the prophecies of Jeremiah, and read them publicly in the temple, and afterwards to many of the princes, is in great affliction because of the awful judgments with which the land of Judah was about to be visited; and also on account of the imminent danger to which his own life was exposed, in publishing such unwelcome tidings, Jeremiah 45:1-3. To remove Baruch's fear with respect to this latter circumstance, the prophet assures him that though the total destruction of Judea was determined because of the great wickedness of the inhabitants, yet his life should be preserved amidst the general desolation, Jeremiah 45:4, Jeremiah 45:5.
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 45
This chapter contains a prophecy, delivered to Baruch for his personal use. The time of it is expressed, Jeremiah 45:1; a reproof is given him for his immoderate grief and sorrow, Jeremiah 45:2; the destruction of the land of Judea is prophesied of; and therefore it was wrong in him to seek great things for himself at such a time; however, he is assured of his own safety, Jeremiah 45:4.
An encouragement sent to Baruch.
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