What Happens in Baruch 4?: Wisdom, Repentance, and Everlasting Joy

From Captivity to the Glory of God

In Baruch 4:1-37, the scene moves from the theological foundation of the Law to the emotional reality of the exile in Babylon, eventually concluding with a prophetic vision of a restored Jerusalem. It addresses a people who have lost their home but are reminded that they have never lost their God.

The Book of Life  (Baruch 4:1-4)

¹ She is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever. All who hold her fast will live, and those who forsake her will die.
² Turn back, O Israel, from your sins, and turn your face away from all your abominations.
³ For why should you, O Jacob, be like a stranger in the land, or like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
⁴ O Israel, happy are we, for what is pleasing to God has been revealed to us.

The Reason for the Exile  (Baruch 4:5-16)

⁵ Be of good cheer, my people. The memorial of Israel.
⁶ You were sold to the nations, not for your destruction; but because you angered God, you were delivered to your enemies.
⁷ For you provoked him who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God, to God whom they knew not, to new gods that came recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
⁸ For you provoked him who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God, to God whom they knew not, to new gods that came recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
⁹ For when they were in the land of their captivity, they will remember the name of their God.
¹⁰ For he will not forsake you, if you will turn to him.
¹¹ For the Lord will give you everlasting joy.
¹² Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and bereaved of many: I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God.
¹³ For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.
¹⁴ For he will not forsake you, if you will turn to him.
¹⁵ For he has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love even in the sight of the kings of Persia, making them favorable to us, so that we might rebuild our ruined temple and restore its ruins, and so that we might have a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
¹⁶ Those who brought them up have been destroyed and have gone to the land of the dead.

Encouragement for the Children  (Baruch 4:17-29)

¹⁷ For he has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, making us glad with his power before them.
¹⁸ For he is the Lord our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
¹⁹ Your children have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.
²⁰ Our ancestors sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.
²¹ Take courage, my children, cry to God, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy.
²² For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you; and joy has come to me from the Holy One because of the mercy that will soon come to you from your everlasting Savior.
²³ For God will give you evermore joy and gladness.
²⁴ Like as now the neighbours of Zion have seen your captivity, so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God, which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.
²⁵ My children, endure with patience the wrath that has come upon you from God.
²⁶ My delicate ones have gone rough ways, carried off by their enemies.
²⁷ Be of good cheer, my children; cry to the Lord, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy.
²⁸ For as it was your intention to go astray from God, so, when you return, you shall seek him ten times as hard.
²⁹ For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.

The Vision of Restoration  (Baruch 4:30-37)

³⁰ Take courage, my people, you perpetuate the memory of Israel.
³¹ Take courage, my people, you perpetuate the memory of Israel.
³² But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
³³ For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.
³⁴ Like as now the neighbours of Sion have seen your captivity: so shall they see shortly your salvation from our God which shall come upon you with great glory, and brightness of the Everlasting.
³⁵ For fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.
³⁶ Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God.
³⁷ Lo, thy sons come, whom thou sentest away, they come gathered together from the east to the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.