Chapter Three

Bar 3:1-8. The conclusion of the prayer for mercy. Bar 3:9-38. Praise of Divine Wisdom.

Baruch 3:1. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel! the distressed soul and the sorrowful spirit cry out to You. Baruch 3:2. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for You are a merciful God; have mercy, for we have sinned before You. Bar 3:1-8. The Jews ask God to have mercy on them, first, because God is truly merciful, and second, because they repent of their sins before Him.

Baruch 3:3. You are eternally abiding, while we are eternally perishing. 3. This verse’s thought can be expressed more clearly thus: You, O Lord, live forever. Will You not allow us here, in a short time, to see the salvation for which we hope? After all, we are mortal and death is already near us—we do not have the divine property of eternity and cannot wait long.

Baruch 3:4. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel! hear the prayer of the dead of Israel and of their sons, who sinned before You, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God, and therefore calamities have befallen us. 4. “Dead.” That Jews believed in prayers of the dead for the living is seen from the Books of Maccabees (2 Macc 15:14). However, Archimandrite Antonin supposes it possible that the Greek translator confused the word “metei” in the original—“few” (see Isa 41:14)—with the word “metei” (from another root), meaning “dead.”

Baruch 3:5. Do not remember the unrighteousness of our fathers, but remember Your hand and Your name at this time. 5. “The hand of God.” This is a metonymy. Here are meant the wonders accomplished by the hand of God for Israel.

Baruch 3:6. For You are the Lord our God, and we will praise You, O Lord. Baruch 3:7. You have instilled fear of You into our heart so that we would call upon Your name; and we will praise You in our captivity, for we have cast away from our heart all the unrighteousness of our fathers who sinned before You. 7. “Instilled fear,” of course, through various manifestations of His wrath against the Jews who had turned away from Him.

Baruch 3:8. Behold, we are now in our captivity, where You have scattered us as a reproach and as a curse and as a recompense for all the unrighteousness of our fathers who turned away from the Lord our God. Baruch 3:9. Listen, Israel, to the commandments of life; pay attention, so as to understand wisdom. Bar 3:9-38. From verse 9, the second part of the book begins. In this section, the prophet exhorts his people to seek wisdom, on which the happiness of the people depends (Bar 3:9-14). Other nations have not understood the significance of this wisdom, being devoted to earthly interests (Bar 3:15-23). But, in fact, no one by their own strength could comprehend this wisdom! It is known only to the One God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who communicated it to His people (Bar 3:29-38).

Baruch 3:10. What is this, Israel, that you are in the land of enemies? You have grown old in a foreign land, you have become defiled with the dead. Baruch 3:11. You are numbered with those in the grave. Baruch 3:12. You have abandoned the fountain of wisdom. Baruch 3:13. If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived in peace forever. Baruch 3:14. Learn where wisdom is, where strength is, where understanding is, so that you may at the same time know where length of days and life are, where the light of the eyes and peace are. Bar 3:13-14. Here are depicted the fruits of wisdom: eternal peace, length of days, wealth, and light of the eyes, or happiness and well-being.

Baruch 3:15. Who has found her place, and who has gone into her storehouses? Baruch 3:16. Where are the princes of the nations and those who ruled over the beasts of the earth, those who amused themselves with the birds of the sky? Baruch 3:17. And those who hoarded silver and gold, in which people put their trust, and of whose possessions there is no end? Baruch 3:18. Those who worked in silver and whose works are without number? 18. “Those who worked in silver.” Since it is not clear why of all various arts and crafts only this one is mentioned, we can agree with Father Antonin, who supposes that the word “working”—in Greek tektalinotes—the translator used instead of the word logizomenoi—thinking, considering.

Baruch 3:19. They have vanished and gone down to the grave, and others have risen in their place. Baruch 3:20. Later generations saw the light and lived on the earth, but did not know the ways of wisdom. Baruch 3:21. They did not comprehend her paths, and their children did not attain her; they were far from her way. Baruch 3:22. She has not been heard of in Canaan, nor has she been seen in Teman. 22. Canaan here refers to Phoenicia, the most cultured state of antiquity.

Baruch 3:23. The sons of Hagar sought earthly knowledge, as did the merchants of Merran and Teman, the storytellers and seekers of knowledge; but they did not know the ways of wisdom and did not perceive her paths. 23. Merran—in Greek Merran—is not mentioned anywhere else. Therefore, Archimandrite Antonin supposes that the Greek translator rendered thus an unrecognized Hebrew word “Dedan,” which indeed can be read as “Merran.” Regarding Dedan, see Isa 21:13. “Storytellers.” Most probably here are meant the tellers of tales who enjoyed great respect in the East, those who composed fables and instructive narratives. These narrators are mentioned also in some inscriptions found on Mount Sinai: “Remember, O Lord, the storyteller Jacob,” and so forth. (See in Father Antonin, p. 312–313).

Baruch 3:24. O Israel! how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of His dominion! 24. How grateful Israel should be to God for the fact that this wisdom, so desired by all nations but inaccessible to them, was received by him—of course, in the law of God given through Moses and in the writings of the prophets! The “house of God” is the whole world.

Baruch 3:25. It is great and has no end, it is high and immeasurable. Baruch 3:26. There were the glorious mighty ones of old, very great, skilled in war. Baruch 3:27. But God did not choose them, nor did He open to them the paths of wisdom; Baruch 3:28. and they perished because they had no wisdom, they were destroyed by their own lack of understanding. Bar 3:25-28. Wisdom could not be found among the mighty ancients, who indeed perished (among other ways, by the sword of the Hebrews — Josh 11:21), because they did not possess wisdom.

Baruch 3:29. Who ascended to heaven and took it, and brought it down from the clouds? Baruch 3:30. Who crossed the seas and found it, and who will bring it, more precious than pure gold? Baruch 3:31. No one knows the way to it, nor does anyone think of the path to it. Bar 3:29-31. Wisdom could not be found either in heaven, which people cannot ascend to, or beyond the sea.

Baruch 3:32. But the One who knows all knows it; He revealed it by His understanding, He who created the earth for all time and filled it with four-footed beasts, 32. Only God alone, the Creator of the universe, found wisdom and communicates it to whomever He wishes.

Baruch 3:33. He sends light, and it goes; He called to it, and it obeyed Him with fear; Baruch 3:34. and the stars shone in their posts, and they rejoiced. 34. “In their posts,” that is, in their appointed places. The stars are clearly compared here to guards standing watch.

Baruch 3:35. He called to them, and they said, “Here we are,” and they shone with joy before their Creator. Baruch 3:36. This is our God, and no other can be compared with Him. Baruch 3:37. He found all the paths of wisdom and gave it to His servant Jacob and His beloved Israel. 37. “He found all the paths of wisdom,” that is, He invented, planned in His mind the complete way, the religious-practical ordinance of wisdom (according to Archbishop Antonin’s interpretation). “Gave it...” — of course, on Sinai, in the law given through Moses.

Baruch 3:38. After that He appeared on earth and lived among people. 38. “After that He appeared...” The writer is evidently using past tense in place of future tense, as all the prophets do. He means to say that after the completion of the Old Testament history of the dispensation of our salvation, which represented an epoch of the preparation of humanity to receive the Messiah, God would appear Himself on earth and dwell among people. Our Church, following the blessed Theodoret, sees here a prophecy of the Incarnation of God (the Festal Resurrection Office, Great Vespers, Ode 8; the Canon for Sunday of the Palms, ode 2, tr. 9 Bar 3:36-4:4), and therefore reads it also on the eve of the Christmas feast.