Baruch's Letter to the Nine and a Half Tribes in Exile

Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha 2 Baruch 78-87
Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team ·

This is the letter that Baruch son of Neriah sent across the river Euphrates to the nine and a half tribes in exile. It may be the most hopeful document ever written from the rubble of a destroyed civilization.

"Mercy and peace," he began. Then: "I bear in mind, my brethren, the love of Him who created us — who loved us from of old, and never hated us, but above all educated us."

Baruch wrote knowing he would die soon. He wanted to leave the exiles something to hold onto — something stronger than grief. He reminded them that all twelve tribes were bound by one bond, born from one father. And he asked them to do the hardest thing a suffering people can do: accept that their punishment was just.

"What you have suffered is disproportionate to what you have done," he wrote — meaning their suffering was actually less than they deserved. But if they understood this, if they considered their afflictions as correction rather than cruelty, they would receive eternal hope. "If you destroy from your heart vain error — on account of which you departed — He will continually remember you. He who always promised that He will never forget or forsake us, but with much mercy will gather together again those who were dispersed."

Then Baruch told them the secret that the Babylonians would never know.

When the enemy surrounded Jerusalem, the angels of the Most High were sent first. They overthrew the fortifications of the strong wall. They destroyed the iron corners that no human army could have rooted out. But before they let the walls fall, they hid all the vessels of the sanctuary — lest the enemy get possession of them. Only then did they deliver the broken wall, the plundered house, the burned Temple, and the conquered people to the Chaldeans.

The enemy believed they had won by force. The truth was that God's own angels had done the destroying — and had saved everything that mattered before a single Babylonian soldier set foot inside.

Baruch then shared what God had revealed to him through visions: the mystery of the times, the advent of the hours, the coming consolation. "Our Maker will assuredly avenge us on all our enemies," he wrote. "The consummation which the Most High will bring is very near."

And then he delivered one of the most powerful passages of defiance in ancient literature — a litany that dismantled the illusion of the nations' power:

<i>"We see the prosperity of the nations, though they act wickedly — but they shall be like a vapor. We behold their power, though they do evil — but they shall be made like a drop. We see the firmness of their might, though they resist the Mighty One every hour — but they shall be accounted as spittle. We consider the glory of their greatness, though they keep not the statutes of the Most High — but as smoke they shall pass away. We meditate on their gracefulness, though they deal in pollutions — but as grass that withers they shall fade. We consider their cruelty, though they remember not its end — but as a wave that passes they shall be broken. We remark the boastfulness of their might, though they deny God who gave it — but they shall pass away as a passing cloud."</i>

Vapor. A drop. Spittle. Smoke. Withering grass. A passing wave. A cloud that dissolves. Seven images of impermanence for seven dimensions of imperial power — and every one of them would prove true.

Baruch closed his letter with a final charge. Remember the law and Zion. Remember the holy land and your brethren. Remember the covenant of your fathers. Do not forget the festivals and the Sabbaths. Deliver this letter and the traditions of the law to your children, as your fathers delivered them to you. Pray with your whole heart that the Mighty One may be reconciled to you.

"For if He judge us not according to the multitude of His mercies," Baruch wrote in his final line, "woe unto all of us who are born."

The letter was sent by eagle across the Euphrates. It arrived in the hands of a scattered people who had lost everything — their Temple, their city, their land, their freedom. What Baruch gave them back was the one thing no empire could confiscate: the certainty that the God who destroyed Jerusalem had not abandoned the people who once lived there.

Themes

Baruch Exile Hope Divine promise Temple vessels Jerusalem

Biblical References

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