Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
People 6 ▾
Judah Patriarchal 1 Josiah Divided Monarchy 1 Jehoiakim Divided Monarchy 1 Jeremiah Exile 1 Judah Life of Christ 1 Baruch Divided Monarchy 1-2
Speakers 2 ▾
Jeremiah human 1, 3-4 God divine 2, 5
Historic voices 4 ▾
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-4 Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 1× 1, 5 Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary 1× 1 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 3-5
Manuscript witnesses 4 ▾
Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008
Cross-references 27 ▾
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What is Jeremiah 45 about?

Set in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Baruch the son of Neriah had written Jeremiah's dictated words in a scroll, this brief word answers the scribe's own cry of grief and weariness. The LORD tells Baruch that He is tearing down what He built and uprooting what He planted across the whole land, so the scribe must not seek great things for himself; yet his life will be given him as a prize wherever he goes. Placed as a coda to the earlier prophecies, it shows that amid the ruin of a nation the LORD still marks and preserves the servant who is faithful to His word. Even as judgment falls for covenant-breaking, His mercy shelters the individual, foreshadowing the preserving grace held out in the new covenant.

Historical backdrop

In Jeremiah's youth Assyria fell, Nineveh sacked, and Babylon rose to take its empire. Judah was a small kingdom caught between the two great powers, Egypt to the south and Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon to the north, and it chose wrongly again and again. Over his forty years the armies came three times, until in 586 BC they broke the walls of Jerusalem, burned the temple of Solomon, and carried the people to the rivers of Babylon.

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 45
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Jeremiah 45
The Church Fathers on Jeremiah 45

Jeremiah 45

Jeremiah Chapter 45
45

1The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch: 3Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for Jehovah hath added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.

4Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. 5And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith Jehovah; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

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What is Jeremiah 45 about?

Set in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Baruch the son of Neriah had written Jeremiah's dictated words in a scroll, this brief word answers the scribe's own cry of grief and weariness. The LORD tells Baruch that He is tearing down what He built and uprooting what He planted across the whole land, so the scribe must not seek great things for himself; yet his life will be given him as a prize wherever he goes. Placed as a coda to the earlier prophecies, it shows that amid the ruin of a nation the LORD still marks and preserves the servant who is faithful to His word. Even as judgment falls for covenant-breaking, His mercy shelters the individual, foreshadowing the preserving grace held out in the new covenant.