Jeremiah 45: The LORD's Personal Message to Baruch
A short, personal chapter where God answers Baruch's grief with a promise to spare his life.
This brief chapter records a private message from years earlier, given when Baruch first wrote Jeremiah's scroll in the events recalled around Jeremiah 44. Baruch has cried out in sorrow, and the LORD answers his exhaustion directly.
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying:
'Thus saith HaShem, the G-d of Israel, concerning thee, O Baruch: Thou didst say:
Woe is me now! for HaShem hath added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.
Thus shalt thou say unto him: Thus saith HaShem: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.
And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith HaShem; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.'