Guide
What Is the Book of Baruch?
2nd or 1st Century BCE
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The book of Baruch, also called 1 Baruch, was likely composed in Hebrew in the second or first century BCE. It is included in the Greek Septuagint and in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons and the Protestant Apocrypha. Attributed to Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, and set in the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, the book includes a communal confessional prayer, two poems, and a letter ascribed to Jeremiah, which was originally a separate work.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
A Wisdom Poem
Baruch 3:9–4:4
Hear the commandments of life, O Israel; give ear, and learn wisdom!Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies, that you are growing old in a foreign…
Primary Source
Confessional Prayer for Judean Restoration
Baruch 1:15–3:8
And you shall say: The Lord our God is in the right, but there is open shame on us today, on the people of Judah, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on our kings, our rulers, our…