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Baruch 3 - The Fountain of Wisdom

14 min read

You are still inside the prayer. Baruch 1:15 opened the confession. Baruch 2 carried it to God’s name and to the promise of an everlasting covenant. Chapter 3 begins with the same people, now speaking from anguish, and then turns to ask a question the exile can no longer avoid. Where is wisdom? The book does not say, “You are in a strange land because you lacked a strategy.” It says, “Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom.”

The Theophany reading begins near the end of this chapter, at 3:36, and continues through Baruch 4:4. What the Church hears at the Jordan starts here, in the confession of the God beside whom none other is counted.

Prayer from Anguish (Baruch 3:1-8)

1 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish, the troubled spirit, crieth unto thee. 2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy; for thou art merciful: and have pity upon us, because we have sinned before thee. 3 For thou endurest for ever, and we perish utterly.

4 O Lord Almighty, thou God of Israel, hear now the prayers of the dead Israelites, and of their children, which have sinned before thee, and not hearkened unto the voice of thee their God: for the which cause these plagues cleave unto us. 5 Remember not the iniquities of our forefathers: but think upon thy power and thy name now at this time. 6 For thou art the Lord our God, and thee, O Lord, will we praise.

7 And for this cause thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity: for we have called to mind all the iniquity of our forefathers, that sinned before thee.

8 Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where thou hast scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God.

The prayer begins from anguish, not composure. The troubled spirit cries because God endures forever while the people perish. That is the right order. God’s eternity and mercy are confessed before the people’s instability and sin. A soul that starts with its own collapse often cannot find the way out of it. A soul that starts with the God who endures can tell the truth about perishing.

Verse 4 speaks of “the dead Israelites.” In this prayer the phrase names a people living under a deathlike condition of exile and judgment. The line is not a complete doctrine of the departed. It says that refusal of the living God has made the people like the dead, and that even from this condition their children can cry for mercy. Chapter 2 had already said that the dead in the graves do not give praise. Chapter 3 answers from inside that deathlike state: hear us anyway.

Many scholars suggest that a Hebrew wording behind this verse may have read “men of Israel,” and that the Greek translator took the same consonants as “dead of Israel.” No Hebrew copy of Baruch survives to settle that. It is a suggestion, not a fact. It does not compete with the Greek the Church reads. It helps a reader see why the line is so stark, and it supports the study’s own reading: exile has become a kind of death. The children of those “dead” still have a voice, and they use it to ask God to remember His name rather than their fathers’ iniquities.

The Fountain Forsaken (Baruch 3:9-14)

9 Hear, Israel, the commandments of life: give ear to understand wisdom. 10 How happeneth it, Israel, that thou art in thine enemies’ land, that thou art waxen old in a strange country, that thou art defiled with the dead, 11 that thou art counted with them that go down into the grave? 12 Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom. 13 For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou shouldest have dwelled in peace for ever.

14 Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.

The accusation is not merely that Israel broke rules. Israel forsook a fountain. Wisdom here is living communion with God, received through His commandments, His worship, and His covenant. Exile is described as growing old in a strange country and being counted with the dead. When the fountain is abandoned, the soul dries up even if it still has culture, memory, and activity. A parish can be busy and still be far from the fountain. A person can know many true sentences about God and still have left the spring.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: The Fountain and the Son

St. Athanasius takes Baruch’s line, “Thou hast forsaken the Fountain of wisdom,” and uses it to defend the Son’s eternal divinity. If God is eternally the Fountain of wisdom and life, then His Wisdom is not foreign to Him, and not created after Him. Life and wisdom are proper to the Fountain, and they were always. St. Athanasius writes, “Now the Son is all this,” and then presses the consequence: to say that once the Son was not is all one with saying that once the Fountain was dry, destitute of Life and Wisdom.1

That is why this verse matters for Christian reading. Wisdom is not an abstract virtue floating above God. The Wisdom of God is proper to God, and the Church confesses that this Wisdom is the Word who became flesh. To forsake the fountain is not only to misplace a teaching. It is to turn from the Son in whom the Father’s wisdom and life are given.

Wisdom Not Seized by Power or Wealth (Baruch 3:15-31)

15 Who hath found out her place? or who hath come into her treasures?

16 Where are the princes of the heathen, and such as ruled the beasts upon the earth; 17 they that had their pastime with the fowls of the air, and they that hoarded up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and made no end of their getting? 18 For they that wrought in silver, and were so careful, and whose works are unsearchable, 19 they are vanished and gone down to the grave, and others are come up in their stead.

20 Young men have seen light, and dwelt upon the earth; but the way of knowledge have they not known, 21 nor understood the paths thereof, nor laid hold of it: their children were far off from that way. 22 It hath not been heard of in Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman.

23 The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding; none of these have known the way of wisdom, or remembered her paths.

24 O Israel, how great is the house of God! and how large is the place of his possession! 25 Great, and hath none end; high, and unmeasurable. 26 There were the giants famous from the beginning, that were of so great stature, and so expert in war. 27 Those did not the Lord choose, neither gave he the way of knowledge unto them: 28 but they were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness.

29 Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? 30 Who hath gone over the sea, and found her, and will bring her for pure gold? 31 No man knoweth her way, nor thinketh of her path.

Baruch surveys human greatness and finds it unable to reach wisdom. Rulers, craftsmen, merchants, makers of fables, explorers, and giants all fail. The passage is not against learning. It is against pride. Learning becomes dark when it is severed from the fear of God.

The sequence still reads a modern life. Wealth can organize a household without giving it peace. Travel can widen experience without purifying desire. Skill can produce astonishing work while the heart stays unconverted. Baruch is not despising the craftsman. He is teaching that created skill cannot climb into heaven and seize divine wisdom by force. “Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her?” The question expects the answer no one has. Wisdom is not a prize at the top of human effort. She is given.

The giants are the sharpest warning. Fame, stature, and skill in war did not earn them the way of knowledge. They perished through their own foolishness. Strength that does not know God is not almost-wisdom. It is a shorter road to destruction.

He Showed Himself upon Earth (Baruch 3:32-37)

32 But he that knoweth all things knoweth her, and hath found her out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore hath filled it with fourfooted beasts: 33 he that sendeth forth light, and it goeth, calleth it again, and it obeyeth him with fear. 34 The stars shined in their watches, and rejoiced: when he calleth them, they say, Here we be; and so with cheerfulness they shewed light unto him that made them.

35 This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of him. 36 He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. 37 Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, and conversed with men.

The answer to the search is God Himself. The Creator commands light, and it goes. The stars keep their watches and answer with joy, “Here we be.” Wisdom belongs to Him, and He gives it to Jacob and to Israel. Then the chapter says the sentence on which the Church has long paused: “Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, and conversed with men.”

These studies use Brenton’s verse numbers. In the RSV, and in the NRSV text checked for this revision, that appearance sentence is also 3:37. Those translations supply “she,” meaning Wisdom: “Afterward she appeared upon earth.” The NABRE numbers the same sentence as 3:38, and numbers Brenton’s “This is our God” as 3:36 rather than 3:35. Some Greek editions number the sentence 3:38 as well. A reader comparing Bibles should follow the words, not only the numerals.

The Greek does not settle the pronoun by grammar. The sentence is μετὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὤφθη, “after this he, or she, was seen upon the earth.” The verb ὤφθη names no subject, and that form does not say “he” or “she.” Brenton supplies “he,” continuing the subject of 3:35-36, “This is our God.” A translation that supplies “she” is hearing Wisdom, the “her” of the search. Both choices are grammatically possible. The Church’s reading, with St. Cyril of Jerusalem, hears God the Word here. The first meaning for Israel is not erased. God gave the way of knowledge to Jacob His servant. The sentence then opens, as the Church has received it, toward the Word who conversed with men.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: Seen on Earth

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, teaching those about to be baptized, asks whether the One begotten of the Father, who afterward became man, is God. He answers by calling Baruch “the Prophet,” and by quoting 3:35-37: “This is our God, none other shall be accounted of in comparison with Him. He has found out every way of knowledge, and given it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen on earth, and conversed among men.” St. Cyril then says, “Do you see herein God become man, after the giving of the law by Moses?”2

That is the Church’s hearing of the verse. The God beside whom none other is counted did not only send instruction from a distance. He was seen on earth. He conversed among men. The law was given. Afterward, He came.

Eusebius of Caesarea, the church historian, also quotes Baruch 3:29-37. He is not a saint, and he should not be presented as one. Under the heading that the God of the prophets, after laying down the complete way of knowledge by the Mosaic law, would afterward be seen on earth and mingle among men, he says, “I need add nothing to these inspired words, which so clearly support my argument.”3 He is a second witness, and a lesser one. St. Cyril is the voice to trust.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

At the Feast of the Theophany, in the Liturgy of the Waters, the Church reads Baruch 3:36-4:4 among the prophecies. The same service reads Isaiah 40:1-5, Ezekiel 36:24-29, Ezekiel 47:1-9, and the Gospel of the Baptism, Matthew 3:1-17. The package records this from Coptic Reader, under Special, Lakkan, Theophany.

The reading begins at 3:36, “He hath found out all the way of knowledge,” and includes 3:37, “Afterward did he shew himself upon earth.” It does not stop at the chapter break. It continues through Baruch 4:1-4, where the way of knowledge is called the book of the commandments, and Jacob is told to walk in its light so that he may be illuminated. The Jordan and the scroll are read together. The God who showed Himself on earth is proclaimed on the feast of His manifestation, and the people who hear Him are called into the light of Baptism.

Baruch 4 opens inside that same reading. Do not treat the chapter number as the end of the prophecy the Church chants over the water.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Begin the prayer from God’s eternity, not from your collapse. “Thou endurest for ever, and we perish utterly” is a true order. If you start with the perishing, you may never reach the One who endures. If you start with Him, you can tell the truth about how far you have fallen.

Do not mistake information for the fountain. A strange country can be a parish that still has programs, opinions, and religious memory, while the spring has been left. Ask, this week, where you go when you are thirsty. If the answer is status, noise, or the next useful thing, Baruch 3:12 has found you.

Refuse the pride that tries to climb into heaven and bring wisdom down. No one in this chapter succeeds at that. Wisdom is given. Receive the commandments as the way of life, and receive Christ as the Wisdom who was not seized but sent.

On Theophany, hear 3:37 as the feast’s own voice. The God who showed Himself upon earth was manifested at the Jordan. Do not leave that sentence in a study and absent from the water. If you are baptized, this is the God who came among us and joined you to Himself. If you are preparing someone for Baptism, let this prophecy be part of the preparation, not a curiosity from the Apocrypha.

And if you feel counted with the dead, pray anyway. The children of the “dead Israelites” are heard. Anguish does not disqualify the cry. It often makes the cry honest.

Lord, Thou endurest for ever. We have forsaken the fountain. Show us again the Wisdom who was seen on earth, and give us ears to hear Him.

Footnotes

  1. St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourse I Against the Arians, Chapter VI, §19 (NPNF II.4), quoting Baruch 3:12. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxi.ii.i.vi.html ↩

  2. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 11.15, quoting Baruch 3:35-37 and calling the writer “the Prophet.” https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310111.htm ↩

  3. Eusebius of Caesarea, church historian, Proof of the Gospel, Book VI, chapter 19, quoting Baruch 3:29-37. The page has no chapter-19 anchor. https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_de_08_book6.htm ↩

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