Texts in Conversation
Baruch describes Jerusalem as a widow, echoing the opening of Lamentations where the once-crowded city is left desolate and abandoned. Baruch incorporates and reshapes the image by shifting blame from the city itself to her children, portraying her suffering as the result of their failure to uphold the Torah.
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Lamentations 1:1
Hebrew Bible
1 א (Alef) Alas! The city once full of people now sits all alone! The prominent lady among the nations has become a widow! The princess who once ruled the provinces has become a forced laborer! 2 ב (Bet) She weeps bitterly at night; tears stream down her cheeks. She has no one to comfort her among all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. 3 ג (Gimel) Judah has departed into exile under affliction and harsh oppression. She lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in narrow straits.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Baruch 4:12
Deuterocanon
10 for I have seen the exile of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. 11 With joy I nurtured them, but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow. 12 Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and bereaved of many; I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God. 13 They had no regard for his statutes; they did not walk in the ways of God's commandments, or tread the paths his righteousness showed them. 14 Let the neighbors of Zion come; remember the capture of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.
Date: 150-100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The unexpected reference to the widowhood of Jerusalem is surprising (Baruch 4:12a), because there was no previous mention of the city as a woman, or a wife. Added to that, the miserable isolation of the widow Jerusalem is not a result of the death of her husband, but because of the neglect of God’s commandments by her own children (Baruch 4:12b–13). It is noteworthy that the concept and the image of the widowhood of Jerusalem are found explicitly only in Baruch (compare Baruch 4:16). Although the metaphorical image of a marriage between YHWH and Jerusalem is already found in Ezekiel 16:1–8, it is used there in a negative sense (she is a whore) and with an ambivalent connotation. In contrast to Ezekiel 16, the sins are not here attributed to Jerusalem (compare Ezekiel 16:2–3), but to her children, i.e. the inhabitants of Jerusalem (compare Baruch 4:12b–13). In this way, there is not only a rehabilitation, or a release from guilt, but also a hypostasis of Jerusalem ..."
Elßner. Thomas R.
"Emotions in Jerusalem's Prayer: Baruch and Lamentations" in Reif, Stefan C., and Renate Egger-Wenzel (eds.) Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions
(pp. 71-81) De Gruyter, 2015
* 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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