into "the holy Ark," i.e.
ארון הקודש
. What might be taken as poetic fancies in our text are recounted as historical facts in rabbinical literature. Thus the words (x. 18):
"And ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary,
And cast them into the height of heaven,
And give them to the Lord and say:
'Guard Thine own house; for lo we are found unfaithful stewards,'"
are given in various accounts of the fall of Jerusalem. (See Ta'anith, 29a; Pesiḳt. R., loc. cit.; Yalquṭ Shim‛oni on Is. xxi; Aboth of Rabbi Nathan vii.). Even the statement that the bodies of Sennacherib's soldiers were burned while their garments and armour remained unconsumed has its parallel in Sanh. 94a.
Integrity of the Book.—In lxxvii. 19 it is said that Baruch wrote two epistles, one to the nine and a half tribes and the other to the two and a half at Babylon. The former is found in lxxviii.-lxxxvi.; the latter is lost, but is probably preserved either wholly or in part in the Book of Baruch, iii. 9-iv. 29 (see Charles, op. cit. pp. lxv.-lxvii). On the other hand, it is not necessary to infer from lxxv. that an account of Baruch's assumption was to be looked for in the book.
Authorities.—The literature is fully cited in Schürer, Gesch. iii. 223-232, and R. H. Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch, pp. xxx.-xliii. Ginzberg's article in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, ii. 551-556, is a fresh and valuable contribution.