Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah accuses the people of rejecting the fountain of living water, an accusation echoed in Baruch who argues they have abandoned the fountain of wisdom, a reference to the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jeremiah 2:13
Hebrew Bible
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all! 12 Be amazed at this, O heavens. Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,” says the Lord. 13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: They have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot even hold water. 14 “Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off? 15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted.
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Baruch 3:12
Deuterocanon
10 How is it, O Israel, that you are in your enemies’ land, that you have become old in a strange country, that you are defiled with the dead, 11 that you are counted with those who are in Hades? 12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. 13 If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelled in peace forever. 14 Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, and where there is understanding, that you may also know where there is length of days and life, where there is the light of the eyes and peace.
Date: 200–50 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... God is portrayed as universal and also as creator (Baruch 3:32–35; Jeremiah 5:22; 10:12; 23:24). He loves Israel especially (Baruch 3:37; Jeremiah 31:3), although the people are sinful and rebellious (Baruch 1:13, 19; 2:10; Jeremiah 2:20–24, 29, and elsewhere). God has addressed them frequently, also through his prophets, but has had no success (Baruch 1:18, 21; 2:20, 24; Jeremiah 7:23–28; 11:7–8, etc.). Nevertheless he is full of mercy and gives his people a future (Baruch 2:27; 3:2; 5:9; Jeremiah 31:20; 33:26; 42:12). Besides these features common to many books of the Old Testament, there are some specific traits linking the Books of Baruch and Jeremiah. Jeremiah 2:13 (17:13) refers to God as “the source of living water”, and the people are accused of having “forsaken the source of living water”. Similarly, Baruch 3:12 talks about Israel, having “forsaken the source of wisdom”; the following context, leading to Baruch 4:1 with its equation of wisdom with the book of God’s commandments, suggests a close connection between the “source of wisdom” and God himself. Thus, although using different terms, the two passages in Jeremiah and Baruch are very close to one another ..."
Georg Fischer, “Simulated Similarities: The Intricate Relationship between the Books of Baruch and Jeremiah,” in Studies on Baruch: Composition, Literary Relations, and Reception, ed. Sean A. Adams (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 5–24.
* 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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