A reading from the prophet Baruch (3:9-15, 32-38; 4:1-4)
Listen, Israel, to commands that bring life;
listen and learn what knowledge means.
Why, Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies,
growing old in an alien land, defiled by the dead,
reckoned with those who go down to Hades?
You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!
Had you walked in the way of God,
you would be living in peace for ever.
Learn where knowledge is,
where strength, where understanding,
and so learn where length of days is, where life,
where the light of the eyes and where peace.
But who has found her place,
who has entered her treasure houses?
But the One who knows all discovers her,
has found her by his own understanding;
he has set the earth firm for evermore
and filled it with four-footed beasts;
he sends forth the light and it goes –
he recalled it and trembling it obeyed.
The stars shone joyfully at their posts;
when he called them they answered, ‘We are here’;
they shine to delight their Creator.
He is our God, no other can compare with him.
He has uncovered the whole way of knowledge
and shown her to his servant Jacob, to Israel his beloved –
only then did she appear on earth
and live with human beings.
She is the book of God’s commandments,
the Law that stands for ever;
those who keep her shall live,
those who desert her shall die.
Turn back, Jacob, and seize her:
in her radiance make your way to light.
Do not yield your glory to another,
your privilege to an alien people.
Blessed are we, Israel:
what pleases God has been made known to us!
This exquisite poem, from the book of Baruch, is found in the Greek Bible, known as the Septuagint. It is not clear whether Greek is the original language of this poem, or whether there may be a Hebrew source. Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, lived many centuries before its composition, and this canonical book of Baruch is one of a collection of writings from later times attributed to him. It has been suggested that this poem originated in the second century BC, perhaps in Palestine but maybe in the Diaspora.
The passage begins with an echo of Deuteronomy 6, the prayer known as shema‘, ‘Listen, Israel!’ Those in exile are bidden to listen to ‘the commands of life’ and to ‘knowledge’. This fits with the calls to repentance found earlier in the book. The tone and the vocabulary of these verses is sapiential. It is for failing to listen that they find themselves in exile: they have forsaken ‘the spring of wisdom’ (pege tes sophias). If only they had walked in ‘the way of God’ ‘eternal peace’ would have been theirs instead of destruction and dislocation.
But a new start is possible. Pursuit of God’s gifts of knowledge, strength and understanding leads to length of days, life, the light of the eyes, and peace.
The ‘all-knowing’ God is the One who knows and bestows wisdom. God displays wisdom in the work of creation. These verses reflect the first chapter of Genesis: God arranged the firm earth, the beasts, the light, the stars, who call out ‘Here we are!’ There is none like God, who reveals ‘the whole way of knowledge’. Wisdom then ‘was seen on earth and lived with human beings’.
Wisdom is found in the ‘law which lasts for ever’ and leads to life those who grasp it. There are three imperatives addressed to those who seek life: ‘turn back’, ‘seize her’, and ‘make your way to light’. The passage ends with a beatitude ‘blessed are we’ for the Lord has bestowed such gifts. For Christians the Wisdom offered by God is the Son of God, who ‘was seen on earth and lived with human beings’. The night of salvation in the death and resurrection of Christ is the full revealing of the wisdom of God.
Psalm 19
Quite naturally, the praise of the law in the book of Baruch is followed by the section of Psalm 19 (vv.8-11) which praises the law of the Lord (torat yhwh). An extensive set of synonyms to the ‘law’ – ‘rule’, ‘precepts’, ‘command’, ‘decrees’ - is used to present the qualities of the law, accompanied by repeated use of the divine name. This law ‘is to be trusted’. This law ‘gives wisdom’. It gives ‘light to the eyes’, a concept echoed from the reading. The ‘fear of the Lord’ (yir’at yhwh), natural to anyone who treasures the law, is penultimate in this sequence, and is described as ‘holy’ and ‘lasting for ever’. The final verse breaks the rigid structure of these verses with two rich metaphors, those of gold and of honey. There is nothing more valuable than the law, and nothing rivals its taste.