9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What survives when a holy city falls, its people scatter, and hope seems buried beneath the ruins?
4 Baruch, also called the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah, is an ancient apocryphal account of Jerusalem’s fall and the Babylonian exile. As the army gathers outside, Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch face the loss of their city. According to the text, divine warnings and the preservation of sacred Temple vessels place that loss within a larger story of protection.
The narrative follows Jeremiah among the captives and Baruch among the ruins. It also turns to Abimelech, sent away to gather figs, whose extraordinary sleep carries him through sixty-six years. An eagle bearing a letter connects those separated by exile. Through these wonders, the unknown author explores how a displaced people can hold to faith when their familiar world disappears.
What you’ll discover
- A city under threat Follow Jeremiah and Baruch as warnings of destruction become an urgent test of faith.
- Treasures beyond the fire Explore the text’s account of sacred vessels preserved while the Temple faces destruction.
- Sleep beyond ordinary time Meet Abimelech, whose basket of figs accompanies a strange passage through the years.
- A letter across exile Trace the eagle’s journey as Baruch reaches toward Jeremiah and the captives in Babylon.
- Hope among the ruins Consider a religious story that asks whether destruction must mean the end of a people.
Is it for you?
This is for readers of the Old Testament, students of Second Temple Jewish and early Christian writing, and anyone moved by stories of exile and hope. If you want a firm historical record of 586 BC, you may find it less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- God warns Jeremiah of coming ruin
- The sacred vessels and keys are saved
- Abimelech sleeps for sixty-six years
- Abimelech wakes to a changed world
- An eagle carries a letter to Babylon
- Themes, craft and a place outside the Bible
Who’s who
- JeremiahThe prophet who warns Jerusalem, hides its sacred treasures by God's command, and goes with the exiles to Babylon to lead them.
- BaruchJeremiah's faithful scribe, who stays among the ruins, mourns the city and sends a letter by eagle to his master.
- AbimelechA kind man from Ethiopia whom Jeremiah sends away on an errand for figs, and who sleeps through the city's fall.
- The angelsGod's messengers who set fire to the walls of Jerusalem so that the city falls by divine will, not by enemy force.
- The old manA stranger who meets the bewildered Abimelech at the city and helps him understand how many years have passed.
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4 Baruch
by Attributed to Baruch ben Neriah· 125
Jeremiah and Baruch face Jerusalem’s fall and the Babylonian exile.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
God warns Jeremiah of coming ruin
The story opens in Jerusalem, as the Babylonian army gathers outside. Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch his scribe are in the city, and the people have grown deaf to every warning. God speaks to Jeremiah and tells him that the city will be handed over to its enemies because of its sins. Jeremiah is ordered to leave, and Baruch is to go with him.
The warning has a strange detail. God says that the city will not fall to the Babylonians by their own strength. First, angels will go to the walls and set them alight, so that no one can say the enemy won by power. The ruin is to be understood as God's own act, a judgment and not a defeat in battle.
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What is 4 Baruch about?
It retells the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC through Jeremiah and Baruch. Angels burn the walls, the Temple vessels are hidden, Abimelech sleeps for sixty-six years, and an eagle carries a letter to the exiles in Babylon.
Why is it called the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah?
Paraleipomena is Greek for things left out or passed over. The title says the book supplies events that the biblical books of Jeremiah and Kings do not record, especially around the fall of Jerusalem and the exile.
When was 4 Baruch written?
Most scholars date the Jewish core to the early second century AD, not long after the Temple's destruction in 70 AD. The text survives in Greek and in old translations, and its final chapters show Christian additions.
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