THE BOOK OF BARUCH
LESSON 4
PART IV: PERSONIFIED JERUSALEM CONSOLES THE EXILES (4:5-5:9)
"Jerusalem is called a widow because she has been deprived of the divine care that was once given to her."
Theodoret of Cyprus, Interpretatio in Baruch, 4, 12
The themes of lamentation, repentance, consolation, and hope alternate in this poetic section. The narrative presents Jerusalem sharing her sorrow with her children, who were taken captive and scattered in the Babylonian Exile. She acknowledges her inability to aid them and confesses that their only hope is in the Lord God of Israel.
Baruch 4:5-8 ~ A Song of Exhortation and Consolation for the Exiles
5 Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel! 6 You were sold to the nations,
but not for extermination. You provoked God, and so were delivered to your
enemies, 7 since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons,
and not to God. 8 You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you.
Part IV begins with consolation and encouragement. The chosen people were punished because of their unfaithfulness in having "forgotten the eternal God who reared you" (verse 8). However, there is still hope for a faithful remnant, a "memorial" (verse 5), that will remain loyal and return from the Babylonian Exile believing in Israel's God. The covenant people's punishment, inflicted by God through the Babylonians, was not meant to destroy the people but was a corrective measure intended to mark the start of a newly redeemed covenant people. This theme of the "remnant of Israel" appears in the other books of the prophets (cf. Isaiah 4:2-6; 10:20-21; Jeremiah 3:14; 5:18; Ezekiel 14:22; Amos 5:15; Micah 4:7; etc.) and reminds us that everything that happens in human history is guided by God's hand.
Baruch 4:9-16 ~ Jerusalem's Lament Over the Sins of Her Children
9 You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you, for when she saw God's anger
falling on you, she said: Listen, you neighbors of Zion: God has sent me great
sorrow. 10 I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, which the
Eternal brought down on them. 11 I had reared them joyfully; in tears, in
sorrow, I watched them go away. 12 Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow
deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sins of my children, who
turned away from the Law of God, 13 who did not want to know his precepts and
would not follow the ways of his commandments or tread the paths of discipline
as his justice directed. 14 Come here, neighbors of Zion! Remember my sons' and
daughters' captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them. 15 How he brought
a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language,
they showed neither respect for the aged, nor pity for the child; 16 they
carried off the widow's cherished sons, they left her quite alone, bereft of
her daughters.
Personified Jerusalem addresses the neighboring towns and her children scattered among them (verses 9-29). "Zion" (verses 9 and 14) was the original name of the citadel of Jerusalem that David took from the Jebusites in 2 Samuel 5:6-9. Genesis 14:18 mentions Melchizedek, king of Salem, a shorter name for Jerusalem. An early reference to Jerusalem is in Psalm 76:2, where Salem is associated with Zion as the dwelling place of God. Later, the name was applied to the entire mountain crest of Mt. Moriah on which the Temple was built (2 Chronicles 3:1) and where Israel's kings were anointed (Psalm 2:6), and to the city itself (Psalm 147:12; Isaiah 1:27).
Question # 1: Allegorically, how did "Zion" come to be understood?
See Hebrews 12:22 and Revelation 14:1.
Answer to question 1
16 they carried off the widow's cherished sons, they left her quite alone, bereft of her daughters. Jerusalem is also described as a widow in Lamentations 1:1: How deserted she sits, the city once thronged with people! Once the greatest of nations, she is now like a widow ....
Baruch 4:17-29 ~ Jerusalem Calls on Her Children to be Converted and to Have Hope
17 For my part, how could I help you? 18 He who brought those disasters down on
you, is the one to deliver you from your enemies' clutches. 19 Go, my children,
go your way! I must stay bereft and lonely; 20 for I look to the Eternal for
your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soon to
reach you from your Savior, the Eternal. 21 Take courage, my children, call on
God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the clutches of your enemies; 22
for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy
One at the mercy soon to reach you from your Savior, the Eternal. 23 In sorrow
and tears, I watched you go away, but God will give you back to me in joy and
gladness for ever. 24 As the neighbors of Zion have now witnessed your
captivity, so will they soon see your rescue by God, which will come upon you
with great glory and splendor of the Eternal. 25 My children, patiently bear
the anger brought on you by God. Your enemy has persecuted you, but soon, you
will witness his destruction and set your foot on his neck. 26 My favorite
children have traveled by rough roads, carried off like a flock by a marauding
enemy. 27 Take courage, my children, call on God: he who brought this on you
will remember you. 28 As by your will you first strayed from God, so now turn
back and search for him ten times harder; 29 for he has been bringing down
those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
Jerusalem cannot help her children. Their only hope for deliverance must come from God, who used the Babylonians to chastise them for their sins. There is, however, reason for hope that the punishment imposed by the Lord will not last forever because of His compassion and goodness He will save His covenant people (verse 22).
The joy of the holy city in the hope of the return of her "favorite children" (the holy remnant who is still obedient to Yahweh) is reminiscent of the last chapters of the book of Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 60:1-4; 63:7-9; 66:10-11) and Jeremiah's oracle in Jeremiah 30:18-22. Personified Jerusalem offers both a song of consolation and an exhortation to return to the Lord their God.
Baruch 4:30-37 ~ An Appeal for Jerusalem to Have Courage
30 Take courage, Jerusalem: he who gave you your name will console you. 31
Disaster will come to all who have ill-treated you and gloated over your fall.
32 Disaster will come to the cities where your children were slaves; disaster
to whichever one received your children, 33 for just as she rejoiced at your
fall and was happy to see you ruined, so will she grieve over her own
desolation. 34 I shall deprive her of the joy of a populous city, and her
insolence will turn to mourning; 35 fire from the Eternal will befall her for
many a day, and demons will dwell in her for ages. 36 Jerusalem, turn your eyes
to the east, see the joy that is coming to you from God. 37 Look, the children
you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, they
are on their way home at the Holy One's command, rejoicing in God's glory.
In 4:30-5:9, the poet replies to Jerusalem with a promise of restoration in the Messianic days. "Naming" in verse 30 is the same as establishing ownership "someone given a name belongs to the one who named him. Jerusalem belongs to God, who gave her the name initially, and He will give it back to her after the Exile (cf. Isaiah 1:26; 60:14; 62:2-4; Jeremiah 30:17; 33:16). Her children will return to her from the east and west (verses 36-37). He also consoles her by promising their captors, referencing Babylon ("the city which received your sons" in verse 32), would receive their just punishment.
36 Jerusalem, turn your eyes to the east, see the joy that is coming to you from
God. 37 Look, the children you watched go away are on their way home;
reassembled from east and west, they are on their way home at the Holy One's
command, rejoicing in God's glory.
Verses 36-37 appear to summarize Isaiah 60:1-22, calling on Jerusalem to envision the
return of the exiles at God's command: Arise, shine out, for your light has
come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you ... Your people, all of them
upright, will possess the country for ever, the shoot I myself have planted, my
handiwork, for my own glory. The smallest will grow into a thousand, the
weakest one into a mighty nation. When the time is ripe, I, Yahweh, shall
quickly bring it about"
(Isaiah 60:1, 21-22).
Baruch 5:1-9 ~ A Song of Rejoicing
1 Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of
God's glory for evermore, 2 wrap the cloak of God's saving justice around you,
put the diadem of the Eternal One's glory on your head, 3 for God means to show
your splendor to every nation under heaven, 4 and the name God gives you for
evermore will be, "Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion." 5 Arise,
Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your
children reassembled from west and east at the Holy One's command, rejoicing
because God has remembered. 6 Though they left you on foot driven by enemies,
now God brings them back to you, carried gloriously, like a royal throne. 7 For
God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills,
the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk
safely in God's glory. 8 And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide
shade for Israel, at God's command; 9 for God will guide Israel in joy by the
light of his glory, with the mercy and saving justice which come from him.
The poet offers a new song of consolation, the fourth in the book, which promises everlasting happiness. God will give the new Jerusalem symbolic names. The tone is eschatological and connects to St. John's vision of the Messianic Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-4. St. Irenaeus noticed the connection and wrote, "No allegorical interpretation of this can be given: everything is true and clear and defined, and God desires that it be so for the glory of righteous men. God raises man from the dead, and when the Kingdom comes, man will be brought to life with incorruptibility and made strong, and he will welcome in the glory of the Father. When everything has been renewed, he will truly live in the city of God" (Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, 5, 35, 2).
4 and the name God gives you for evermore will be, "Peace-through-Justice, and
Glory-through-Devotion."
When the exiles of the faithful remnant return, God will give Jerusalem the
Messianic names "Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion." The
symbolic names indicate that Jerusalem will be a place of peace, righteousness,
and glory and that she will belong entirely to God.
Question #2: What other Messianic names did God give Jerusalem?
See Isaiah 1:26; 60:14;
Jeremiah 33:16, and Ezekiel 48:35.
What did it mean to receive a new name?
Answer to question 2
The return of the exiles will be a new Exodus, as Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 40:3-5 and 63:9 (repeating Exodus 19:4). Just as God prepared the way for the Israelites to journey to the "Promised Land" of Canaan, He will prepare the way for the exiles to return to their homeland. Isaiah describes the road by which Yahweh will lead His people through the desert in a new Exodus. The miracles of the first Exodus were already recalled by Isaiah in 10:25-27. The prophets elaborated on this theme. Like the first Exodus, God will come and save His people. Jeremiah 16:14-15 and 31:2 also recall the miracles of the first Exodus. Micah 7:15-16 promises wonders like the days of old when Israel came out of Egypt.
What was the Exile in Babylon like for the people of Judah and Jerusalem?
According to 2 Kings 25:30 and Jeremiah 52:31-34, captured King Jehoiachin received special treatment in captivity. Cuneiform ration lists were discovered in King Nebuchadnezzar II's South Palace in Babylon, showing captive kings and high officials receiving monthly grain and oil rations. Babylonian records also recorded information about non-royal Judahites.
Texts from Nippur contain the names of Judahites who served as legal witnesses in land contracts. They were revealed as Jews by their Yahwistic names formed from the Israelite Divine Name, YHWH (for example, names with "iah" or "yah" endings). The Babylonian texts record the business activities of a family whose patriarch was a businessman. Since witnesses to contracts usually have the same social status as those engaged in the transaction, this would suggest that several Judahites were successful and gained recognition as leaders in their communities. Records from the city of Susa referred to Judahites with Yahwistic names serving as royal courtiers, and in Sippar, a few Yahwistic names appear listed as royal merchants. However, these were the lucky few who assimilated into the Babylonian population and probably were among those who refused to return from the Exile to their homeland. The lament of the exiles in Psalm 137 describes them as weeping at the memory of Zion.
Answers to the questions:
Answer to Question #1:
Allegorically, Zion came to be understood as Heaven itself.
Answer to Question #2: In
Isaiah 1:26, Jerusalem receives the name "City of Saving Justice and Faithful
City," and in Isaiah 60:14, "City of Yahweh" and "Zion of the holy One of
Israel."
A name change usually signified a change in mission or vocation (cf. Abram to Abraham
in Genesis 17:5; Sarai to Sarah in Genesis 17:15; Jacob to Israel in Genesis 32:29; Saul to Paul in Acts 13:9, etc.). For Jerusalem, the new names were
symbolic of her future destiny.
Catechism references:
Hebrews 12:22-23 (CCC 2188),
12:23 (CCC 1021)
Revelation 14:1 (CCC 1138, 2159)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.