Henry Millstein
Jerusalem, 615 BCE: The scribe Baruch saves Yirmeyahu, Speaker for the god Yahweh, from assassination. Why then does the young prophet hold a knife to his rescuer's throat?Jeremiah is enraged at Baruch's complicity, years ago, in the stoning of Jeremiah's beloved Rivqah. He grants Baruch life—on condition that Baruch serve as the prophet's scribe, taking down the words of the war god Yahweh. The god's words, however, bring Jeremiah, Baruch, and his hearers, nothing but doom. Yahweh's words rouse starving workers on the king's new palace to revolt—only to be slaughtered. They foretell the defeat of his nation by Babylon—only to bring condemnation on Jeremiah when his prophecy proves true. And whenever Jeremiah reaches for the love of a woman, Yahweh's jealous consort, Asherah, thrwarts him—Rivqah is only the first of her victims. As Jeremiah, with Baruch, struggles to free himself from these deities, a new series of devastating revelations leads him and his scribe towards reconciliation with the god, the goddess, their people, and themselves.
