Baruch

These are the words of the book that Baruch wrote in Babylon. Baruch was the son of Nerias, son of Maasias, son of Sedecias, son of Asadias, son of Chelcias.

1And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,

NoteBaruch son of Neriah is known from the book of Jeremiah, where he is Jeremiah's secretary and writes down the prophet's words at his dictation (Jeremiah 36). The names in this book come through Greek and so look unfamiliar: Nerias is Neriah, Chelcias is Hilkiah, Sedecias is Zedekiah, Maasias is Maaseiah.

2He wrote it in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burned it with fire.

2In the fifth year, and in the seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire.

NoteThe text does not say fifth year of what. Most likely it counts from the capture of Jerusalem, but the Greek leaves it open. "Chaldeans" is an older name for the Babylonians, after the region of southern Mesopotamia their ruling house came from. Babylon captured and burned Jerusalem in 587 BC.

3Baruch read the words of this book out loud, where Jechonias the son of Joachim, king of Juda, could hear them, and where all the people who came to hear the book could hear them too.

3And Baruch did read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joachim king of Juda, and in the ears of all the people that came to hear the book,

NoteJechonias is Jehoiachin, and Joachim his father is Jehoiakim; "Juda" is Judah, the southern kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon as a young king in 597 BC, about ten years before the burning of the city described in verse 2, so the dates in this opening are hard to line up.

4He read them where the nobles could hear, and the king's sons, and the elders, and all the people, from the lowest to the highest, everyone who lived in Babylon by the river Sud.

4And in the hearing of the nobles, and of the king’s sons, and in the hearing of the elders, and of all the people, from the lowest unto the highest, even of all them that dwelt at Babylon by the river Sud.

Note"Nobles" renders a Greek phrase meaning the powerful or influential men. "From the lowest unto the highest" is a set expression for every rank of society, with nobody left out. No river called Sud is known from any other source, and the manuscripts vary here.

5At this they wept, went without food, and prayed before the Lord.

5Whereupon they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.

6They also took up a collection of money, each man giving as much as he could.

6They made also a collection of money according to every man’s power:

7They sent it to Jerusalem, to Joachim the high priest, the son of Chelcias, son of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people who were found with him in Jerusalem.

7And they sent it to Jerusalem unto Joachim the high priest, the son of Chelcias, son of Salom, and to the priests, and to all the people which were found with him at Jerusalem,

NoteThe high priest was the chief of the priests who served at the temple in Jerusalem, the senior religious office in Judah.

8They sent it at the same time that he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, which had been carried out of the temple, so that they could be brought back to the land of Juda. This was on the tenth day of the month Sivan. The vessels were of silver, and Sedecias the son of Josias, king of Juda, had made them.

8At the same time when he received the vessels of the house of the Lord, that were carried out of the temple, to return them into the land of Juda, the tenth day of the month Sivan, namely, silver vessels, which Sedecias the son of Josias king of Jada had made,

NoteThe vessels are the bowls, dishes, cups and utensils used in the temple service, made of silver and gold; the Babylonians carried them off as plunder when they took the city. "The house of the Lord" is the temple itself. Sivan is the third month of the Hebrew year, falling in May or June. Sedecias is Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, and Josias his father is Josiah. The King James reading "king of Jada" is a printing error for Juda.

9This was after Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes, and the captives, and the fighting men, and the people of the land, taking them from Jerusalem and bringing them to Babylon.

9After that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias, and the princes, and the captives, and the mighty men, and the people of the land, from Jerusalem, and brought them unto Babylon.

NoteNabuchodonosor is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. "Princes" here means the royal officials and leading men of the kingdom, not specifically the king's sons. The deportation described is the one of 597 BC, when the king, the court and the skilled and fighting men were marched to Babylon.

10And they said: Look, we have sent you money. Buy burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense with it, and prepare a grain offering, and offer it on the altar of the Lord our God.

10And they said, Behold, we have sent you money to buy you burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and incense, and prepare ye manna, and offer upon the altar of the Lord our God;

NoteA burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar, none of it eaten. A sin offering was made to clear the guilt of a particular offense. Incense was aromatic resin burned to produce fragrant smoke. The King James "manna" is not the food from the wilderness story: it transliterates a Greek word borrowed from the Hebrew minchah, a grain offering of flour and oil.

11And pray for the life of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar his son, so that their days on the earth may be like the days of the heavens.

11And pray for the life of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and for the life of Balthasar his son, that their days may be upon earth as the days of heaven:

NoteBalthasar is Belshazzar, known from Daniel 5 as the last ruler of Babylon, though other records make him the son of a later king, Nabonidus, rather than of Nebuchadnezzar. "As the days of heaven" is a stock phrase meaning for as long as the sky lasts, that is, a very long life. Praying for the health of the foreign king was normal practice for exiles; Jeremiah 29:7 tells the deportees to seek the welfare of the city they were carried to.

12And the Lord will give us strength and give light to our eyes, and we will live in the shadow of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and in the shadow of Balthasar his son, and we will serve them for many days and be treated kindly by them.

12And the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Balthasar his son, and we shall serve them many days, and find favour in their sight.

NoteLiving "under the shadow" of a ruler means living under his protection. In a hot country, shade is shelter, so the image is of safety rather than gloom. To "lighten our eyes" draws on the idea that bright eyes show life and strength, while dim or darkened eyes show exhaustion and despair.

13Pray for us too, to the Lord our God, because we have sinned against the Lord our God. To this day the Lord's anger and his fury have not turned away from us.

13Pray for us also unto the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God; and unto this day the fury of the Lord and his wrath is not turned from us.

14And you are to read this book that we have sent you, so that a confession is made in the house of the Lord, on the feast days and on the days of solemn assembly.

14And ye shall read this book which we have sent unto you, to make confession in the house of the Lord, upon the feasts and solemn days.

Note"Solemn" in 1611 English means formal or appointed, not gloomy; the solemn days are the fixed days of public assembly in the festival calendar. A confession here is a formal public statement of wrongdoing, said aloud by the whole gathering.

15And you are to say: Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but to us belongs the shame that shows on our faces, as it has happened this day, to the people of Juda and to those who live in Jerusalem,

15And ye shall say, To the Lord our God belongeth righteousness, but unto us the confusion of faces, as it is come to pass this day, unto them of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Note"The confusion of faces" is a Hebrew turn of phrase for public disgrace, the shame that shows openly in a person's face. It is set against "righteousness," meaning being in the right, so the sentence contrasts God being in the right with the people being visibly in the wrong.

16and to our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers.

16And to our kings, and to our princes, and to our priests, and to our prophets, and to our fathers:

17For we have sinned in front of the Lord.

17For we have sinned before the Lord,

18We have disobeyed him, and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, or walked in the commandments that he set openly before us.

18And disobeyed him, and have not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the commandments that he gave us openly:

Note"Hearkened" means listened with the intent to obey; in these texts hearing and obeying are the same act. The commandments given "openly" translates a phrase meaning set publicly before them, so that nobody could claim not to have known.

19From the day the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt until this present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been careless and have not listened to his voice.

19Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, unto this present day, we have been disobedient unto the Lord our God, and we have been negligent in not hearing his voice.

20So the troubles have clung to us, and so has the curse that the Lord declared through Moses his servant, at the time when he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give us a land flowing with milk and honey, as things are this day.

20Wherefore the evils cleaved unto us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that floweth with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day.

Note"Cleaved unto us" means stuck fast to us, held on and would not come off. "The evils" are disasters and afflictions rather than wicked acts. The curse appointed by Moses refers to the lists in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, which set out blessings that follow obedience and disasters that follow disobedience, exile from the land among them. "A land that floweth with milk and honey" is a standard phrase for rich country: good pasture for the herds that give milk, and abundant wildflowers for bees.

21Even so, we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, or to all the words of the prophets he sent to us.

21Nevertheless we have not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, according unto all the words of the prophets, whom he sent unto us:

22Instead, every man followed what his own wicked heart imagined, serving strange gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.

22But every man followed the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God.

Note"Strange gods" means foreign gods, the gods of other nations; "strange" in 1611 English means belonging to strangers rather than odd. "The imagination of his own wicked heart" translates a word closer to stubborn intent or willfulness than to fantasy, and the heart in this idiom is the seat of thought and decision, not of feeling.