Read & explore together
The community confesses disobedience and its consequences
This confession speaks with honesty about guilt, shame, and suffering. It repeats that the Lord is righteous, while the people admit they have sinned, refused to listen, and now live with the consequences of disobedience.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
Baruch 1:15–2:10 is part of a spoken confession. The passage names many groups, recalls the Lord bringing their fathers out of Egypt, refers to commands set before them, and explains present plagues and disgrace as connected to long-standing disobedience.
Baruch 1:15–2:10Main takeaway
This passage teaches that the community openly admits its sin, recognises the Lord’s righteousness, and links its suffering to refusing his commandments.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Righteousness belongs to the LordThe confession begins by contrasting the Lord’s righteousness with the people’s “confusion of face”, meaning open shame or disgrace.
Explanation
The confession begins by contrasting the Lord’s righteousness with the people’s “confusion of face”, meaning open shame or disgrace. This shame is shared broadly: Judah, Jerusalem, kings, princes, priests, prophets, and fathers are all included. The reason given is plain: “we have sinned before the Lord.”
02A long pattern of not listeningThe passage explains sin as disobedience and failing to listen to the Lord’s voice. It connects this failure with not walking in the commandments he set before them.
Explanation
The passage explains sin as disobedience and failing to listen to the Lord’s voice. It connects this failure with not walking in the commandments he set before them. The confession also says this has lasted from the exodus from Egypt to the present day, showing a repeated pattern rather than one isolated failure.
03Prophets ignored and hearts misdirectedThe people say the plagues and curse came after the Lord declared them through Moses. Even so, they did not listen when the Lord spoke through prophets.
Explanation
The people say the plagues and curse came after the Lord declared them through Moses. Even so, they did not listen when the Lord spoke through prophets. Instead, each person followed the imagination or thoughts of a wicked heart, served strange gods, and did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
04Consequences confessed without excusesThe passage says the Lord “made good his word” and brought great plagues, subjection, reproach, desolation, and scattering.
Explanation
The passage says the Lord “made good his word” and brought great plagues, subjection, reproach, desolation, and scattering. One verse describes an especially dreadful result written in the law of Moses. The speaker does not deny the pain, yet still says the people were cast down because they sinned and did not listen.
05Still unrepentant, yet the Lord is righteousThe confession returns to its opening claim: righteousness belongs to the Lord, and shame belongs to the people.
Explanation
The confession returns to its opening claim: righteousness belongs to the Lord, and shame belongs to the people. It admits the plagues came as pronounced, yet says they had still not sought the Lord’s favour by turning from wicked thoughts. The closing line repeats the central failure: they had not listened to his voice.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Which groups are included in the confession, and what does that show about the scope of the problem?
List the groups named in Baruch 1:15–1:16 and notice that the confession spreads across the whole community, from leaders to fathers.
02How does this passage describe sin in practical terms?
Look for the repeated actions in the text: not listening to the Lord’s voice, not walking in his commandments, following wicked thoughts, and serving strange gods.
03What two ideas are repeated together throughout the passage?
Trace the repeated contrast between the Lord’s righteousness and the people’s shame, and connect it with the repeated admission that they did not listen.
Read the Bible passages
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Baruch 1:15–22
15You shall say: To the Lord our God belongs righteousness, but to us confusion of face, as at this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
16to our kings, to our princes, to our priests, to our prophets, and to our fathers,
17because we have sinned before the Lord.
18We have disobeyed him and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the commandments of the Lord that he has set before us.
19Since the day that the Lord brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to this present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent in not listening to his voice.
20Therefore the plagues have clung to us, along with the curse which the Lord declared through Moses his servant in the day that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give us a land that flows with milk and honey, as at this day.
21Nevertheless we didn’t listen to the voice of the Lord our God, according to all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us,
22but we each walked in the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods and to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.
Baruch 2:1–10
1Therefore the Lord has made good his word which he pronounced against us, and against our judges who judged Israel, and against our kings, and against our princes, and against the men of Israel and Judah,
2to bring upon us great plagues such as never happened before under the whole heaven, as it came to pass in Jerusalem, according to the things that are written in the law of Moses,
3that we should each eat the flesh of our own son, and each eat the flesh of our own daughter.
4Moreover he has given them to be in subjection to all the kingdoms that are around us, to be a reproach and a desolation among all the people around us, where the Lord has scattered them.
5Thus they were cast down and not exalted, because we sinned against the Lord our God in not listening to his voice.
6To the Lord our God belongs righteousness, but to us and to our fathers confusion of face, as at this day.
7All these plagues have come upon us which the Lord has pronounced against us.
8Yet have we not entreated the favor of the Lord by everyone turning from the thoughts of his wicked heart.
9Therefore the Lord has kept watch over the plagues. The Lord has brought them upon us, for the Lord is righteous in all his works which he has commanded us.
10Yet we have not listened to his voice, to walk in the commandments of the Lord that he has set before us.