What does Baruch Chapter 3 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Captivity’s prayer leads to a call for wisdom and life. Rulers, nations and giants do not find wisdom’s way. God gives knowledge, with the final interpretation separately attributed.

Chapter breakdown

Baruch 3 begins in anguish and a troubled spirit, asking the Lord's mercy because the people have sinned. The appeal includes the prayers of the dead of Israel and their children; that unusual wording is retained. It asks him not to remember fathers' iniquities, but his hand and name, and recalls fear placed in their hearts so they praise him in captivity. Reproach, curse and offence remain. Israel is called to hear life's commandments and asked why it grows old in an enemy land, is defiled with the dead and counted among those descending to hell. Forsaking wisdom's fountain contrasts with peace along God's way; wisdom, strength and understanding are sought with long life, light and peace.

Questions about wisdom's place turn to princes, animals, birds, hoarded silver and gold and workers whose works are not discovered. Successive generations do not know her way. Chanaan, Theman, merchants of Merrha, children of Agar and tellers of fables fail to find her. The edition separately identifies Theman with Edom and Agar as mother of the Ismaelites. God's great, high and endless house and the unchosen warlike giants accompany the claim that folly caused their loss. Questions about ascending heaven or crossing the sea to bring wisdom precede the one who knows all things, established earth, calls light and receives the joyful answer of stars keeping watch.

The incomparable God gives knowledge to Jacob and Israel, followed by the statement that he was seen on earth and conversed with men. The edition separately interprets this as the visible Son's incarnation and explains prophetic past tense as expressing certainty of a future event. That interpretation remains attributed to the edition rather than narrated as an event already occurring in Baruch's lifetime. The chapter heading's Christ prophecy is editorial material.

The story inside

Opening: Captivity’s prayer leads to a call for wisdom and life. Development: Rulers, nations and giants do not find wisdom’s way. Conclusion: God gives knowledge, with the final interpretation separately attributed.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Captivity’s prayer leads to a call for wisdom and life.
2
Rulers, nations and giants do not find wisdom’s way.
3
God gives knowledge, with the final interpretation separately attributed.

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 90704–90710
3:1. And now, O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, the soul in anguish, and the troubled spirit crieth to thee: 3:2. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for thou art a merciful God, and have pity on us: for we have sinned before thee. 3:3. For thou remainest for ever, and shall we perish everlastingly?
Lines 90732–90743
3:9. Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom. 3:10. How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies’ land? 3:11. Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art counted with them that go down into hell. 3:12. Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom: 3:13. For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever.
Lines 90770–90773
3:22. It hath not been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. Theman.... The capital city of Edom.
Lines 90775–90780
3:23. The children of Agar also, that search after the wisdom that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha, and of Theman, and the tellers of fables, and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths. Agar.... The mother of the Ismaelites.
Lines 90787–90794
3:26. There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. 3:27. The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge: therefore did they perish. 3:28. And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly.
Lines 90820–90828
3:37. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. 3:38. Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men. Was seen upon earth, etc.... viz., by the mystery of the incarnation, by means of which the son of God came visibly amongst us, and conversed with men. The prophets often speak of things to come as if they were past, to express the certainty of the event of the things foretold.