What does Baruch Chapter 1 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A dated reading, collection and letter connect Babylon and Jerusalem. Offerings and prayers are requested rather than certified as performed. Confession recalls disobedience from Egypt through prophetic warnings.

Chapter breakdown

Baruch 1 gives Baruch's ancestry through Nerias, Maasias, Sedecias, Sedei and Helcias. It dates his writing to the fifth year, the seventh day of the month, at the time the Chaldeans took and burned Jerusalem. It does not say five years after that destruction. Jechonias son of Joakim, the people, nobles, kings' sons and elders, from least to greatest, hear the reading in Babylon by Sedi. They weep, fast, pray and collect money according to their power, sending it to Joakim the priest, son of Helcias son of Salom, and Jerusalem's priests and people. The account mentions received silver temple vessels for return on the tenth of Sivan, made by Sedecias son of Josias after the earlier deportation.

The letter requests burnt offerings, frankincense and meat offerings, with sin offerings at the altar. Prayer is requested for Nabuchodonosor and his son Balthasar, that their days be like the days of heaven on earth, and for strength, enlightened eyes, service under their shadow and favor. The senders also request prayer for themselves: they have sinned and the Lord's wrath has not turned away. The book is to be read in the temple on feast days and proper days.

Confession assigns justice to the Lord and confusion to Juda, Jerusalem, rulers, priests, prophets and fathers. Disobedience and lack of trust extend from the departure from Egypt into the milk-and-honey land. The evils and curses spoken through Moses have come, while the prophets were not heard. Each followed a wicked heart, served strange gods and did evil. The chapter does not certify restoration already achieved or turn these requests into a general theory of political stability.

The story inside

Opening: A dated reading, collection and letter connect Babylon and Jerusalem. Development: Offerings and prayers are requested rather than certified as performed. Conclusion: Confession recalls disobedience from Egypt through prophetic warnings.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A dated reading, collection and letter connect Babylon and Jerusalem.
2
Offerings and prayers are requested rather than certified as performed.
3
Confession recalls disobedience from Egypt through prophetic warnings.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 90474–90494
1:1. And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Sedei, the son of Helcias, wrote in Babylonia. 1:2. In the fifth year, in the seventh day of the month, at the time that the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire. 1:3. And Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joakim king of Juda, and in the hearing of all the people that came to hear the book. 1:4. And in the hearing of the nobles, the sons of the kings, and in the hearing of the ancients, and in the hearing of the people, from the least even to the greatest of them that dwelt in Babylonia, by the river Sedi. 1:5. And when they heard it they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord. 1:6. And they made a collection of money according to every man’s power.
Lines 90529–90557
1:15. And you shall say: To the Lord our God belongeth justice, but to us confusion of our face: as it is come to pass at this day to all Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 1:16. To our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers. 1:17. We have sinned before the Lord our God, and have not believed him, nor put our trust in him: 1:18. And we were not obedient to him, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his commandments which he hath given us. 1:19. From the day that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, we were disobedient to the Lord our God: and going astray we turned away from hearing his voice. 1:20. And many evils have cleaved to us, and the curses which the Lord foretold by Moses his servant: who brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. 1:21. And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God according to all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us: 1:22. And we have gone away every man after the inclinations of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God.