2sn The name Baruch in Hebrew means “blessed.” Baruch is described in the Hebrew Bible as an associate and secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. He is mentioned in three major sections in the Book of Jeremiah. First, it was Baruch who copied down the prophecies of Jeremiah and read them before the people. When the king subsequently burned the scroll and sought to apprehend both Jeremiah and Baruch, the two of them hid and rewrote the scroll (Jer 36:4-12; 45:1-2). Second, Baruch was involved in helping Jeremiah in the redemption of Hanamel’s field (Jer 32:12-16). Finally, Baruch is mentioned along with Jeremiah as being taken by those who fled to Egypt contrary to Jeremiah’s counsel to remain in the land (Jer 43:3-6; cf. Josephus Ant. 10.9.6).

3tc The Syriac Peshitta has lbbyl (“to Babylon”), which would imply that the author’s location at the time of writing was somewhere outside of Babylon. The Greek text locates the author in Babylon at the time of writing. (Since the Leiden edition of the Syriac text of Baruch is not yet available, references to the Syriac text of Baruch will be based on the Lee edition.)

4tn In the Greek text v. 1 is part of a single sentence that continues to the end of v. 2. In the translation this single sentence has been broken into three sentences for the sake of clarity. The words “This Baruch was” and “he wrote this” are not in the Greek text but have been added for readability in the translation.

5tc A number of scholars suspect that a numeral is missing before “month,” since the statement as it stands is ambiguous. Moore, for example, inserts “fifth” before “month” and argues that the letter was written in 581 B.C., five years to the very day after Jerusalem’s destruction by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). See C. A. Moore, The Additions, AB 44, 269. However, there is no textual support for this emendation. Moreover, as Moore points out, if the emendation is accepted there is then a contradiction with Jer 52:12, which indicates that the temple was burned on the tenth day, not the seventh. There is also a problem with harmonizing this statement with the following section of Baruch, where the temple seems to still be functioning (Bar 1:7, 10, 14; 2:16). In the translation of v. 2 presented above we have therefore refrained from emending the Greek text, although the interpretive problems should not go unnoticed.

6tn Or “took.”

7tn Grk “set it on fire with fire.”

8tn Grk “ears.” The expression “to read in the ears of” means to read aloud. Cf. 2 Kgs 23:2; 2 Chr 34:30.

9sn Jeconiah is an alternate name for Jehoiachin (cf. 2 Kgs 24:15; Jer 24:1; 27:20; 28:4; 29:2; Esth 2:6; Add Esth 11:4; 1 Chr 3:16-17; Matt 1:11-12). Jehoiachin was also called Coniah (Jer 22:24, 28; 37:1).

10tn The word “hear” is not in the Greek text but has been added in the translation for clarity.

11tn The words “that is” are not in the Greek text but have been added in the translation for clarity. So also in v. 8.

12tn Or “influential.” So also in v. 9.

13tn Grk “sons of the kings.” These are not just the sons of Jeconiah, who is mentioned in v. 3, but other royal figures as well. The expression might be translated “princes” (so RSV, NRSV) or “royal princes” (so Knox) or “children of royal families” (so TEV).

14tn Grk “from small to big.”

15tc The location of this river is uncertain, and it is possible that the text is corrupt at this point. Moore, following J. A. Bewer, emends the name of the river from Sud to Ahava, suggesting that the Greek word soud is a mistake for eoua written in uncial script. However, as Moore points out, 4QpJer has sur, which makes the emendation more unlikely. See C. A. Moore, The Additions, AB 44, 270.

16tn Grk “silver.” So also in v. 10.

17tn Grk “just as the hand of each one was able.” The expression is a Hebraism.

18tn The words “this money” are not in the Greek text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

19tn This mention of “the priest,” followed by a reference to “the priests,” is a bit confusing. Presumably what is meant is that the collection was entrusted to one priest who is specifically named in v. 7 and to other priests who are not named in this context. However, some scholars (cf. KJV, Knox, TEV, RSV, NRSV) understand the first reference to be to the high priest in particular, in which case the word “priest” is used in a pregnant sense. The Greek word hirea normally means “priest” and not “high priest.”

20tn The word “other” is not in the Greek text but has been added in the translation for clarity.

21tn Grk “were found.”

22tn Grk “he.” The antecedent of the pronoun is ambiguous. Presumably “he” refers to Baruch (so TEV, RSV, NRSV), although Knox (in a note attached to his translation) objects that the syntactical distance is too great to permit this linkage. That the pronoun refers to Jehoiakim does not seem likely.

23tn Grk “house.” So also in 2:16, 26.

24sn The Old Testament makes no mention of Zedekiah’s manufacturing vessels for the temple. This statement is either a historical blunder, or it presupposes a situation otherwise unmentioned in which the temple vessels had been removed from the Jerusalem temple by the Babylonians in an earlier deportation and had to be remade under Zedekiah’s direction.

25tn Or “carried away.”

26sn The reference to “people of the land” apparently has in mind average common citizens, who in terms of social standing can be contrasted to the more powerful or influential strata of society. This expression has a diverse usage in Old Testament and postbiblical literature. In rabbinic literature the expression עַם הָאָרֶץ eventually became a pejorative expression used to describe those who were less zealous for their religion than they should have been, at least in the opinion of the rabbis. But the precise meaning of this expression in the Old Testament is disputed. Nicholson discusses the following interpretations of עַם הָאָרֶץ in the Hebrew Bible: (1) the expression designates a rural population as opposed to an urban one; (2) it refers to what was the equivalent of an ancient two-tier Hebrew parliament; (3) it refers to a group that consisted of the lay population as distinguished from the ruling elite; (4) it refers to the landed aristocracy of the population; (5) it was used in reference to the poorest commoners of the society; (6) it designated a group that consisted of property owning citizens who led the country politically, economically, or militarily. It is this latter view that, according to Nicholson, is the one most widely accepted. These views all share the belief that עַם הָאָרֶץ is a technical term for designating a particular societal group that was a subset of the general population. Nicholson, however, has questioned this assumption, maintaining that “. . . the term has no fixed and rigid meaning but is used rather in a purely general and fluid manner and varies in meaning from context to context.” See E. W. Nicholson, “The Meaning of the Expression עם הארץ in the Old Testament,” JSS 10 (1965): 66. See also the following discussions: S. Daiches, “The Meaning of עם הארץ in the Old Testament,” JTS 30 (1929): 245-49; M. Sulzberger, The Am Ha-Aretz, The Ancient Hebrew Parliament: A Chapter in the Constitutional History of Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Julius H. Greenstone, 1909); M. Sulzberger, “The Polity of the Ancient Hebrews,” JQR 3 (1912–1913): 1-81; E. Würthwein, Der ‘amm ha’arez im Alten Testament, BWAT, ed. A. Alt and G. Kittel, no. 69 (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1936); R. de Vaux, “Le sens de l’expression «peuple du pays» dans l’Ancien Testament et le rôle politique du people en Israël,” RA 58 (1964): 167-72; J. Weinberg, “The ‘Am Hā’āres of the Sixth to Fourth Centuries BCE,” in The Citizen–Temple Community, trans. D. L. Smith-Christopher, JSOTSup, vol. 151 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 62-74. De Vaux’s article has an especially helpful bibliography of prior research dealing with this expression.

27tc Some manuscripts have “him.”

28tn Or “frankincense” (so Douay, NAB). See J. Lust et al., Lexicon of the Septuagint, 2:281.

29tn The Greek word manaa is a loanword from the Hebrew minhah (“offering”), which usually refers to a grain-offering.

30sn Presumably “son” is used here in the more general sense of descendent rather than in the sense of immediate offspring, since Belshazzar was not a son of Nebuchadnezzar in the strict sense. Moore, however, insists on a strict understanding of the word, concluding that we have “a serious anachronism here” (C. A. Moore, The Additions, AB 44, 273). But this does not seem to be a necessary conclusion.

31sn The expression is hyperbolic, referring to an endless extension of life for these rulers.

32tn The syntactical function of the infinitive exagoreusai (“to make confession”) is difficult to determine. The infinitive could be taken to indicate purpose for the verb “sent,” but more likely it is epexegetical for the verb “read,” explaining what a proper reading of the book amounts to in this context.

33tc The Syriac Peshitta has wbywmth dmry’ (“and on the days of the Lord”). As Moore points out, this is a misreading of kairou (“season”) for kyriou (“Lord”). See C. A. Moore, The Additions, AB 44, 274.

34sn There are numerous similarities between the prayers of confession (Bar 1:15-3:8) and the prayer recorded in Dan 9:4-19.

35tn Or perhaps “vindication.”

36sn On the wording of this phrase cf. Dan 9:7 and Ezra 9:7.

37tn Grk “man.”

38tn Grk “fathers.” So also in vv. 19, 20; 2:6, 19, 21, 24, 33, 34; 3:5, 7, 8. It is, however, possible that the word retains its normal sense of “fathers” in v. 16, since a reference to familial leaders would not be out of place in this context.

39tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun here is odd. Moore may be correct in thinking that the Greek hon is due to a mistranslation of the Hebrew asher, which can function as a causal conjunction or as a relative pronoun. In that case the Greek translator has opted for the relative pronoun when he should have preferred the causal idea (hoti in Greek, “because”).

40tn Grk “go.”

41tn Grk “gave.”

42tn Grk “according to our face.”

43tn Or “been negligent.” The Greek verb schediazo is found only here in the Septuagint.

44tn Or “ordained,” “appointed.”

45tn Grk “according to.”

46tn In place of the Greek verb ergazesthai (“to work”) we might have expected the verb doulein (“to serve”).

47tn Grk “eyes.”