Random Verse from Baruch
212 verses across 6 chapters, in the Douay-Rheims. One of the seven books the Catholic Bible carries and the Protestant Bible does not.
Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding: that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.
Baruch 3:14DRC
Drawing from 212 verses
Baruch is short, six chapters, and tied to the man who worked as the prophet Jeremiah's scribe. It is written from exile, and it is mostly about what a people say to God after everything has gone wrong and they know some of it was their own doing.
It opens with a confession. Then it turns into a poem about wisdom, asking where understanding is actually found and concluding that it was available all along in a place Israel had stopped looking. Then it closes with words of comfort addressed to Jerusalem, spoken as though to a grieving mother whose children will come home.
The final chapter, sometimes printed separately as the Letter of Jeremiah, is an argument against idols that is unexpectedly funny. It works through what a statue can and cannot do in detail.
Baruch sits in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and not Protestant ones. It is the shortest of the seven and the easiest to read in one sitting.
A random verse from Baruch usually lands in one of three registers: confession, the wisdom poem, or consolation. The last of those is where the book is most often quoted.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Baruch in the Bible?
- It is in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, placed near Jeremiah and Lamentations. Protestant Bibles do not include it. The text here is the Douay-Rheims.
- Who was Baruch?
- Jeremiah's scribe, who appears by name in the book of Jeremiah itself, which every Bible contains. The book carrying his name is written from the perspective of the exile that followed.
- What is the Letter of Jeremiah?
- The sixth chapter of Baruch in Catholic Bibles, sometimes printed as a separate short work. It argues at length that idols are made objects and cannot act.