The Book of Baruch

A short book attributed to Jeremiah's secretary, written for exiles: a confession of national sin, a poem in praise of wisdom, and a lament in the voice of Jerusalem herself, comforting the children she has lost.

Testament

Old (6 chapters)

Type

Deuterocanon

Date

The parts are of different ages; the collection took shape by the second century BC.

Confession as a public act

The opening is a communal admission of guilt, read aloud by exiles. It assumes something modern readers rarely do: that a people can sin together and must therefore repent together.

Wisdom belongs to Israel

The poem in chapter 3 asks where wisdom is to be found and answers that God gave it to Jacob — an argument that a small defeated nation still holds something no empire has.

Key verses (KJV)

“Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.” — Baruch 3:14 (KJV)

“O Israel, happy are we: for things that are pleasing to God are made known unto us.” — Baruch 4:4 (KJV)

How to read Baruch

Six chapters, twenty minutes. Note that Catholic Bibles bind the Letter of Jeremiah as chapter 6, while the King James Apocrypha prints it as a separate book — the same text, counted differently, which is why editions disagree on the length of Baruch.

Read Baruch on your iPhone

Read the full book of Baruch in Quiethaven — choose your translation, read offline, and pick up where you left off. Pair it with a daily verse and a prayer timer.

More Old Testament books

• The Book of 1 Maccabees
• The Book of 2 Maccabees
• The Book of Tobit
• The Book of Judith
• The Book of Wisdom of Solomon

Frequently asked questions

What is the Book of Baruch about?

Baruch is a book of Deuterocanon, running to 6 chapters. Its main threads: Confession as a public act; Wisdom belongs to Israel.

Who wrote the Book of Baruch?

Attributed to Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah's scribe. The book is a composite and most of it is later than he is; the attribution places it in the tradition of Jeremiah rather than claiming his stenographer wrote every line.

Where does Baruch come in the Bible?

Baruch is one of the seven deuterocanonical books — part of the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament, and printed in the Apocrypha of some Protestant Bibles rather than in the canon. That is why a Protestant Bible has 66 books and a Catholic one 73.