Author and Date
The book of Baruch is a mish-mash of things that were grouped together because no one piece was long or important enough to stand on its own. All the pieces of the book are set in the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC and the subsequent exile. Some pieces were likely spoken by a historical figure named Baruch; others are more likely attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. There were likely many anonymous authors of this material.
Genre
Some pieces of this book are prophetic literature and this is where the book is generally grouped.
Other pieces of this book are wisdom literature, which gives rules of proper conduct, usually in the form of maxims, pithy insights, and “words to live by.” Wisdom literature attempts to show the way things are and the way things should be. Also of this genre are Job, Ecclesiastes, and the book of Wisdom.
The goal of wisdom in this context is to live the good life here and now, marked by length of days, prestige, and prosperity. Wisdom literature highlights patterns of living that brought happiness in the past, and exhorts readers to live those patterns in the hope of finding the same happiness in the future.
The way that wisdom literature teaches is not the way that we are accustomed to being taught in modern society. We want a full and linear explanation of something from beginning to end with all the finer points in between. Wisdom literature does not give us that. Rather, it gives us a thought or an image and invites us to sit with it, to probe the depths of it over an extended period of time. You could spend a lifetime praying with any of these verses and find something fruitful every single time! We usually don’t give ourselves the time and space to sit with scripture like that, and We lose so much when we rush over a passage to get to the next good thing.
Outline
introduction, letter to Jerusalem 1:1-3:8
a wisdom poem, in praise of wisdom 3:9-4:4
a prophet address and a poem of consolation 4:5-5:9
a letter from Jeremiah 6:1-72