Jeremiah 45:1-5·~1 min

Jeremiah’s Message to Baruch

While Baruch writes Jeremiah's dictated words onto a scroll in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the LORD sends him a direct message. Baruch's cry of pain, added sorrow, and restless exhaustion is heard, but he is told to understand his life within the larger moment: the LORD is tearing down what He built and uprooting what He planted throughout the land. Therefore Baruch must stop seeking great things for himself and instead receive the quieter mercy the LORD grants him, namely that his life will be spared wherever judgment drives him.

T¹his is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: ²“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: ³You have said, ‘Woe is me because the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’” ⁴Thus Jeremiah was to say to Baruch: “This is what the LORD says: Throughout the land I will demolish what I have built and uproot what I have planted. ⁵But as for you, do you seek great things for yourself? Stop seeking! For I will bring disaster on every living creature, declares the LORD, but wherever you go, I will grant your life as a spoil of war.”

Section summaryThe word of the LORD comes to Baruch through Jeremiah while Baruch is writing Jeremiah's words on a scroll in Jehoiakim's reign. The LORD addresses Baruch's complaint of sorrow and weariness, explains that the coming work is one of demolishing and uprooting across the whole land, and tells him not to seek great things for himself, because although disaster is coming on all flesh, Baruch will be granted his life as a spoil wherever he goes.

Role in the chapterThis single section turns Baruch's personal discouragement into a lesson about faithfulness, humility, and survival during a time of divine judgment.