1Palavra que o profeta Jeremias falou a Baruque filho de Nerias, quando ele escrevia num livro aquelas palavras da boca de Jeremias, no quinto ano de Jeoaquim filho de Josias, rei de Judá, dizendo:
2Assim diz o SENHOR Deus de Israel, quanto a ti, Baruque:
3Tu disseste: Ai de mim agora! Pois o SENHOR me acrescentou tristeza sobre minha dor; já estou cansado de meu gemido, e não acho descanso.
4Assim lhe dirás: Assim diz o SENHOR: Eis que o que edifiquei eu destruo; e o que plantei eu arranco, até toda esta terra.
5E tu buscarias para ti grandezas? Não [as] busques; porque eis que eu trago o mal sobre toda carne, diz o SENHOR, mas conservarei tua vida em todos os lugares para onde fores.
📖 Chapter study
Summary
A short, personal chapter dedicated to Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, who was exhausted and distressed over his own suffering. God promises to preserve his life amid the general collapse.
Explanation
This brief chapter functions almost like an emotional parenthesis within the book, giving special attention to Jeremiah's closest collaborator, who carried the emotional weight of writing down and witnessing all these harsh prophecies for decades. God's gentle rebuke ('do you seek great things for yourself? do not seek them') reminds us that in times of widespread national crisis, seeking personal security or prominence is not a wise priority. The final promise that Baruch would have 'his life as a prize' (that is, would survive) wherever he went is a direct, personal comfort within a book dominated by collective judgments.
Fun facts
- This chapter, though short, is dated to the same period as chapter 36 (the fourth year of Jehoiakim), making it chronologically one of the earliest events in the book, even though it is placed near the end of the final text.
- The expression 'his life as a prize' (having one's life as the only thing saved, but still saved) appears in almost identical form in Jeremiah 21:9, 38:2, and 39:18, forming a recurring theme of survival amid catastrophe.