The prophet comforts Baruch in his affliction.
Ieremie reprehendeth Baruch for lamenting in affliction.
1The word that Jeremias the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Nerias, when he had written these words in a book, out of the mouth of Jeremias, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, saying:Parola detta da Geremia profeta a Baruch figliuolo di Neria, quando questi ebbe scritto nel libro quelle parole dettategli da Geremia l'anno quarto di Joachim figliuolo di Giosia, re di Giuda; Geremia disse:THE word, that Ieremie spake to Baruch the sonne of Nerias, when he had written these wordes in a booke, from the mouth of Ieremie, in the fourth yeare of Ioakim the sonne of Iosias king of Iuda, saying:Verbum quod locutus est Jeremias propheta ad Baruch filium Neriæ, cum scripsisset verba hæc in libro ex ore Jeremiæ, anno quarto Joakim filii Josiæ regis Juda, dicens: 2Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to thee, Baruch:Queste cose dice il Signore, il Dio d'Israele a te, o Baruch:Thus saith our Lord the God of Israel to thee Baruch:Hæc dicit Dominus Deus Israël ad te, Baruch: 3Thou hast said: Woe is me, wretch that I am, for the Lord hath added sorrow to my sorrow: I am wearied with my groans, and I find no rest.Tu hai detto: Ah me infelice! per che il Signore ha aggiunto dolore al dolor mio: sono stanco di gemere, non ho trovato requie.Thou hast said: Woe is me wretch, because our Lord hath added sorow to my sorow: I haue laboured in my mourning, and haue not found rest.Dixisti: Væ misero mihi ! quoniam addidit Dominus dolorem dolori meo: laboravi in gemitu meo, et requiem non inveni. 4Thus saith the Lord: Thus shalt thou say to him: Behold, them whom I have built, I do destroy: and them whom I have planted, I do pluck up, and all this land.Queste cose dice il Signore: Tu dirai a lui: Ecco, che io distruggo quelli, ch'io innalzai, e sradico que', ch'io piantai, e tutta intera questa terra.Thus saith our Lord: Thus shalt thou say to him: Behold, them whom I haue builded, I doe destroy: and whom I haue planted, I doe pluck vp, and al this land.Hæc dicit Dominus: Sic dices ad eum: Ecce quos ædificavi, ego destruo, et quos plantavi, ego evello, et universam terram hanc: 5And dost thou seek great things for thyself? Seek not: for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord! but I will give thee thy life, and save thee in all places whithersoever thou shalt go.E tu cerchi grandi cose per te? non cercarle: perocché io manderò sciagure sopra tutti gli uomini, dice il Signore; ma io salverò a te la vita in ogni luogo, dovunque anderai.And doest thou seeke to thy self great thinges? Seeke not: for behold I wil bring euil vpon al flesh, saith our Lord: and I wil geue thee thy life into safetie in al places, whither soeuer thou shalt goe.et tu quæris tibi grandia ? noli quærere, quia ecce ego adducam malum super omnem carnem, ait Dominus, et dabo tibi animam tuam in salutem in omnibus locis ad quæcumque perrexeris.
45:1
Worthington
Baruch apprised of the general distress, weeps for it, and his life is spared. (Worthington)
45:5
Calmet
Great: the spirit of prophecy; (Rabbins) or rather to be exempted from suffering, while all the neighbouring nations were perishing. (Calmet)
Haydock
And save. Literally, "for salvation." Hebrew, "booty." (Haydock)
Calmet
He seems to have been set at liberty with his master, Jeremias 40:1. (Calmet)
45:3
Baruch seing the people much afflicted and vnderstanding by Ieremies prophecie, that they should yet be more punished, lamented the same.
45:5
God granted not his prayer for the people but for himself only.
45:1
1. These words—not of this chapter, but which are said to have been written in chapter XXXVI: for these pertain to that, as is evident to one comparing both chapters. Whence verse 1 is said to have been made in the fourth year of Joakim. You will ask, why did Baruch grieve so? First, R. Solomon responds, because, having ministered so long to the prophet Jeremiah, he had not yet received the gift of prophecy, as Joshua received it ministering to Moses, and Elisha ministering to Elijah. But there is nothing that would signify that ambition in a holy man. Second, Theodoret and Rabanus think he grieved on account of the calamity impending upon the people, into which he himself would be involved. Third and best, Hugh and Lyra from verse 1, and from chapter XXXVI, verse 10, think he grieved because, the book which he had written at the dictation of Jeremiah being torn up and burned by Joakim, ordered again by God to write the same and read it before the people, the same filled with greater threats, he feared (which came to pass) that he would be sought by the raging king Joakim for imprisonment, or rather for cruel death. The cause of his grief was therefore pusillanimity and fear of imprisonment and death. Whence, groaning, he says: "The Lord hath added sorrow to my sorrow," namely writing to writing, danger to danger. For from the danger of the former writing, having escaped by flight, I had gotten away; now I am recalled to both, namely from rest to struggle, and that an extreme one.
45:5
5. Do you seek great things for yourself? — namely, the office of prophesying, say Vatablus and the Hebrews; secondly and better, "great things," namely rest and a prosperous life without pain, trouble and danger. Thus Theodoret. "Great things" therefore he calls a rare, exquisite and superfluous quiet: so that Baruch alone, while the whole people would soon be most afflicted and about to be carried into captivity, would enjoy leisure, and would not expose himself to danger by reading the book to the people, but alone in most wretched Jerusalem, free from all evil and fear, would live; as if to say, You are a cowardly soldier, who do not dare to expose your life for the salvation of the people, you alone wish to be idle, you wish to suffer nothing for the conversion and salvation of the people. And even if you profit little among the people; at least try, and do what is your duty and consider: if my countrymen are about to suffer such dreadful things, why should not I also suffer something light with them and for them? For, as the Wise Man says: As a bird is born for flight, so man is born for labor and pain, namely that he should do and suffer many hard things. Excellently Aristides, vol. II, Rhodian Oration: "Alone," he says, "example makes calamities lighter." The same in the same place: "As a touchstone," he says, "proves gold, so calamities examine strong men." Thus Hildebrand the Cardinal and Archdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, who was afterwards created Pontiff and called Gregory VII, objected to Blessed Peter Damian when he wished to leave the Cardinalate and the Bishopric of Ostia, and to retire to the quiet of a monastery: "Behold Peter," he said, "seeks a hiding place, and under the color of penance seeks to flee from Rome: he schemes to gain leisure from disobedience, and while others rush into wars, he seeks for himself the dark shade of a degenerate retreat." What Peter answered to this, may be seen in his tenth letter to Alexander II the Pontiff and to Hildebrand the Archdeacon, where among other things he says that a penance of one hundred years was imposed upon him by the Pontiff for refusing the Bishopric, which was that he should daily recite the psalm Miserere and continually do penance, that is scourge himself, and this for one hundred years, if he lived so long: which penance he himself redeemed in one year, namely by doing the scourging so many times each day, say one hundred times, repeating it during the space of the psalm Miserere, so that at the end of the year he would equal the aforesaid number, as he himself writes elsewhere about himself. John Frederick, Duke of Saxony, desired to take the empire from the Austrian family. Luther gave him the counsel that if he wished the empire to be changed, he should change the religion. The Duke therefore, following Luther's perfidy and counsel, moved arms against Charles V, but foolishly: for he was defeated and captured by Charles, and was deprived of his Duchy and Electoral power, which the Emperor transferred to Maurice, Duke and cousin of John Frederick, and his family, in which it still persists. On the other hand, Clotharius, king and son of Chilperic, following the sound counsel of St. Columban, was increased in two kingdoms. For when Theodebert and Theodoric, kings and brothers, disputed about the boundaries of the kingdom, and each sought aid from Clotharius against the other, he sought counsel from St. Columban, who with prophetic spirit said to him and persuaded him: Give aid to neither; for within three years the kingdom of each will come under your power. The king obeyed, and, as the man of God had said, so it came to pass, as Jonas relates in the Life of St. Columban, and from him Baronius, in the year of the Lord 612. Thus Flacitheus, king of the Rugii, following the counsel of St. Severinus, escaped the snares of enemies, as Eugypius narrates in his Life, and from him Baronius, in the year of the Lord 473. Thus Christ called the Apostles and their followers, not to leisure, but to contests; not to honors, but to contempt; not to security, but to dangers to be undergone on land and sea everywhere. This was fixed and certain for himself by Father Gonsalvus Sylveira of our Society, noble by birth (for he was the son of the Count of Sortella in Lusitania), but more noble by assiduous labors, and finally by glorious martyrdom, which he suffered in Monomotapa. For he writes thus in a letter given to Father Cotius: "I desire to beg, and to have nothing except what I beg at doors; to hear confessions perpetually, until there remains no penitent whom I hear; to watch until no work remains; to preach until hoarseness; to mortify myself unto death. For I can die in the execution of these things; but with the grace of God I will not grow cold, I will never be weary, but continually I will seek means and ways by which I may always be crucified with Christ Jesus." Thus St. Teresa heard and learned from Christ: "Daughter, merit does not consist in enjoying; but in working, suffering, loving. Paul is said to have been caught up into paradise once, but suffered many times. My Mother heard from Simeon: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce. God gives greater crosses to the greater Saints." Wherefore she herself prayed constantly: "Lord, grant me to suffer or to die." Wisely said the Blessed Father Francis Borgia, third Superior General of our Society, that three things would preserve and promote our Society: first, prayer, for this joins us to God; second, obedience, for this unites all to the head, and consequently unites all to one another; third, persecutions, for these tear us away from the world, and unite us to ourselves, so that we arrange our acts in such a way that our enemies or rivals have nothing to censure. Just as in winter trees contract themselves, and recall their sap and heat from the branches to the root; and thus fix, strengthen and fortify themselves more in the earth: so also man in persecution is recalled from the consolation of men to himself and to his heart, and fixes and strengthens it more in virtue and in God. These three things together preserve and promote the virtue of each faithful person and Saint. Famous is the emblem: "Reward from labor." Hear Claudian in the Epithalamium of Honorius: Nor does anyone enjoy true odors, or rob the Hyblean bees of their honeycomb, if he beware the thorn, if he fear the brambles. The thorn arms the roses, bees guard the honey, joys grow through difficult struggle. I will give thee thy soul in salvation — safe; the Hebrew, as spoil; the Septuagint, as gain. See Aeschylus: To him who labors the divine power is wont to be present.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
45:5
… "Benedetto"). - Son of Neriah, secretary of Jeremiah (v.), whose oracles he wrote down, and his faithful companion during the siege of Jerusalem (Jer. 32:12-16; 36:4-32; 43:3). For his fidelity to the great prophet, God assured him of special protection (Jer. 45:5). After the murder of Gedaliah (v.), he followed Jeremiah into Egypt (Jer. 43:6). It seems that he ended his days among the exiles of Babylon, where he was on the fifth anniversary …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.