Chapter Forty-Five

1–5. Consolation to Baruch.

Jer 45:1-5. If Jeremiah himself experienced despair when he had to proclaim to his countrymen the dreadful judgments of God, there is nothing surprising in the fact that Baruch, his disciple, who was weaker than Jeremiah, was depressed when copying the threatening prophecies of his teacher. But God through Jeremiah consoles Baruch. First, he was told that at a time when God’s judgment comes upon the whole land of Judah, he, Baruch, has no right to count on happiness and prosperity. And secondly, God declares to Baruch as consolation that in the coming difficult time for the Judean land, his life will be preserved by God.

Jeremiah 45:1. The word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words from the mouth of Jeremiah in a book, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: “In the fourth year of Jehoiakim” it had become fully clear to Baruch that the ruin of the Judean state was inevitable, and this awareness then made a depressing impression on his soul.

Jeremiah 45:3. You say: “Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am exhausted with my sighing, and I find no rest. The more Baruch became acquainted with the content of Jeremiah’s words, the more he suffered in his soul. Special remark. This chapter appears to be of rather insignificant content, but it can serve as evidence that Baruch played a very important role in recording the prophecies of Jeremiah—that he was not simply a scribe who wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, but independently recorded the words spoken by Jeremiah and committed to writing some events from the life of his great teacher. Otherwise, the placement in the book of Jeremiah of a special chapter devoted to Baruch would be incomprehensible.