The Compiling of the Book. 

        A careful study of Jeremiah in English will probably reveal to most what is obvious in Hebrew, viz. that the contents may be divided into three groups: (i) Prophecies by Jeremiah in poetry; (ii) Prophecies by Jeremiah in prose; (iii) Stories about Jeremiah in prose.

        The third is found mainly in chs. 34-45 (see structure of book), but is to be found also in chs. 1-25:14 and chs. 26-33. There is no reasonable doubt that it is the work of Baruch, Jeremiah’s companion and scribe (36:4, etc.; 32:12; 43:3, 6; 45).

        The second is found mainly in chs. 1-25:14 but also in chs. 26-33. If compared carefully with the poetical prophecies, it gives the impression of being a report of Jeremiah’s message rather than his actual words. Since it resembles the third group in style, it is reasonable to suppose that Baruch was responsible for these prose reports as well. Jeremiah’s entirely undeserved reputation for prosiness is derived from these reports; prosiness is anyway relative and subjective. The fact that we have to do with an eye-witness condensation of some of Jeremiah’s prophecies in no way affects their accuracy.

        Ch. 36 tells us how the book began. It is impossible to know, and fruitless to guess, by how much the second roll (36:32) was longer than the first (36:2-4), but it is reasonable to suppose that it will have included the bulk of the poetical passages in the first two sections of the book and some of those in the third (see structure of book).

        Later, perhaps in Egypt, Baruch will have woven his prose collection of Jeremiah’s prophecies into this enlarged roll. He added also a few of the narrative stories he had written down about Jeremiah’s sufferings.

        It must be left an open question whether Baruch ever in­tended adding section D (chs. 34-45). It may well be that his friends were responsible for doing it after his death. This would help to explain the chronologically rather disjointed picture we have of Jeremiah. The historical chapters in the earlier sections of the book owe their present position to spiritual rather than chronological motives. Ch. 52 is a later historical appendix taken from IIKings — note 51:64b.