Chapter Two

Bar 2:1-10. The prophet continues to confess that the Jews are justly punished by God, Bar 2:11-35—and then he asks God to forgive them.

Baruch 2:1. And the Lord fulfilled His word which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged Israel, and against our kings, and against our princes, and against every Israelite and Jew. Baruch 2:2. That He would bring upon us great calamities, such as have never occurred under the whole heaven, as He did in Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of Moses. Bar 2:1-10. The Lord justly punished His people, delivering them to the scorn of other nations: indeed, the Jews proved to be open disobedients to His will. Bar 2:1-2. A similar thought is repeated more briefly in Daniel (Dan 9:12-13).

Baruch 2:3. That one will eat the flesh of his son, and another will eat the flesh of his daughter. 3. Compare Lam 1:20, and Lam 4:10.

Baruch 2:4. And He gave them into subjection to all the kingdoms which surround us, to scorn and devastation among all the neighboring peoples, among whom the Lord scattered them. 4. “To all the kingdoms”—certainly not all at once, but gradually. Moreover, the Jews, of course, were not subjected to every kingdom without exception. Here, obviously, the expression is hyperbolic.

Baruch 2:5. And we became low, and not high, because we sinned against the Lord our God, not listening to His voice. Baruch 2:6. With the Lord our God is righteousness, but with us and our fathers is shame upon our faces, as today. Baruch 2:7. All those calamities which the Lord spoke against us have befallen us. Baruch 2:8. We did not pray before the Lord so that He might turn each one away from the inclinations of his evil heart. Baruch 2:9. And the Lord kept watch over these calamities, and the Lord brought them upon us, for the Lord is righteous in all that He has commanded us. 9. “Kept watch,” to ensure that these calamities would certainly strike the Jews. Compare Lam 1:17.

Baruch 2:10. But we did not listen to His voice, to walk in the commandments of the Lord which He placed before us. Baruch 2:11. And now, O Lord, God of Israel, You who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and with signs, and with wonders, and with great power, and with a high arm, and made a name for Yourself, as today. Bar 2:11-35. From verse 11 begins the second part of the prayer. Here the writer begs God to have mercy on His people, so severely punished, and presents various reasons that should help to turn God’s wrath against the Jews into mercy. 11. The first reason for showing mercy to the Jews is their special election—to be the people of God. This thought has been repeatedly emphasized by other prophets (Isa 51:22; Joel 2:17).

Baruch 2:12. We have sinned, acted impiously, acted unrighteously against all Your commandments, O Lord our God. Baruch 2:13. May Your wrath turn away from us, for we are few left among the nations among which You have scattered us. 13. The second reason is the extreme diminishment of the number of the Jewish people at the present time of captivity.

Baruch 2:14. Hear, O Lord, our prayer and our petition, and deliver us for Your sake, and give us mercy before those who transferred us. 14. The third reason is that the greatness of God’s name requires the restoration of the greatness of God’s people (“for Your sake”). This is not a new thought either (Jer 14:21).

Baruch 2:15. So that all the earth may know that You are the Lord our God, because Your name is called upon Israel and his posterity. 15. The fourth reason is the good of all nations, which, seeing the restoration of a people that had almost completely disappeared, will believe in the omnipotence of the God of this people (see Deut 28:10; Isa 2:2).

Baruch 2:16. Look down, O Lord, from Your holy house and remember us, and incline, O Lord, Your ear, and hear. 16. “From Your holy house.” The temple of Jerusalem was usually called this. But at that time the temple did not exist, and such an expression therefore seems rather strange. Some interpreters try to explain the house as referring to heaven, but they give no grounds for such an interpretation.

Baruch 2:17. Open Your eyes and look, because the dead who are in the grave, whose spirit is taken from their bodies, will not give glory and praise to the Lord. Baruch 2:18. But a man who grieves over the greatness of his misfortune, who walks with bowed head and sorrowful spirit, whose eyes grow dim and whose soul hungers will give glory and righteousness to You, O Lord. 17–18. (Compare Ps 113:25 and Sir 17:24-26). The Jews here, as it were, point out that if they do not see the mercies of God, there cannot resound in the temple of Jehovah a hymn of praise to God.

Baruch 2:19. Not according to the righteousness of our fathers and our kings do we lay this supplication before You, O Lord our God. Baruch 2:20. For You have sent Your wrath and Your anger upon us, as You spoke through Your servants, the prophets. Baruch 2:21. So says the Lord: “Bow your shoulders, so as to serve the king of Babylon, and you will live in the land which I gave to your fathers. Baruch 2:22. But if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord, so as to serve the king of Babylon. Baruch 2:23. I will make it so that the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, will cease in the cities of Judah and in the surroundings of Jerusalem, and there will be no trace of inhabitants on all this land. Baruch 2:24. But we did not listen to Your voice, so as to serve the king of Babylon, and You fulfilled Your words which You spoke through Your servants, the prophets, that our kings’ bones and our fathers’ bones would be removed from their place. Baruch 2:25. And behold, they are cast out into the heat of the day and the cold of the night, and they died from evil diseases, from hunger, from sword, and from exile. Baruch 2:26. You abandoned the house upon which Your name was called, as today, because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Baruch 2:27. And You, O Lord our God, dealt with us according to all Your forbearance and according to all Your great mercy. Baruch 2:28. As You said through Your servant Moses on the day when You commanded him to write Your law before the sons of Israel, saying: Baruch 2:29. “If you do not listen to My voice, then this great and numerous multitude of people will turn into few among the nations, among which I will scatter them. Baruch 2:30. I know that they will not listen to Me, because they are a stiff-necked people; but they will return to their senses in the land of their captivity. Baruch 2:31. And they will know that I am the Lord their God. And I will give them a heart—and they will understand, and ears—and they will hear. Baruch 2:32. And they will praise Me in the land of their captivity and remember My name. Baruch 2:33. And they will turn away from their stubbornness and from their evil deeds; because they will remember the way of their fathers, who sinned before the Lord. Baruch 2:34. And I will bring them back to the land which I swore to their fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and they will possess it; and I will multiply them, and they will not be diminished. 34. Here we can find an indication of the fifth reason for showing mercy to the Jews—namely, the merits before God of the patriarchs of the Jewish people.

Baruch 2:35. And I will establish with them an eternal covenant in this, that I will be their God, and they will be My people, and I will no more drive My people Israel from the land which I gave them. 35. The prophecy of an eternal covenant represents a repetition of the thought of the messianic prophecy of Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-32).