Read this if you…
- want one of the Apocrypha — books Protestants cut but Catholics and Orthodox kept
- like the Wisdom poem at its center: Wisdom personified as a gift God gave to Israel alone
- care about exile literature: writing from Babylon, trying to keep a defeated people's identity alive
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Depicted in Art
A monumental, white-bearded Jeremiah looms over the seated Baruch, who poises his quill above an open scroll to take down the prophecy.
Washington Allston, 1820
Baruch, robed and bearded, sits brooding against a massive stone wall, the destroyed city implied behind him.
Gustave Doré, 1866
Red-chalk study of Baruch's head and torso, his hand clutching drapery, prepared for the Lateran prophet oval.
Francesco Trevisani, 1718
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!
Notable Quotes
Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, and conversed with men.
- Clement of Alexandria, Early Christian theologian, c. 150–215: "Where are the rulers of the nations … who treasured up silver and gold, in whom men trusted, and there was no end of their substance?"
- Augustine of Hippo, Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church, 354–430: Augustine reads Baruch 3:36–38 — "afterwards He was seen on the earth, and conversed with men" — as a prophecy of Christ, though he notes some ascribe it to Baruch and most to Jeremiah.
- Council of Trent, Catholic ecumenical council, 1545–1563: "...the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, Jeremias with Baruch; Ezechiel, Daniel..."
- Athanasius of Alexandria, Bishop of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church, c. 296–373: "Then Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle, one book."
- Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church, c. 313–386: "...of Isaiah one, of Jeremiah one, including Baruch and Lamentations and the Epistle; then Ezekiel, and the Book of Daniel."