Skip to Content
intertextual.bible
Go to Related Reading
About this book

Baruch

About this book

Jerusalem Exchanges Mourning for Glory

Chapter 5

1 Take off the garment of your mourning and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.⁠ 2 Put on the robe of the righteousness from God. Set on your head a diadem of the glory of the Everlasting.⁠ 3 For God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.⁠ 4 For your name will be called by God forever “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory”.

God Leads Israel Home

5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand upon the height. Look around you toward the east and see your children gathered from the going down of the sun to its rising⁠ at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.⁠ 6 For they went from you on foot, being led away by their enemies, but God brings them in to you carried on high with glory, on a royal throne. 7 For God has appointed that every high mountain and the everlasting hills should be made low, and the valleys filled up to make the ground level, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God. 8 Moreover the woods and every sweet smelling tree have shaded Israel by the commandment of God. 9 For God will lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 52:1 and Baruch 5:1

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

Share:

Summary

Baruch urges Jerusalem to trade mourning clothes for glory, echoing Isaiah’s call for Zion to dress in strength and beauty. In Isaiah, this marks the end of foreign rule. Baruch reshapes the image into a chain of commands linking exile to future renewal.

Passages

Isaiah 52:1

Hebrew Bible
1 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, holy city. For uncircumcised and unclean pagans will no longer invade you. 2 Shake off the dirt! Get up, captive Jerusalem. Take off the iron chains around your neck, O captive daughter Zion. 3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will not be redeemed for money.” 4 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt; Assyria oppressed them for no good reason.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Baruch 5:1

Deuterocanon
1 Take off the garment of your mourning and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. 2 Put on the robe of the righteousness from God. Set on your head a diadem of the glory of the Everlasting. 3 For God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven. 4 For your name will be called by God forever “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory”. 5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand upon the height. Look around you toward the east and see your children gathered from the going down of the sun to its rising at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.
200–50 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Baruch

References

"... Baruch 4:30–5:6 can be divided into four passages, each introduced by an imperative addressing Jerusalem. The initial call to take courage (θάρσει, 4:30) recalls the call to take courage (θαρσήσατε) addressed to Zion’s children in the preceding passage (verses 21, 27). It is followed by an announcement of disaster for the three groups of Jerusalem’s enemies and those profiting from Jerusalem’s fall, each of which is introduced by δείλαιοι. The call to look toward the east (4:36) is followed by a description of the return of Jerusalem’s sons, which recalls Isaiah 49:18; 40:4. The relative clause οὓς ἐξαπέστειλας in verse 37, designating Jerusalem as the one having sent her children to exile, creates a link to 4:11. The call to change clothes and put on clothes signifying Jerusalem’s glory (5:1) recalls texts such as Isaiah 52:1; 61:10. Within the context of the poem it takes up and is a reversal of Zion putting on clothes of mourning in verse 20. The motif of God naming Jerusalem in the past (4:30) and in the future (5:4) frames 4:30–5:4. Another call to rise and stand and to look toward the east (5:5) recalls and summarizes 4:36–37. In what follows, the return of Jerusalem’s children is confronted with them going into exile. Verses 7–8 depict the transformation of nature, facilitating the return and recalling Isaiah 40:4–5. Baruch 5:1–9 has a close parallel in Psalm of Solomon 11, though the direction of the relationship is under debate ..."
Johanna Erzberger, “One Author’s Polyphony: Zion and God Parallelized (Bar 4:5–5:9),” in Studies on Baruch: Composition, Literary Relations, and Reception, ed. Sean A. Adams (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 79–95.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Isaiah 52:1 and Baruch 5:1

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library