Jeremiah 45

Seek Them Not

Jeremiah's scribe, worn out by the words he has been writing down, is told through the prophet to ask for nothing great, and is promised the one thing the coming judgment will leave him, his life.

The fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer. 45:1), about 605/4 B.C.; the chapter stands near the end of the book, out of time order Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 45 is five verses long and is addressed to one man. The Church's chapter heading sums it up: “Jeremiah promises Baruch that his life will be preserved.”

Chapter 45 is five verses long and is addressed to one man. The Church's chapter heading sums it up: “Jeremiah promises Baruch that his life will be preserved.” Baruch the son of Neriah was Jeremiah's scribe. The date in verse 1 is the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, when the Lord told Jeremiah to put all his words into a roll and Baruch wrote them down (Jer. 36:1–4). That makes the chapter older than the siege and fall of Jerusalem that fill the chapters just before it, and it sits here, at the end of the prophecies about Judah and just before the prophecies against the nations begin in chapter 46, as a kind of appendix to chapter 36.

The book is not arranged by date, so this is a reminder, not a mistake: the Lord's word to Baruch is the last thing said about Judah before the book turns to the nations. The chapter has two parts. Verses 1–3 give Baruch's complaint: “Woe is me.” Verses 4–5 give the Lord's answer, which is sterner than comfort and still a kindness.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 45 answers one question: what should a faithful servant expect when the Lord is about to take down what He built?

Jeremiah 45 answers one question: what should a faithful servant expect when the Lord is about to take down what He built? The answer comes in two moves. First, Baruch's sorrow is taken seriously (verse 3), and the Lord does not tell him it is not so bad. Second, the Lord puts the sorrow in a larger frame: He is breaking down “that which I have built” and plucking up “that which I have planted,” perhaps the whole earth and not only Judah (verse 4). In a world under judgment, to ask for “great things” is to ask for the wrong thing; what the Lord offers instead is Baruch's life, which he will carry out of the ruin “in all places whither thou goest” (verse 5).

The same two verbs, build and plant, pluck up and break down, are the ones the Lord gave Jeremiah at his call (Jer. 1:10). Here they are spoken to the scribe. The chapter is brief, but it shows that the burden Jeremiah carried could wear down the man who stood beside him writing it out.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

Baruch's complaint

In plain words

This is the word Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, after Baruch had written these words in a book at Jeremiah's dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch. You said, ‘Woe is me! The Lord has added grief to my pain. I am worn out with sighing and I find no rest.’”

1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

Context #

Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe

Baruch, whose name means “Blessed,” was Jeremiah's scribe, and he is named in the book at the points where Jeremiah's word was written down, kept, or blamed.

Baruch, whose name means “Blessed,” was Jeremiah's scribe, and he is named in the book at the points where Jeremiah's word was written down, kept, or blamed. When the Lord told Jeremiah to write his words in a roll, “Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord” (Jer. 36:4). When Jeremiah bought the field at Anathoth, he “gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch” (Jer. 32:12). After Jerusalem fell, the leaders of the people who wanted to flee to Egypt accused him: “Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us” (Jer. 43:3), and he went to Egypt with Jeremiah among the survivors (Jer. 43:6).

He shared Jeremiah's danger. When the king ordered the scribe and the prophet seized, “the Lord hid them” (Jer. 36:26). He “wrote down his oracles for the first and second scrolls in 605/4 B.C.,” and it is likely that “much of the present book of Jeremiah must go back either directly or indirectly to him.” That last is a scholar's judgment about how the book was made, not a statement of the text.

Sources: “Baruch”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Context #

Why this word is at the end

Verse 1 dates the word to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the same year the Lord told Jeremiah to write in a roll “all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and…

Verse 1 dates the word to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the same year the Lord told Jeremiah to write in a roll “all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations” (Jer. 36:1–2). The roll was read to the people at a fast in the fifth year (Jer. 36:9), and the king commanded Baruch and Jeremiah to be seized, “but the Lord hid them” (Jer. 36:26). So chapter 45 belongs, in time, among the events of chapter 36: “a kind of appendix that belongs with ch. 36, and is valuable for insight it gives into Baruch's own life.”

Why it was placed here is not stated. The chapters of Jeremiah are not in chronological order, and this one stands after the prophecies about Judah and before those about the nations, which begin in the next chapter (Jer. 46:1). Any reason for the placement beyond that is a guess.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Lesson 139: Jeremiah 30–41, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Material (2018).

2 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch;

3 Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.

Context #

What Baruch's grief was about

Baruch's cry may be the despair of a man who has been writing down judgment.

Baruch's cry may be the despair of a man who has been writing down judgment. “He too could be beset by despair as was Jeremiah,” and it may be that “as he dictated Jeremiah's words of judgment, and knew in his heart that they were true and would certainly come to pass, he became depressed at it all and was filled with foreboding about his own future.” This is an inference from the setting, since the text gives no reason beyond his own words.

The Church edition links “rest” to Lam. 1:3, where the same words describe Judah gone into captivity: “she findeth no rest.”

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 4–5

The Lord's answer

In plain words

“Tell him this is what the Lord says: What I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up, even this whole land. And do you look for great things for yourself? Do not look for them. I am about to bring evil on all flesh, says the Lord. But I will give you your life as spoil of war, wherever you go.”

4 Thus shalt thou say unto him, The LORD saith thus; Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.

Related Scriptures #

Build and pluck up

The Lord answers Baruch with the verbs He gave Jeremiah at his call: “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jer. 1:10).

The Lord answers Baruch with the verbs He gave Jeremiah at his call: “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). The KJV words differ, but the Hebrew verbs in verse 4 for “built,” “break down,” “planted,” and “pluck up” are four of the six in that verse (“root out” there is the same verb as “pluck up” here). The Church edition links verse 4 to that verse and to Jer. 31:28, where the Lord says that as He has watched over them “to pluck up, and to break down,” so He will watch over them “to build, and to plant.” The destroying and the building belong to the same Lord. In chapter 45 only the first half is spoken to Baruch.

The words that were once Jeremiah's commission become, here, the Lord's explanation to Baruch. What is being torn down is the Lord's own work, “that which I have built.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.

Language #

The whole earth, not only the land

“This whole land” may also be read “the whole earth.” The Hebrew word, erets, means both “earth” and “land,” and the Church edition's footnote says the Hebrew text adds “for it is mine.”

“This whole land” may also be read “the whole earth.” The Hebrew word, erets, means both “earth” and “land,” and the Church edition's footnote says the Hebrew text adds “for it is mine.” One reading takes the clause to mean the whole earth, not just Judah, because of the parallel in the next verse, “upon all flesh,” meaning “the whole of humanity.” That fits the earlier chapter on the nations, where the Lord “will plead with all flesh” (Jer. 25:31).

On that reading, the judgment Baruch writes of is not a local disaster; it is wider than Judah. Either way, the footnote's “for it is mine” says whose land it is.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

Related Scriptures #

Great things for thyself

The Lord asks Baruch to stop seeking “great things” for himself, since a world under judgment is the wrong place to look for them.

The Lord asks Baruch to stop seeking “great things” for himself, since a world under judgment is the wrong place to look for them. The text does not say what the great things were. One reading takes them to be worldly prosperity: when judgment reaches everyone, an individual “must not make great demands, but be content with saving his life.” The Church edition links the verb “seekest” to Mark 8:36–37: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The link is the edition's; Jeremiah's text says only that the Lord names a desire and tells him to let it go.

The command is gentle in its way. It does not say Baruch's grief is wrong, only that the thing he is reaching for is not what the Lord is offering.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

A life as spoil

“Life… for a prey” is a Hebrew idiom for escaping with one's life. The word translated “prey” is shalal, “prey” or “booty, spoil of war,” and a life given as shalal means “life…

“Life… for a prey” is a Hebrew idiom for escaping with one's life. The word translated “prey” is shalal, “prey” or “booty, spoil of war,” and a life given as shalal means “life shall be spared.” The lexicon lists this verse with three others that use it.

The same promise is made elsewhere in the book. To anyone who leaves the besieged city and surrenders to the Chaldeans: “his life shall be unto him for a prey” (Jer. 21:9; again in Jer. 38:2). To Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: “thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me” (Jer. 39:18). The Church edition links verse 5 to both. “In all places whither thou goest” promises his life wherever he is taken, and he was taken to Egypt (Jer. 43:6).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 45

The chapter is short and does not name the Messiah, but it presses the question Jesus asked: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). The Church edition links that verse to “seekest” in verse 5. The speaker in verses 2 and 4 is “the LORD, the God of Israel,” who builds and who plucks up. What He gives Baruch is not greatness but his life, as He gave it to Ebed-melech, whose trust in the Lord is named as the reason (Jer. 39:18).

Worth exploring next

Baruch writing, reading, and rewriting the roll: Jer. 36.
The same promise to Ebed-melech: Jer. 39:15–18.
The prophecies against the nations, which begin in the next chapter: Jer. 46.
The two halves of the commission, tearing down and building up: Jer. 1:10; Jer. 31:28.

Sources & further reading

“Baruch”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Lesson 139: Jeremiah 30–41, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Material (2018).
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.

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