Jeremiah Baruch : New Collegeville Bible Commentary

Jeremiah grew up in a time of peace and died in exile. He lived to see the temple burned to the ground, Jerusalem destroyed, and his people marched into a foreign land. A reluctant prophet, Jeremiah preached the renewal of the covenant, teaching in parables like Jesus. His God was a God of hope, promise, power, and the will to make the people of Israel a holy people.

Jeremiah announces the unleashing of the wrath of God in the final years of the kingdom of Judah. It is a message that is particularly painful to the prophet and he cries out to God against the message he must deliver, meriting for himself the title of “the reluctant prophet.” The intensity and passion of Jeremiah is expressed in the harshness of his message, but also in his longing that the people remember the devotion of their youth and return in faithful love to God. The unrelenting doom that occupies much of the book of Jeremiah is offset by God’s refusal to totally abandon the people of Judah. This refusal to let go of the people is given its greatest expression in a New Covenant which lays the foundation for humanity’s enduring relationship with God.

The book of Baruch presents several ways for the people of Israel to deal with the destruction of their country and exile from their land. They must acknowledge their sinfulness, repent, and seek deliverance (1:1-3:8). They must recognize the importance of wisdom and that wisdom is accessible to them in obedience to the law which God has given them (3:9-4:4). Grief over their loss must include a longing for restoration and salvation (4:5-5:9) and under no circumstances must they return to the worship of other gods (6:1-71).

In Jeremiah, Baruch, Pauline A. Viviano insightfully explores and explains these two challenging and important books of Scripture.

Pauline A. Viviano is an associate professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago. She received her doctorate in biblical languages and literature from St. Louis University. Besides articles in academic and popular journals, her publications include reading guides for the books of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, and Ruth for the Catholic Study Bible published by Oxford University Press, and Collegeville Bible Commentary Volume 2: Genesis (Liturgical Press, 1985). In addition to university teaching she often lectures at parishes in and around Chicago.
The book of Baruch deals with the challenges faced by the Jews of the Diaspora who never retur