I Baruch Complete Overview

Though titled “Baruch” sometimes, this book is also often called “1 Baruch” to distinguish it from 2, 3, and 4 Baruch. Baruch is the name of Jeremiah’s scribe who wrote down all of his sermons, poems, and essays as well as stories about Jeremiah (you can see all this in Jeremiah 36). Remember that Jeremiah was one of the prophets to Israel as they were going into exile who wrote them letters as instructed by the Lord (see Jeremiah 29). Because of this, an author in exile imagined himself as Baruch and wrote to his much later audience as if they were the first generation in exile. This makes the text a pseudepigraphon: a later book written as if it were by a popular character from the Old Testament. So while Baruch did not write the book, it is based on ideas found in the Old Testament.

CHAPTERS 1:1-1:14

The book opens up with the pseudo-historical background for the letter. Babylon has just besieged Jerusalem and burned it to the ground and taken the Israelites captive (see 2 Kings 25:8-12 for context). Baruch goes before the king and the officials and everyone  of Israelreads them this letter in Babylon. The people are distraught. “they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord” (1:5).

They then collect money to send with Baruch back to Jerusalem so that he can buy an offering to Give to God in what’s left of razed Jerusalem. They ask Baruch to intercede on their behalf, asking for God to use the book that they have sent with him to guide him in how he prays to God.

CHAPTERS 1:15-3:8

The very next verse shows the content of the book that the exiles sent to Baruch that Baruch had originally read to them in verse 3: it begins by saying that God is righteous and the disgrace of exile was brought on Israel by themselves. It’s the sins that Israel had been committing ever since God saved them from Egypt that had them finally ending up in exile. Because Israel continued to disobey God, He gave them over to the curses found in the covenant (see the end of Deuteronomy 28).

But Baruch continues by asking that God forgive Israel, that He see their weakness and repentance and free them from exile so that He can be glorified again like when He first freed them from Egypt. They recall the earlier words of Jeremiah to serve the king of Babylon and not to rebel against him (Jeremiah 27:11-12) and how their disobedience of God’s word through the prophets was what led to exile. Exile has only brought shame upon everyone in Israel because they disobeyed God and didn’t listen to the Prophets.

Baruch then relates Israel’s disobedience against the prophets to Moses and the covenant curses. Israel is incapable of serving God because they have stiff-necks and only live for themselves. But Baruch has hope because of this as well. Exile was necessary for Israel to take a good hard look at itself and see its sin against God. He looks forward to God giving Israel a transformed heart so that they can love God better than any of their ancestors. It’s only when God has given Israel a new heart to follow His commands that He will lead them out of exile and back into their land to establish a lasting covenant with them! So Baruch asks God to hear him, to have mercy on him, and to see their suffering in exile.

CHAPTERS 3:9-5:9

The last section of Baruch is two different poems: the first poem exalts wisdom. All wisdom comes from God and gives life to those who live by it. But, unfortunately, Israel has forsaken the fountain of wisdom and so they are dead in exile. Further, all the nations of the earth do not have wisdom - They are also as good as dead and have no way of being saved! Only God in heaven knows wisdom - He is the one who made the world in wisdom.

In fact, God gave wisdom to Israel through the commandments: “She is the book of the commandments of God, the law that endures forever” (4:1). This poem ends with the author calling on Israel to live by the light of the Torah. God has shown them how they should live and please Him through living by its wisdom.

Verse 5 starts another poem to Zion personified as a mother. The author comforts her scattered people in telling them that exile was not pointless or random - God was in control in exile and even gave Israel over to exile precisely because they had angered him. God did not originally desire to give Israel over to exile but gave Israel over after they had continued to reject Him and worship the false gods of all the other nations.

Mother Zion then comforts her people. She is deeply distressed by the pain of her people in exile. She is left ashamed and alone, now that those that she had nurtured and grown up are gone. They had rejected God and so they were taken away by a nation without any care for God. The poem ends in describing how God will reverse all of the sorrow of Israel in judging the nations over them and leading them back into Israel. It calls on Israel to turn back to God - Only then will God receive Israel.

The book of Baruch is a look at the deep pain and shame that Israel experienced in exile through prayers of repentance. It explores how God had given Israel wisdom, but their rejection of it ultimately led to them being taken out of the land. While all the other nations do not have the Torah to know how to please God, Israel does - But they still don’t have the hearts that desire it. They are calloused and cannot change except by God’s transforming Spirit and exile was an integral part of that.

It was only through the humiliation of exile that Israel would ever learn that they had rejected the ultimate source of life and wisdom. And, in doing that, Israel was dead in exile and could not return on their own. However, Baruch does not end without hope. It says that God did not ever desire to send Israel off into exile and that He will bring them back again. Most of all, 1 Baruch is prayers for exiles in a time that felt helpless and shameful. It gives us prayers to use to confess our sins to God but also to look forward to His coming. That's the Pseudepigraphon of 1 Baruch!