In Jeremiah 45, the word which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch, his amanuensis, is now brought before us. The great lesson for Baruch was that in a day of judgment the proper feeling for a saint and servant of God is an absence of self-seeking. "Seekest though great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh" (Jer. 45: 5). Lowliness of mind always becomes the saint, but in an evil day, it is the only safety. Humility is always morally right, but it is also the only thing that preserves from judgment. I am speaking now not of God's final judgment, but of that which is executed in this world. Now it seems to me plain that Baruch had not learned this lesson. He had now to learn it. This was the word of the prophet to him at an earlier date - the fourth year of Jehoiakim.
In Jeremiah 46 we have the denunciation of Egypt where these foolish Jews had fled for security, and the further denunciation of Philistia in Jeremiah 47. Then again of Moab (Jer.48): because all these countries were places to which the Jews looked for security. In Jeremiah 49 the judgment of the Ammonites is given with Damascus and others, even Elam. Elam differs from the rest in being at a considerable distance from Jerusalem, while the others were comparatively near.
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar; but some of them are to be restored in the latter day. Among these nations will be Elam, Egypt, Moab and Ammon, but not Philistia, not Damascus, not Hazor, and above all not Babylon, whose destruction is brought before us in chapters 1 and 51 in great detail.
The whole prophecy of Jeremiah closes with an inspired appendix (Jer. 52), probably by the editor, containing a brief historical account of Zedekiah's reign up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon. The final incident (verses 31-34) records the clemency shown by Evilmerodach, the king of Babylon, to Jehoiakim king of Judah in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity.