Old Testament
Jeremiah 45
Overview
This brief chapter is a personal word of God to Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, who had cried out in weariness and grief: "Woe is me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain." God neither scolds nor flatters him; he reminds Baruch that he himself is tearing down what he built and plucking up the whole land, so this is no time to seek great things for oneself. Yet he gives a tender, personal promise: Baruch's life will be granted to him "as a prize of war" wherever he goes. It is a word for every faithful servant who labors in a collapsing age.
1The 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,
2Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch;
3Thou 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.
4Thus 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.
5And 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.