Exile prayer, wisdom poem, and a letter about idols · compiled c. 200-100 BC
Baruch
A book written in the voice of Jeremiah's secretary, teaching a scattered people how to pray from far away.
- 6Chapters
- 213Verses
Written: c. 200-100 BCE (composite) · Original language: Hebrew (likely for chapters 1-3:8); Greek for remainder
King James Version Apocrypha (1769 standardized text) · public domain
Read Baruch
King James Version + Apocrypha (standardized 1769 text), eBible.org USFX edition of the Crosswire/eBible KJV — Public Domain — Chapter 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah, which the KJV prints as part of Baruch under the heading 'The Epistle of Jeremy'.
Plain answers first
What this book is
Baruch is a short book in the name of Baruch son of Neriah, the scribe who wrote Jeremiah's words down for him (Jeremiah 36 and 45). It presents itself as a letter he sent from Babylon back to Jerusalem after the city fell.
The first part is a long confession. The exiles admit that the disaster was deserved, that they did not listen to the prophets, and they ask God for mercy. The prayer is close in shape and even in wording to Daniel 9, which makes the two worth reading side by side.
The middle is a poem about wisdom. It asks where wisdom is found, answers that no explorer or merchant found her, and says God gave her to Israel in the law. One line of that poem, that wisdom afterward appeared on earth and lived among people, was quoted often by early Christian writers who heard the coming of Christ in it.
Then comes comfort. Jerusalem speaks as a grieving mother, and the book answers her with a promise of children coming home. Chapter 6 is a separate piece altogether: the Epistle of Jeremy, a letter warning exiles not to fear idols, which many Bibles print as its own short book and the King James Apocrypha prints as Baruch chapter 6.
Most scholars think the book was assembled from several older pieces, likely between about 200 and 100 BC, with parts perhaps written earlier in Hebrew. It survives in Greek.
The canon question, honestly
Why it stands outside the 66
Baruch is not in the Hebrew Bible, and Jewish tradition never received it as Scripture. Jerome, translating the Bible into Latin around AD 400, said plainly that the Hebrews neither read Baruch nor possess it, and he set it aside with the other books he called apocrypha. The Reformers followed the Hebrew list, so Protestant Bibles print Baruch outside the canon or not at all. The Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546 affirmed it as Scripture, and Eastern Orthodox churches read it as well. So the disagreement here is old, honest, and about a real question: which list the church inherited, and from whom.
Why a student of the 66 should still open it
Why read it — and how
This is one of the clearest windows we have into how Jewish exiles actually prayed. The confession shows a people reading their own history through the law and taking responsibility for it. The wisdom poem shows how Israel came to identify wisdom with God's own instruction, the same move Sirach 24 makes. And chapter 6 puts Jeremiah 10 and Isaiah 44 into story form: the gods are carried, dusted, and locked up, and they cannot save anyone. If you want to understand the world Jesus was born into, this is the kind of book that formed it.
Read Daniel 9 first, then Baruch 1-3, and notice how much of the same prayer language reappears. Read the wisdom poem slowly as poetry, not argument. Save chapter 6 for last and read it as satire, because that is what it is. Treat every line as a witness to how faithful Jews thought, not as a word from God to settle anything.
Doors into the text
Key moments
Baruch reads the book aloud to the exiles, who weep, fast, and send money and words home to Jerusalem.
The exiles own the judgment in language that runs remarkably close to the prayer of Daniel 9.
The famous poem: no merchant or explorer discovered wisdom; God gave her to Israel in the law.
The city addresses her scattered children, and is told to take courage.
A promise of return that echoes Isaiah, and closely parallels a Jewish hymn from the same era.
A separate letter, printed here as chapter 6: a blunt takedown of idols that cannot see, eat, or defend themselves.
The disagreement is old — here it is plainly
Where the traditions stand
| Tradition | Where this book stands |
|---|---|
| jewish | not canonical; Hebrew text of chapters 1-3 likely existed but is lost |
| anglican | apocryphal — read for example of life and instruction of manners |
| catholic | canonical (deuterocanonical; includes the Letter of Jeremiah as chapter 6 in some editions) |
| protestant | non-canonical |
| eastern orthodox | canonical (anagignoskomena) |
| oriental orthodox | canonical |