Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 43:3

"but Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon." — Jeremiah 43:3 (ASV)

Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us. —This was the solution that occurred to the suspicions of the grumblers. The prophet’s amanuensis had become his leader and was using him as a tool for the advancement of his own plans; and those plans were to seek the favor of the conqueror by delivering the remnant of the people into his hands. The warning of Jeremiah 45:5 may perhaps be taken as an indication that there was a certain ambition and love of eminence in Baruch’s character which lent credibility to the suspicion. Baruch himself had not appeared on the scene since the days of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36:32), but it stands to reason that he would be known as advocating, like Jeremiah, the policy of submission to Nebuchadnezzar.

The apocryphal Book of Baruch represents him as being actually at Babylon at the time of the capture of Jerusalem, and this was in itself quite probable. On this assumption, Jeremiah was perhaps suspected of actually receiving instructions from the Babylonian Court through Baruch, who in Jeremiah 43:6 suddenly reappears as the prophet’s companion. Prophet and scribe were apparently seized and carried off by force to prevent them from carrying out the schemes of which they were suspected. The phrase “remnant of Judah returned from all nations” refers to the fugitives from Moab, Ammon, or Edom, mentioned in Jeremiah 40:11. As the emigration included all who had gathered together under the protection of Gedaliah, it must have left the lands of Judah almost entirely depopulated, and the fear of this result may well have been among the reasons that determined Jeremiah’s counsel.