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.