Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah depicts God silencing the voices of joy, gladness, bride, and groom in Judah and Jerusalem, a formula that Baruch repeats to show how the absence of weddings and celebration became a common way of expressing the desolation of exile.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jeremiah 7:34
Hebrew Bible
32 So, watch out!” says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury so many people in Topheth that they will run out of room. 33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away. 34 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Baruch 2:23
Deuterocanon
21 “The Lord says, ‘Bow your shoulders to serve the king of Babylon, and remain in the land that I gave to your fathers. 22 But if you won’t hear the voice of the Lord to serve the king of Babylon, 23 I will cause to cease out of the cities of Judah and from the region near Jerusalem the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. The whole land will be desolate without inhabitant.’” 24 But we wouldn’t listen to your voice, to serve the king of Babylon. Therefore you have made good your words that you spoke by your servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers would be taken out of their places. 25 Behold, they are cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night. They died in great miseries by famine, by sword, and by pestilence.
Date: 200–50 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Baruch 2:20-23 ... Although there is an explicit reference to the prophets, which prophet(s) Baruch is intending is obscure. However, upon closer inspection Baruch seems to be only paraphrasing one prophet, Jeremiah. For example, Zink claims that Baruch combines Jeremiah 27:11‐14 and 7:34 to form this passage. Moore follows by affirming the references of Jeremiah 27:11‐12 and 7:34, but also adds Jeremiah 16:9; 33:10‐11. Stanley endorses the identification of Jeremiah 27:11‐14, but challenges the reference of 7:34, seeing instead Jeremiah 33:10‐11 and 34:22b. Recently, Večho has attempted to advance our understanding and agrees that this “quotation” is drawn from Jeremiah. However, she identifies a much larger number of parallel texts claiming that Baruch has drawn from every part of Jeremiah. This strong emphasis on Jeremiah reinforces the Jeremianic perspective developed in this section and strengthens the ties between Jeremiah and Baruch ..."
Sean A. Adams, “Reframing Scripture: A Fresh Look at Baruch's So-Called 'Citations',” in Scriptural Authority in Early Judaism and Ancient Christianity, ed. Géza G. Xeravits et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), 63–83.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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