Read & explore together
The prayer recalls a promise of repentance and restoration
This prayer speaks to God with humility and hope. It remembers God’s mercy, recalls words spoken through Moses, and repeats a promise that scattered people can turn back, know the Lord, and be restored.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
In this part of Baruch, the speaker addresses the Lord directly in prayer. The passage looks back to words spoken through Moses about disobedience, scattering among the nations, and a later return of heart, praise, repentance, and restoration. It remains a prayerful recollection of what God said.
Baruch 2:27–35Main takeaway
This prayer recalls that God’s mercy includes a promised turning back from sin and a restored relationship with his people.
Explore the prayer
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Mercy remembered firstThe prayer begins by speaking to “the Lord our God” and saying he has dealt with the people according to his kindness and great mercy.
Explanation
The prayer begins by speaking to “the Lord our God” and saying he has dealt with the people according to his kindness and great mercy. That opening matters because the rest of the passage remembers warning and scattering, yet it starts by naming God’s mercy rather than ignoring it.
02Words spoken through MosesThe prayer then recalls that God spoke by his servant Moses when the law was written before Israel.
Explanation
The prayer then recalls that God spoke by his servant Moses when the law was written before Israel. The warning is clear: if they would not hear God’s voice, a great multitude would become a small number among the nations where God would scatter them. This explains the seriousness of their condition.
03Captivity and a changed heartGod says the people are stiff-necked, a term describing stubborn resistance. Yet captivity is not the end of the story.
Explanation
God says the people are stiff-necked, a term describing stubborn resistance. Yet captivity is not the end of the story. In that land they will take it to heart, know that he is the Lord their God, receive a heart and ears to hear, and praise him there. The prayer recalls inner change as God’s gift.
04Return, remembrance, and covenantThe passage moves from changed hearts to changed ways. They will return from stubbornness and wicked deeds, remembering the sinful way of their fathers.
Explanation
The passage moves from changed hearts to changed ways. They will return from stubbornness and wicked deeds, remembering the sinful way of their fathers. God then promises to bring them into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, increase them, and make an everlasting covenant: “I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Why does the prayer begin by speaking about God’s kindness and mercy before repeating the warning about scattering?
Look at how Baruch 2:27 sets the tone, then notice that the warning in Baruch 2:29 is remembered within that prayer to the merciful Lord.
02What changes are described as happening in the land of captivity?
List the phrases in Baruch 2:30-32: taking it to heart, knowing the Lord, receiving a heart and ears to hear, praising him, and thinking about his name.
03How does the passage connect repentance with restoration?
Baruch 2:33 speaks of turning from wicked deeds and remembering earlier sin, and Baruch 2:34-35 follows with return to the land and an everlasting covenant.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Baruch 2:27–35
27Yet, O Lord our God, you have dealt with us after all your kindness and according to all your great mercy,
28as you spoke by your servant Moses in the day when you commanded him to write your law in the presence of the children of Israel, saying,
29“If you won’t hear my voice, surely this very great multitude will be turned into a small number among the nations where I will scatter them.
30For I know that they will not hear me, because they are a stiff-necked people; but in the land of their captivity they will take it to heart,
31and will know that I am the Lord their God. I will give them a heart and ears to hear.
32Then they will praise me in the land of their captivity, and think about my name,
33and will return from their stiff neck and from their wicked deeds; for they will remember the way of their fathers who sinned before the Lord.
34I will bring them again into the land which I promised to their fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and they will rule over it. I will increase them, and they won’t be diminished.
35And I will make an everlasting covenant with them to be their God, and they will be my people. I will no more remove my people Israel out of the land that I have given them.”