And they went in unto the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king.
Baruch has just read the scroll to the king's officials, and they have sent him and Jeremiah into hiding. Now they go in to report what they heard, but they leave the scroll behind — and that choice shapes the rest of the chapter.
Jeremiah never set foot in the palace. Yet his words reached the king's own courtyard, and he did nothing to arrange it.
But the ways of God are wise as well as good. Without our own seeking it, He knows how to bring His word before the greatest of men. Paul stood before governors, a king, and an emperor. In the same way, the words of the Lord through Jeremiah came into the council chamber and the court. How wonderful! The servant of the Lord keeps his own lowly place, despised and suffering as his Master would be later. But the message reaches the throne just as surely.
Before going in, these men made two decisions. They would report to the king, and they would get Baruch and Jeremiah out of sight.
Fear took hold of all the officials when the words of God's judgment were read to them, and they said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the king." They felt that their king would not welcome the men who brought him the word of God, because that word pronounced judgment on him and his people. At this stage the officials, influenced by some among them, wanted to protect these men. In faithfulness to God and His people, they had not been afraid to read His word.
They kept their promise to report. What they did with the scroll itself is the detail to watch.
True to their word, the officials made the matter known to the king, who wanted the word of God brought to him. It almost seemed that the officials had some sense of what would happen to the book, for they did not take it to the king when they told him what was in it, but "laid it up in the chamber of Elishama the scribe."
The precaution gained nothing. The king sent for the scroll, and his response to it exposed him.
The poor king showed his complete unbelief. His way of getting rid of the judgment was to destroy the scroll... This was an act of daring irreverence before God; pointless and complete folly, but no less sin.
That act raises a question worth asking directly.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How many times the Bibles have been burned! ... His Word lives on. Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us. Jeremiah is told to take another scroll. Once more the Lord gives him the same words, and Jeremiah dictates them again to Baruch, with many similar words added, including a message of judgment about the miserable end of the wicked king.
- Delivered — Jeremiah arranged nothing. God carried His word into the council chamber and the royal court, as Paul later stood before governors, a king, and an emperor.
- Hidden — The officials sent Baruch and Jeremiah into hiding. They knew their king would not welcome men who brought him a message of judgment.
- Withheld — They reported what the scroll said, but left it in the room of Elishama, the king's secretary. They seemed to sense already what the king would do with it.
- Burned — Jehoiakim did not believe the judgment, so he destroyed the document. It was folly that removed nothing, and it was still sin.
- Rewritten — You can burn Bibles; you cannot burn the Word. The men who attacked it are gone. The words Jehoiakim burned were written out again, with more added — and millions still read them.
And the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he fetched it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king.
Jeremiah 36:21 is the moment the scroll reaches the palace. Why had the officials left it behind in another room, and what would a king do with words written against him?
God's servants did not arrange this hearing. One commentator sees God's own hand in it.
But the ways of God are wise as well as good. Without our own seeking it, He knows how to bring His word before the greatest of men. As Paul stood before governors, a king, and an emperor, so the words of the Lord through Jeremiah came into the council chamber and the court.
The verse marks where Jehudi had to go for the scroll — not to the officials' hands, but to Elishama's room.
It almost seems the officials had some sense of what would happen to the book, for they did not take it to the king when they told him what was in it, but "laid it up in the chamber of Elishama the scribe."
One commentator explains what lay behind their caution.
It seems clear that the officials knew what their master's attitude would be when he heard the word of God read. They felt their king would not welcome those who brought him the word of God that pronounced judgment on him and his people.
One commentator points to how the roll opened.
This is the opening chapter of the roll which Jehudi read in front of Jehoiakim. The king cut it up with his penknife and threw it into the fire (chapter 36:23). The protest starts with a moving question: "What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?"
Judgment was not the only purpose of this warning.
Jehoiakim had already reigned four years. God had given him time to turn to Him. But wrongdoing had increased, so a further warning came. The hope was that the king and his people would repent of their sins and return to the Lord their God.
His father Josiah had also sat and listened to a book read aloud.
Jehoiakim was two years older than Jehoahaz. So he would have been more aware of what had happened in his father's reign. But his father's godliness left no mark on this wilful son. Was it possible he did not know what his father had done when the book of the law was read to him? Josiah heard the words of the book found in the house of the Lord. He tore his clothes and sent to inquire of the Lord, saying, "for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book" (2 Kings 22:11–13).
What the king would do to the scroll settled nothing.
Not that man can get rid of the Word of God: He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But the way man treats it shows his own guilt and irreverence. He brings on himself the judgments that God's word speaks of. We see this in the king of our chapter, who cut up the Scriptures.
Then came a second roll.
The old roll was repeated with many similar words, and more were added, according to God's unvarying way. Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God but rather brings them about. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
- Sent. God brought His words into the council chamber and the court. No servant of His arranged it. The same God later set Paul before governors and kings.
- Stored. The officials reported the contents but left the scroll in Elishama's room. They knew their king would not welcome a message of judgment against himself.
- Read. What Jehudi read was a call to repentance, written in the hope that king and people would turn back to the Lord.
- Refused. Josiah tore his clothes when he heard a book read aloud. His son heard a warning like it and did nothing of the sort.
- Rewritten. The scroll perished; the word did not. It came back with more added. The man who despised it brought its judgments down on himself.
Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month, and with the fire-pan burning before him.
A king sits warm in his winter palace in Jerusalem, a fire burning beside him. A scroll of God's words is read out loud to him. What Jehoiakim does next with that fire raises the sharpest question in the chapter. Can a man destroy what God has said, and what happens to him when he tries?
The king is comfortable. The officials standing around him are not.
A certain majesty marks the scene. Terror shows on the faces of these men. They know all too well, from experience, the terrible power of the Babylonian king who is about to pounce down on their land.
The officials had already heard the scroll and been shaken by it. They had taken the precaution of hiding it before telling the king, seeming to sense what was coming.
It almost seemed that the princes had some foreboding as to what would happen to the Book, for they did not take it to the king when they informed him of its contents, but "laid it up in the chamber of Elishama the scribe."
The fire in front of the king became the tool of his rebellion.
It was a rejected testimony, and the man who sat on David's throne shocked even his most agreeable courtiers by the boldness of his rebellion against Jehovah… Jehoiakim saw no more than a scroll, but his guilty conscience felt a horror of that scroll, which betrayed his fears under the cover of the contempt that cut it up and burned its columns in the fire.
This was more than a burst of temper.
It was an act of daring impiety. It was worse in a Jew, who was taught to treat all sacred writing with the greatest reverence. But Jehoiakim was quickly hardening himself past all feeling, and he shows no pang of conscience over his act against what is holy.
Josiah, Jehoiakim's father, had also sat and listened to God's book read out to him.
Josiah heard the words of the book found in the house of the Lord, and he tore his clothes. He sent to ask the Lord, saying, "for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book" (2 Kings 22:11–13)… Jehoiakim did not tear his garments as Josiah had done. After three or four columns had been read, the king "cut them off with a knife and threw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed."
Josiah's response shows what a right reaction to Scripture looks like. He never asked whether the book was genuine.
Josiah had no question at all about whether the words Shaphan read in his hearing were genuine. We do not read of him asking, "How am I to know that this is the Word of God?" No; he trembled at it. He bowed before it. He tore his garments. He did not presume to sit in judgment on the Word of God. As was right and fitting, he let that word judge him.
Behind the knife lay a simple calculation.
The poor king showed his utter unbelief. His way of getting rid of the judgment was by destroying the scroll… This was an act of daring impiety before God; futile and complete folly, but no less sin.
The scroll came back longer than before.
The old scroll was repeated with many similar words, and more were added, according to God's unchanging way. Unbelief never hinders but rather brings about the judgments of God. It may add to them, but it never lessens them.
The scroll burned, but Jeremiah sent the king a reply.
Jeremiah sent him a personal, spoken message, and no king ever heard a more terrible one. Jehoiakim would have no one to sit on the throne of David. His dead body would be thrown out to the heat by day and the frost by night. God would punish him, his descendants and his servants for their iniquity.
Others have tried the same thing on a much larger scale since.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How the Bibles have been burned a thousand times over! … Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
The danger is not owning a knife. It is hearing and refusing.
Jehoiakim had not listened to Jeremiah when he had spoken to him on several occasions. Now he rejects the inspired Word, written on the scroll, and destroys it. How tragic it will be for those who, after hearing the gospel of grace, deliberately reject it.
- Setting — The king sits warm in his winter house in the ninth month. The officials around him listen in terror.
- Knife — The king cut up the scroll and burned it in contempt. The violence gave away a guilty conscience.
- Contrast — Josiah heard God's book and tore his clothes; his son heard it and tore the book. One let the word judge him; the other tried to judge the word.
- Folly — Destroying the document does not cancel the sentence. Unbelief never lessens God's judgments; it brings them on. Jehoiakim lost the throne for his own line.
- Survival — The scroll was rewritten longer than before. Bibles have been burned a thousand times; the burners are gone and the book remains.
And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, he cut it with the scribe's knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the pan until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the pan.
A king of Judah sits by his winter fire while a servant reads God's word aloud, and he answers with a knife. Two questions follow: what heart burns a warning instead of heeding it, and can anyone destroy God's word this way?
(Older translations read "penknife" and "leaves" where the ESV has "knife" and "columns".)
The tool in the king's hand was not a weapon. It was an ordinary desk item, the very thing used to prepare a pen for writing:
Literally 'knife of a writer', which he used to sharpen his reed. Jer. 36:23.
That detail sharpens the offence. The king took a tool made to serve the written word and used it to destroy the writing. One writer weighs what that meant for a king of Judah:
It was an act of daring impiety. It was worse still for a Jew, who was taught to look on all sacred writing with the greatest reverence. But Jehoiakim was fast hardening himself past all feeling, and not one pang of conscience shows over his sacrilegious act.
The king would not let the reading finish. He cut at three or four columns and kept feeding the fire. One writer sees fear, not scorn, behind the cutting:
Jehoiakim saw no more than a roll. But his guilty conscience felt a horror of that roll, and that horror betrayed his fears. The contempt that cut it up and burned its leaves in the fire was only a cover.
Burning the paper did not cancel what was written on it. The same writer traces the act back to its root:
The poor king showed his utter unbelief. His way of getting rid of the judgment was by destroying the roll... It was futile, perfect folly — and sin all the same.
Another writer puts the whole failure in a single line:
God's judgments are not set aside by burning rolls of parchment.
Jehoiakim's father, Josiah, had also read God's warning to Israel. The two kings answered it in opposite ways:
Josiah had good reason to tear his clothes when he read what lay in store for Israel if they forsook their God and turned to idols. Yet how great the contrast between Josiah and his son Jehoiakim! When Jehoiakim heard the words written in Jeremiah's roll, he cut it with his knife and threw it into the fire (Jer. 36:23).
Same throne, same word read aloud, opposite outcomes. One man let the word judge him; the other tried to judge the word — and lost.
Scripture keeps the record of where this began:
The first recorded instance of burning any part of the Word of God is noted in Jer. 36:20-32.
Many have copied the king since. One writer asks the obvious question:
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. No effort of men inspired by the enemy of God's truth can ever touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. Like God, it is eternal. People have burned Bibles a thousand times over!... And now the devil, disguised as an angel of light, tries it again in the guise of "devout scholarship" and "reverent criticism". His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
God did not reply with silence. He gave the words again, and this time there were more of them:
Baruch wrote... all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, and many more words like them were added (v. 32). This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in that for which they are sent.
The rewritten scroll carried a new paragraph aimed at the man who lit the fire:
The prophet wrote "another roll," and added to it. As a mark of God's displeasure he said, "Thus says the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah, He shall have none to sit on the throne of David"... How true are the words of the LORD, "Those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
- The knife. A writer's own tool, meant to serve the written word, became the instrument that destroyed it.
- The cover. The contempt was loud, but the haste betrayed a conscience that could not bear to hear the roll finished.
- The folly. Destroying the message never cancels the sentence — parchment burns, judgments do not.
- The contrast. Josiah tore his clothes at the word; his son tore the word instead. The same reading produced opposite men.
- The answer. The words came back, longer — and carried a sentence on the king who burned them. The roll returned; the king did not.
And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, [neither] the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
In Jeremiah 36 a king hears God's words read aloud, cuts up the scroll, and burns it. This verse is not about the burning: it records what everyone in the room did as they watched — nothing.
Tearing your clothes was the visible sign of shock and grief. One writer measures the failure of the room by what was missing:
This shows plainly how they should have reacted when the king cut up and burned the scroll that held what God had spoken to Jeremiah. The princes should have been afraid. They should have torn their clothes. The wickedness of their king should have shocked and distressed them. But for the most part they were indifferent.
Someone else had responded the right way. One writer sets Jehoiakim beside Josiah, who tore his own clothes:
Jehoiakim's attitude to the words of Jeremiah's scroll was very different. That scroll announced once again the judgment coming on God's unfaithful people. Josiah had torn his clothes. This king listened to three or four columns, then cut them off with a knife and threw them into the fire, "until the entire scroll was consumed."
Fear had been in the room earlier. One writer traces what took it away:
When the princes first heard the word of God read to them, announcing the judgments that were coming, they were all afraid. But then their godless king cut up the Scripture and threw it into the fire, and "neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments." People soon get used to hearing about judgment. They become indifferent to the warnings God gives them.
The calm here was not a passing mood. One writer sees a conscience already going numb:
It was an act of bold contempt for God, especially for a Jew, who was taught to treat all sacred writing with the greatest reverence. But Jehoiakim was fast hardening himself past all feeling. He shows no sign of a troubled conscience over this act against what is holy.
Commentators differ over whether the king felt nothing at all. Another writer finds fear hidden under the scorn:
Jehoiakim saw no more than a scroll. But his guilty conscience felt a horror of that scroll. His fear showed through, hidden under the contempt that cut it up and burned its pages in the fire.
Three men did speak up and ask the king not to burn the scroll. This verse still counts them among those who did not tear their clothes:
Yet three princes, whose names are kept in God's record, were bold enough to plead with the king and try to hold him back from his wicked act. They knew the king was doing wrong. But they did not have the depth of conviction the moment called for. Truly godly men would have torn their clothes. They would have known how dreadful it is for a man to defy the Almighty God of Israel by cutting up and burning His word.
Burning the scroll did not remove a word of it. One writer draws out the rule behind that:
The old scroll was written out again with many similar words, and God added more, as He always does. Unbelief never stops the judgments of God; it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never makes them less.
Writers apply this scene beyond Jehoiakim's winter house. The same refusal to be disturbed, they argue, now works with edits rather than flames:
Modernism, like Jehoiakim, does not like the word of God. The king of Israel did not want to hear of the judgment of God that was about to come upon him and his nation because of their sins. Modern thinkers in the professing church do not want to hear of the judgment of God that is about to come on the false church either. There are many things in the Scriptures they do not like, and they have been trying to get rid of them by cutting them out of the Bible.
- Heard — The whole court heard every word of judgment. This verse records calm, not ignorance.
- Unmoved — Torn clothes were the right response. Nobody tore anything. The room should have been shocked; it was indifferent.
- Numbed — The officials were afraid at the first reading. People get used to hearing about judgment and stop taking the warning.
- Hardened — One writer sees a king past all feeling, with no trace of conscience. Another sees fear hidden under contempt. Either way the scroll burned.
- Unburned — The word came back, rewritten with more added. Unbelief never cancels God's judgments; it only helps them arrive.
Moreover, Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them.
In Jeremiah 36 a king sits by his fire, slicing up the words God had sent him and feeding them to the flames. Verse 25 records the one flicker of resistance in that room: three of his own officials begged him to stop, and he refused.
Even the king's flatterers were shocked by what he did. One writer reads his contempt as a cover for fear:
It was a rejected testimony. The man who sat on David's throne shocked his most flattering courtiers by the boldness of his rebellion against Jehovah… Jehoiakim saw no more than a roll. But his guilty conscience felt a horror of that roll. That horror betrayed his fears under the cover of the contempt that cut it up and burned its leaves in the fire.
Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah are not famous men. Yet Scripture records all three names. One writer explains why, and what the king did next:
Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah tried to keep him from doing this evil deed, but he refused to listen to them. These three had at least some reverence for the Word of God. That is why the Holy Spirit records their names. The king was not satisfied with this. His satanic anger was so aroused that he wanted Baruch and Jeremiah arrested. But the Lord hid them.
Their boldness was real, but it did not go deep enough:
Three princes were bold enough to plead with the king and try to turn him from his wicked act. Their names remain in the divine record. They knew the king was doing wrong. But they did not have the depth of conviction the situation demanded. Truly godly men would have torn their garments. They would have known how terrible it is for a man to challenge the Almighty God of Israel by cutting up and burning His word.
These same men had been afraid when the scroll was first read to them. By the time the fire was lit, the fear had gone:
The princes first heard the word of God read to them, announcing the judgments that were to come, and they were all afraid. But when their profane king cut up the Scripture and threw it into the fire, they were not afraid and did not tear their garments. Men soon get used to hearing of judgment. They become indifferent to the warnings that God gives them.
Jehoiakim's father Josiah faced the same test. He heard a book of God's law read to him, and he tore his clothes. One writer asks whether the son could have missed it:
Being two years older than Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim would have been somewhat more aware of what had taken place in his father's reign, but his father's godliness had clearly left no mark on his stubborn son. Was it possible that he did not know what his father had done when the book of the law was read to him? Josiah, on hearing the words of the book that had been found in the house of the Lord, tore his clothes and sent to enquire of the Lord, saying, "For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book."
A second scroll replaced the burned one, and it said more than the first:
The new roll repeated the old one with many similar words, and added more, in the unchanging way of God. Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God. It brings them about. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
One writer turns the same knife on people who cut parts out of the Bible today:
Modernism, like Jehoiakim, does not like the word of God. The king of Israel did not want to hear about the judgment of God that was about to come on him and his nation because of their sins. Modern thinkers in the professing church do not like to hear of the judgment of God that is about to come on the false church either. There are many things in the Scriptures they do not like, and they have been trying to get rid of them by cutting them out of the Bible. What passes for criticism is only the mind of man intruding into the holy things of God. It dares to reject as God's word what He has given for the instruction and blessing of His people.
- Heard — the scroll reached the throne room. Jehoiakim's contempt covered fear: the word had landed.
- Spoken for — three men in a full court asked the king to spare it. God recorded their names for that much reverence.
- Too little — their plea lacked the depth the hour needed. Tearing their garments was the fitting response.
- Refused — he had his father Josiah's example of a torn robe and a searching heart, and turned from it.
- Unstoppable — Jeremiah wrote the word again, and longer. Unbelief never cancels God's judgment; it brings it about.
And the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah hid them.
Jehoiakim had just cut up and burned the scroll of God's words. Now he sends three officers to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah — and the last words of the verse tell us who really rules in Jerusalem.
Burning the scroll did not satisfy Jehoiakim. One writer names the source of the anger behind the arrest order.
The king was not satisfied with this. His satanic anger was so stirred up that he wanted Baruch and Jeremiah arrested. Like the mad king Saul, he probably thought of killing them both. But the Lord hid them.
Three of his own officials had already begged him not to burn it. One writer sets his refusal beside what he did next.
Three men, including Gemariah the son of Shaphan, urge the king not to burn it. But he "would not hear them." Instead, he commands some men to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet.
The officials had told Jeremiah and Baruch to hide, and they did. Yet the verse credits God, not their caution — and one writer marks the limits of that protection.
Sometimes the Lord has allowed men to do their worst and kill His servants, just as He allowed them to kill His Son. But when He willed it, when it suited His purpose beyond our understanding, He stopped their evil plans. So it was here. The servants of the Lord had hidden themselves on the advice of the officials, and now they cannot be found, for "the LORD hid them."
The king could command soldiers. He could not command outcomes. The same God who hid the two men used the moment to enlarge the very message Jehoiakim had tried to erase.
It was a vain hope to escape from the hand of Jehovah. He not only hid His servants; He repeated His threats and added still more.
One writer says this holds for every servant God sends, not just for Jeremiah.
He is for us as He was for His prophet, and who can be against us? What security for the testimony! We have nothing to fear when God sends us. No one, not even the highest authority on earth, can seize us. If such power is ever granted, it goes only as far as God works out His purposes through that person. This was so with Elijah, with the apostles Peter, John and Paul, and with all the Lord's servants.
Hiding the two men did more than save their lives. It kept the writing going.
Here Baruch wrote God's words down as Jeremiah spoke them, and later he read them aloud to the people and to the officials. They showed a certain respect to them, but feared to stand against the king... This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in that for which they are sent.
Others have tried the same thing on a far bigger scale ever since, and failed the same way.
All through the centuries Satan has never stopped trying to destroy the Bible, and he has never succeeded. God Himself has kept His Word safe right up to our own day... In the early years of Christianity, fierce persecution of Christians failed to destroy the copies of the Scriptures.
God kept the men the king hunted. The king himself received no such protection.
He was the first person we know of who ever dared to destroy any part of God's written Word. His judgment came quickly and sharply. "God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
The king could not see how the story would end.
The foolish king never realised what was coming. God carried out to the letter the judgment Jeremiah had announced. And many centuries after that, millions would still be reading the very words Jeremiah wrote. His own wicked and foolish act would be written down and read too. It stands there to teach God's people, and to warn anyone else who would dare to tamper with the written word of God.
- Hand against the word. Jehoiakim's rage did not stop at the scroll. He brushed aside his officials' plea and sent three men to seize the prophet and his scribe.
- Hand over the servants. They hid on the officials' advice, but the credit goes elsewhere: the LORD hid them. Commentators stress that this is God's choice each time, not a promise that His servants never die.
- Hand above the throne. No authority on earth can seize the one God has sent, except as far as it serves God's own purpose.
- Hand holding the book. The hiding kept the writers safe, and God's word came back repeated and enlarged. None of His words perish.
- Hand of judgment. The man who tried to destroy the word met a swift, sharp judgment, while the words he burned are still read today.