King James Version
Jeremiah 45
A personal message is directed to Baruch the scribe, who feels overwhelmed and sorrowful while recording Jeremiah's heavy prophecies of doom. God reminds Baruch not to seek great things for himself during national collapse, offering him life as his sole prize. Standing as a brief intimate interlude in Jeremiah, this chapter addresses individual grief within collective crisis. The realistic promise is spoken in verse 5: Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.
1 The 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,
2 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:
3 Thou 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.
4 Thus 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.
5 And 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.
GO DEEPER
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