A NOTE ON THIS RENDERING

THE WITNESS — AND WHY THIS SUPERSEDES THE EARLIER DRAFT

This Baruch is set from the SEPTUAGINT in the public-domain English of Sir Lancelot Brenton (1851), Hebraized in the House manner — the same base as Nechemyah, Ezra, Ester, and Yehudit. It replaces an earlier House draft of Baruch that was rendered through the KJV Apocrypha; both drew on the one and only witness this book has, but this one draws it straight from the Greek and marks the Greek’s own seams. Like Yehudit and Toviyah, BARUCH’S HEBREW IS LOST: the book was composed in Hebrew — the confession of the first two chapters is Hebrew showing straight through the Greek — but no Hebrew survives, and the Greek alone carried it. So this is a book RESTORED from its only witness. We restore what was translated; we do not invent what was not. FIVE CHAPTERS — AND THE LETTER STANDS APART In the Greek, Baruch is five chapters, and THE LETTER OF YIRMEYAH IS A SEPARATE BOOK that follows it (Brenton runs straight from Baruch 5 to the Letter). The arrangement that numbers the Letter as “Baruch 6” is Latin, from the Vulgate, and is not what the Septuagint has. Building faithfully from the Greek, the House sets the five chapters here and leaves the Letter of Yirmeyah to stand as its own volume — which may be set next. THE CONFESSION IS DANIYEL’S The heart of chapters 1–2 is a national confession prayed in Bavel in the very generation of the exile — and it is, almost word for word, the confession Daniyel prays in Bavel in the same yamim: “TO YAHUAH OUR ELOHIM BELONGETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT UNTO US THE CONFUSION OF FACES” (1:15; 2:6; compare Daniyel 9:7). The same appeal to the Elohim who “brought Thy am out of Mitzrayim with a mighty hand” (2:11; Daniyel 9:15). Two men of the same captivity praying the same prayer — the strongest sign of the Hebrew beneath this Greek. THE NEW HEART AND THE EVERLASTING BRIT The confession does not end in despair but in promise: “IN THE LAND OF THEIR CAPTIVITIES THEY SHALL REMEMBER THEMSELVES … FOR I WILL GIVE THEM AN HEART, AND EARS TO HEAR” (2:30–31), and “I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING BRIT WITH THEM TO BE THEIR ELOHIM, AND THEY SHALL BE MY AM” (2:35). It is the new heart of Yechezkel 36:26 and the new covenant of Yirmeyahu 31:33 — the same answer the whole Tanakh leans toward: not a better law outside, but a changed heart within. THE CHOKMAH POEM, AND 3:37 At 3:9 the book turns to a great poem on CHOKMAH — wisdom — sister to Iyov 28, Mishlei 8, and Ben Sirach 24: “WHO HATH FOUND OUT HER PLACE?” (3:15); no nation, no merchant, no giant of old ever found her; “but He that knoweth all things knoweth her” (3:32), and “He hath given her unto Ya’akov His servant, and to Yisra’el His beloved” (3:36) — Chokmah is the Torah (4:1). And then the poem’s crown, 3:37: “AFTERWARD DID HE SHEW HIMSELF UPON EARTH, AND CONVERSED WITH MEN.” From the earliest yamim of the assembly this line was read as the plain promise of the Word made flesh — Wisdom, who was with Elohim, appearing on earth and dwelling among men (Yochanan 1:1, 1:14). The House prints it as it stands; the weight of it needs no adding to. THE TORAH THAT ENDURETH FOR EVER “THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE MITZVOT OF ELOHIM, AND THE TORAH THAT ENDURETH FOR EVER; all they that keep it shall come to life, but such as leave it shall die” (4:1). The identification of Chokmah with the eternal Torah is the theological spine of the book — the same life-and-death set before Yisra’el in Devarim 30, and the same eternal Torah the Master said would not pass till shamayim and earth pass (Mattityahu 5:18). And 3:29–30 — “Who hath gone up into shamayim … who hath gone over the sea” — is the passage Rav Sha’ul takes up for the Messiah and the word of faith in Romim 10:6–8. TZIYON THE MOURNING MOTHER From 4:9 the city herself speaks — Yerushalayim as a bereaved mother-widow calling to her exiled children: “Let no man rejoice over me, a widow … with joy did I nourish them, but sent them away with weeping” (4:11–12). It is the daughter of Tziyon of Yeshayahu and Eikhah, and it is the “Yerushalayim above … the mother of us all” of Galatyim 4:26. Her grief turns to comfort: “ELOHIM WILL GIVE YOU TO ME AGAIN WITH JOY AND GLADNESS FOR EVER” (4:23). THE CONSOLATION, AND THE HERALD’S CRY Chapter 5 is pure consolation, sister to Yeshayahu 40 and 60: “PUT OFF, O YERUSHALAYIM, THE GARMENT OF THY MOURNING … put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from Elohim” (5:1; compare Yeshayahu 61:10). Her children are gathered from west to east (5:5); and “EVERY HIGH HILL … SHALL BE CAST DOWN, AND VALLEYS FILLED UP, TO MAKE EVEN THE GROUND” (5:7) — the very cry of Yeshayahu 40:4 with which Yochanan the Immerser prepared the way of the Lord (Luke 3:5). Baruch ends as the exile ends: with the road home made straight and Elohim leading Yisra’el in the light of His glory. ONE RESTORED WORD At 1:10 the Greek carries a word its own translator only transliterated — “manna” — where the Hebrew beneath was MINCHAH, the grain offering. The House restores the Hebrew the Greek dressed over, and prints MINCHAH; it is the kind of seam that betrays a Hebrew book wearing Greek clothes, and it is exactly what the House exists to mend back. THE TONGUE Brenton’s Greek forms are set in the House manner — BARUCH, Neriyah, Yechonyah, Yehoyakim, Belshatzar — and the load-bearing Hebrew terms (Torah, Kohen Gadol, Heichal, Mizbeach, Minchah, Brit, Chokmah, Tziyon, nefesh, ruach) restored to their own dress. The Name YAHUAH stands for Brenton’s “Lord” (the Greek Kyrios) and ELOHIM for “God.” “The Almighty,” “the Everlasting,” “the Kadosh One,” and “the Saviour” are the book’s own titles for Him, left as it names Him — “the Almighty” in plain English pending the House’s ruling on that title. Counts that SIGNIFY are Hebraised; the dates and the tenth yom of Sivan are left as they measure. RULE X.4 The text is rendered as it stands. The Septuagint is printed as the Septuagint; the confession is left as the confession, the Chokmah-poem as the poem, the consolation as the consolation. The great line of 3:37 is set without gloss in the verse, its reading named only here. This volume supersedes the earlier KJV-based draft as the definitive Septuagint rendering, and awaits its number and its companion, the Letter of Yirmeyah. Interpretation belongs to this note and the introductions; it is never smuggled into the verse.