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¹ Firman yang disampaikan oleh nabi Yeremia kepada Barukh bin Neria, waktu Barukh dalam tahun keempat pemerintahan Yoyakim bin Yosia, raja Yehuda, menuliskan segala firman tersebut dalam sebuah kitab langsung dari mulut Yeremia:² "Beginilah firman TUHAN, Allah Israel, tentang engkau, hai Barukh!³ Oleh karena engkau telah berkata: Celakalah aku, sebab TUHAN telah menambahkan kedukaan kepada penderitaanku! Aku lesu karena keluh kesahku dan aku tidak mendapat ketenangan,⁴ maka beginilah firman TUHAN: Sesungguhnya, apa yang Kubangun akan Kuruntuhkan, dan apa yang Kutanam akan Kucabut, bahkan sekalipun seluruh negeri!⁵ 5 And should you 2 Chron. 34:8). Considering all that Baruch was doing to make Jeremiah's prophecies permanent by recording them for posterity, it is not surprising that he seems to have expected to share the prophet's rewards. "To play a prominent part in the impending crisis, to be the hero of a national revival, to gain the favor of the conqueror he announced," seems to have been his high ideal, his glorious dream. When its realization was denied him, "he sank in despair at the seeming fruitlessness of his efforts" (Sir William Smith, A Dictionary of the Bible). Yet Baruch is an excellent illustration of how little the gift of prophecy depended on men, and how completely it remained for God to grant or deny prominence and recognition to His perhaps equally deserving servants. But each man's eternal rewards are proportioned according to his faithfulness, and not according to his earthly recognition or the lack of it (Matt. 25:14-30).">[fn] seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the Lord, but your life I will give to you [as your only booty and] as a [snatched] prize of war wherever you go.