Scripture Daily

Context No. 270 of 4322 · Baruch

Context · Reflection

Baruch 6:17-32: in context

17For like a vessel that a man uses is worth nothing when it is broken, even so it is with their gods. When they are set up in the temples, their eyes are full of dust through the feet of those who come in. 18As the courts are secured on every side upon him who offends the king, as being committed to suffer death, even so the priests secure their temples with doors, with locks, and bars, lest they be carried off by robbers. 19They light candles for them, yes, more than for themselves, even though they can’t see one. 20They are like one of the beams of the temple. Men say their hearts are eaten out when things creeping out of the earth devour both them and their clothing. They don’t feel it 21when their faces are blackened through the smoke that comes out of the temple. 22Bats, swallows, and birds land on their bodies and heads. So do the cats. 23By this you may know that they are no gods. Therefore don’t fear them. 24Notwithstanding the gold with which they are covered to make them beautiful, unless someone wipes off the tarnish, they won’t shine; for they didn’t even feel it when they were molten. 25Things in which there is no breath are bought at any cost. 26Having no feet, they are carried upon shoulders. By this, they declare to men that they are worth nothing. 27Those who serve them are also ashamed, for if they fall to the ground at any time, they can’t rise up again by themselves. If they are bowed down, they can’t make themselves straight; but the offerings are set before them, as if they were dead men. 28And the things that are sacrificed to them, their priests sell and spend. In like manner, their wives also lay up part of it in salt; but to the poor and to the impotent they give none of it. 29The menstruous woman and the woman in childbed touch their sacrifices, knowing therefore by these things that they are no gods. Don’t fear them. 30For how can they be called gods? Because women set food before the gods of silver, gold, and wood. 31And in their temples the priests sit on seats, having their clothes torn and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing on their heads. 32They roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead.

This is the Letter of Jeremiah, a satire written for Jewish exiles living under Babylon, so they would not be frightened by the towering idols of the empire that had captured them. Its method is relentless mockery. It walks around these gods and lists, one after another, everything they cannot actually do.

The list is close to comedy once you slow down over it. These gods have to be locked behind doors and bars, the writer says, so that thieves will not carry them off, which means a god who has to be protected from burglars. Their faces are blackened by the smoke of the very lamps lit in their honor. Bats and swallows and birds settle on their heads, and the cats climb on them too, and the idol does nothing about it. It is plated in gold but cannot feel the gold. It has no feet, so it must be carried on men's shoulders, and being carried, the writer says, is its own confession that it is worth nothing. If it falls over, it cannot get itself back up. Food is set in front of it the way food is set before a dead man. And between each item comes the same refrain: by this you may know they are no gods, so do not fear them.

The whole force of it is to make you look closely at the thing you are afraid of. Up close, the imposing god cannot brush a bird off its own head or stand itself upright. Fear survives on distance and shrinks under inspection. What have I been afraid of from across the room, that could not do a single thing to me if I walked over and looked at it closely?

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