Jeremiah 45
Barnes' Notes
The long catalogue of calamities so consistently denounced by Jeremiah against his country Jeremiah 45:1-5, made a most painful impression upon Baruch's mind. He was of ambitious temperament Jeremiah 45:5, and being of noble birth as the grandson of Maaseiah, the governor of Jerusalem in Josiah's time 2 Chronicles 34:8, and a scribe, he appears to have looked forward either to high office in the state, or far more probably to being invested with prophetic powers. This address tells Baruch to give up his ambitious hopes, and be content with escaping with life only. Like the prophecy of the 70 years of exile, it would become a prediction of good only after really troubles had been undergone and pride was quelled. As regards the place of this prophecy it would come in order of time next to Jeremiah 36, but as that was a public, and this a private prophecy, they would not be written upon the same scroll. When the last memorials of Jeremiah's life were added to the history of the fall of Jerusalem, Baruch attached to them this prediction, which - humbled by years, and the weight of public and private calamity - he now read with very different feelings from those which filled his mind in his youth.
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,
These words - i. e., the words of Jehoiakim's scroll.
Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch;
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.
Grief to my sorrow - Baruch's sorrow is caused by the sinfulness of the Jewish nation, to which God adds grief by showing how severely it will be punished.

I fainted in - Or, "am weary with" Psalm 6:6.

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.
land - Or, earth. Baruch's lot was cast in one of those troublous times when God enters into judgment with all flesh Jeremiah 45:5. It was not Judaea only but the whole known world that was thrown into turmoil by Nebuchadnezzars energy Jeremiah 25:26.
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.
Notes on the Bible by Albert Barnes [1834].
Text Courtesy of Internet Sacred Texts Archive.

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Jeremiah 44
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