Old Testament
Jeremiah 45
Overview
This brief chapter is a personal word of God to Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, who had cried out in weariness and grief: "Woe is me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain." God neither scolds nor flatters him; he reminds Baruch that he himself is tearing down what he built and plucking up the whole land, so this is no time to seek great things for oneself. Yet he gives a tender, personal promise: Baruch's life will be granted to him "as a prize of war" wherever he goes. It is a word for every faithful servant who labors in a collapsing age.
1The 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“Yahweh, the God of Israel, says 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, Yahweh says: ‘Behold, that which I have built, I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.
5Do you seek great things for yourself? Don’t seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh,’ says Yahweh, ‘but I will let you escape with your life wherever you go.’”