Baruch – a Chronology
by
Damien F. Mackey
“… in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the
month, at the time the
Chaldeans took Jerusalem and destroyed it with fire”.
(Baruch 1:2)
“The fifth year referred to is not the
fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, but the fifth year of the exile
of Jeconiah [Jehoiachin], i.e., the fifth year of Zedekiah”.
Fixing a Time for
Baruch
593 BC
Rev. A. Fitzgerald (F.S.C.),
writing his commentary on “Baruch” for The Jerome Biblical Commentary, appears
to me to have made a pretty good fist of pinning down, to 593 BC
(conventional dating used in this article for convenience), the year when
Baruch wrote his book, or scroll, “on the seventh day of the month in the fifth
year after the Babylonians captured Jerusalem” (Baruch 1:2) – 593 BC being the
fifth year of king Zedekiah, when the Temple was still standing.
For, those who would assign
Baruch’s “fifth year” here to 582 BC, the fifth anniversary of the Temple’s
destruction by Nebuchednezzar II, in 587 BC, run into the somewhat acute
difficulty of there being no Temple standing in Jerusalem to receive the silver
vessels referred to a few verses further on. Thus (vv. 8-9):
On
the tenth day of the month of Sivan, Baruch took the sacred utensils which had
been carried away from the Temple and returned them to Judah. These were the
silver utensils which Zedekiah son of King Josiah of Judah had ordered made
after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had deported Jehoiachin, the rulers, the
skilled workers, the nobles, and the common people and had taken them from
Jerusalem to Babylon.
According to Fitzgerald (37:8-9):
As
1:1b-2a stand, they indicate that the prayer [of Baruch] was composed “in
Babylon, in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month”. The absence of a
number before “month” is strange, but it is generally agreed that the fifth
month is intended …. The fifth year referred to is not the fifth year after the
destruction of Jerusalem, but the fifth year of the exile of Jeconiah
[Jehoiachin], i.e., the fifth year of Zedekiah. Another fifth year with no
month given is found in Ez 1:2. Here clearly 593, the fifth year of Zedekiah is
the date indicated. If Jer 28:1-3 and 29:1-2 are the source of the incident
recounted in 1:8 about the return of the silver vessels, we have another reason
for understanding the date of 1:2 as 593 (Jer 28:1). In any case, such an
understanding of the problem presented by 1:2b harmonizes perfectly with the
rest of the introduction.
[End of quote]
A second date usually assigned to
Baruch that I now think needs seriously to be questioned is this one that we
find with reference to Baruch in the Book of Jeremiah (36:1-2, 4):
In
the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to
Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have
spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations …’.
….
So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the
words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
Whilst the 4th year of
king Jehoiakim of Judah is a most crucial biblico-historical date, combining as
it does in Jeremiah 25:1 the biblical fourth year of a king of Judah with the
first year of a known secular ruler: “The word came to Jeremiah concerning all
the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of
Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon” - not to
mention a date from Jeremiah’s own prophetic career (v. 3): ‘For twenty-three
years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this
very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and
again, but you have not listened’, I think that this date may need to be - in
the case of Jeremiah 36:1 - amended to read the fourth year of Zedekiah.
Thus, instead of the traditional
year of c. 605 BC for the 4th year of Jehoiakim, I think that we are
in reality, for Jeremiah 36:1, in the year c. 594 BC, the fourth year of
Zedekiah. [E.g., different versions of
Scripture present, now Jehoiakim, now Zedekiah, for Jeremiah 27:1]. So,
when immediately after 36:1, in Jeremiah 36:4, “Jeremiah called Baruch son of
Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him,
Baruch wrote them on the scroll”, we are now moving speedily towards our very
starting point of 593 BC which greets us again in v. 9, “In the ninth month of
the fifth year … ”.
But not only our same year,
because the “ninth month” referred to here just happens to be the very same
month, Sivan, as that referred to when Baruch returned the sacred vessels to
Judah.
Jeremiah himself was restricted
as to his movements at the time (Jeremiah 36:5): “Then Jeremiah told Baruch, ‘I
am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s Temple’,” and hence he was
quite dependent upon Baruch (v. 6): ‘So you go to the house of the Lord on a
day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord
that you wrote as I dictated’. Whilst Baruch faithfully carried out the task
assigned to him, it was in itself a most dangerous act – so, little wonder do
we read of this hostile reaction from the king (v. 26): “… the king commanded Jerahmeel,
a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest
Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them”. Hence we can easily excuse Baruch for
his agony at this time (45:1-5):
When
Baruch son of Neriah wrote on a scroll the words Jeremiah the prophet dictated
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah said this
to Baruch: “This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You said, ‘Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am
worn out with groaning and find no rest.’ But the Lord has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have
built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth. Should you then
seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on
all people, declares the Lord, but
wherever you go I will let you escape with your life’.”
This Divine encouragement no
doubt gave new heart to both Jeremiah and to his junior scribal assistant (vv.
27-28, 32):
After the king burned the
scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation,
the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah: ‘Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the
first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up’. ….
So Jeremiah took another scroll
and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch
wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned
in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.
Baruch 5:9 and 6:1-72 actually
comprises: “A copy of the letter which Jeremiah sent to those about
to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to tell them what
he had been commanded by God”.
Just some five years later, with
the Babylonians now besieging Jerusalem, we read of a very similar situation of
dangerous tension between the prophet and the king (Jeremiah 32:1-2):
This
is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord
in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar. The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem,
and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the
royal palace of Judah.
And, once again, the restricted
prophet is dependent upon the aid of Baruch.
The year is:
589 BC
Jeremiah had famously at the time
bought a field in Anathoth (32:6-25), and he had chosen Baruch to preserve the
deed of purchase of the field (vv. 11-15):
I took the deed of
purchase—the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the
unsealed copy— and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah,
in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the
deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard. In their
presence I gave Baruch these instructions: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of
purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. For this is
what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’
And once again we find the king,
too, now Jehoiakim, now Zedekiah - but my argument is that it were all just
Zedekiah - berating the prophet Jeremiah for his pessimistic predictions.
Compare 36:29-31:
Also
tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord
says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king
of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man
and beast?” Therefore this is what the Lord
says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of
David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost
by night. I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their
wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people
of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not
listened’.
with 32:3-5:
Now Zedekiah king of Judah had
imprisoned him there, saying, “Why do you prophesy as you do? You say, ‘This is
what the Lord says: I am about to
give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.
Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the Babylonians but will certainly be
given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to
face and see him with his own eyes. He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he
will remain until I deal with him, declares the Lord.
If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed’.”
Everything that Jeremiah, with
the assistance of Baruch, had prophesied or proclaimed to the king and his
officials, and to the people of Judah, would soon be fulfilled. For, the very
next year, Jerusalem and its Temple fell to the Babylonians. And the king was
taken into captivity.
587 BC
Jeremiah 39:2-7:
And on the ninth
day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall was broken
through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in
the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer,
Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of
Babylon. When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled;
they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate
between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah.
But the
Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho.
They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in
the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. There at Riblah the
king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also
killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him
with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:8-10:
In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the
month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of
Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the House of the Lord and the king’s
house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And
all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke
down the walls around Jerusalem.
Not long after all of this had
occurred, there was a rebellion against Babylonian authority, despite the
warnings of Jeremiah against escaping to Egypt, and Baruch son of Neriah -
apparently also still in the land - was accused of “inciting” the people along
the same lines (Jeremiah 43:1-3):
When Jeremiah had finished
telling the people all the words of the Lord their God—everything the Lord had
sent him to tell them — Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and
all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not
sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ But Baruch son of
Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they
may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon”.
The next is the last that we hear
of Baruch, whose combined floruit in the books of Jeremiah and Baruch I
have estimated to have been only about (593-587
=) 6 years -
depending on when the exile to Egypt occurred (Jeremiah 43:6-7): “And they took
Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them. So they entered
Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes”.
So, what happened to Baruch after
that?
Comments