Courtesy Nahman Avigad

Baruch’s brother, Seriah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah (Jeremiah 32:12 and 51:59), probably owned a seal now held in a private collection. The seal’s two-line inscription, seen here in a modern impression, for some unknown reason omits the usual “son of” although that is what is meant: “Belonging to Seriahu / Neriyahu.” Seriah served as quartermaster when he accompanied King Zedekiah of Judah on a journey to Babylon (Jeremiah 51:59). Before Seriah left, Jeremiah instructed him to take a book of Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Babylon and read it to the Babylonians, and then to “bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say ‘Thus shall Babylon sink and never rise again … ’” (Jeremiah 51:63–64).