And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, [that] they proclaimed a fast before Jehovah, for all the people in Jerusalem, and for all the people that came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.
A whole year separates the command in verse 4 from the reading here. Jeremiah dictated the scroll in Jehoiakim's fourth year, and Baruch reads it in the ninth month of the fifth. The occasion is a public fast. Will a nation that can call a fast also listen when God's words are read to it?
The gap between the two dates is not neglect. It marks how long the work itself took.
This work clearly took a long time, since no one read the book to the people until the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim (v.9). You can easily picture the two men in the house where Jeremiah lived. Led by the Spirit of God, the prophet dictates the words of the Lord with care. Baruch keeps at the task of writing on the scroll. All the while both men know they are passing on the very words of God to those who would read the message.
Baruch had the scroll. What he still needed was the right day.
The spirit of obedience before long finds a fitting moment for serving the Lord.
Conditions in the land were grave. The call drew people in from the towns of Judah — the audience Baruch needed.
Because the circumstances were so serious, a fast before the Lord is proclaimed in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim's reign. All the people of Judah who come to Jerusalem will be present. Baruch seizes the opportunity and reads the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, "in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the ears of all the people" (v.10).
Behind the whole arrangement stands a wider principle.
Jeremiah was shut up; but God can never fail in means to address His testimony to man, whatever efforts they may make to escape it. Baruch is used to write the prophecies of Jeremiah, and to read them — first to the people, then to the princes, and at last to the king himself. But the king, hardened in his evil ways, destroys the scroll.
Commentators differ on who called this fast. One names Jehoiakim as the caller, with the enemy of Judah already closing in.
The foe of Judah, the chosen instrument of the Lord to carry out His wrath on the people and the city, now comes to the front. Jeremiah had predicted the coming judgment; Isaiah and the other prophets did the same. Then Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast (Jer. 36:9). It was nothing but hypocrisy. Straight after, he cut the scroll to pieces and threw it into the fire.
Another reads it the opposite way — the fast came from among the people, with the king standing outside it altogether:
In the fifth year of his reign his subjects proclaimed a fast (the king seems to have had no part in it). Baruch, Jeremiah's assistant, read God's message to them out of a book, in the hearing of all the people.
Either way, the fast did not match what was in their hearts.
The people heard God's word to Judah read on a "fasting day," "at the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house." On the surface there was fasting. But the fast did not express the true state of heart of the king or the nation. They were like the disciples of the Pharisees at a later time. Those men fasted often (Luke 5:33), but they had no heart for the Son of God, who was present among them. Mere outward religious acts have no value in the sight of God. He wants what is real: a heart that is true before Him, and a life that gives Him pleasure.
- Written — a full year stood between the dictation and the reading. Both men worked knowing they handled the very words of God.
- Timed — obedience found its moment. Baruch waited for the day that would put the largest crowd within earshot of the scroll.
- Gathered — grave conditions drew people in from the cities of Judah. The fast day gave God's message a national audience.
- Unstoppable — Jeremiah was shut in, yet God never lacks a way to reach people with His testimony. No effort to escape it succeeds.
- Hollow — the fast was real on the surface and empty underneath. Outward religious acts count for nothing with God. He looks for a heart that is true before Him.
And Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the house of Jehovah, in the ears of all the people.
A fast day has drawn crowds into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah, and the man God told to speak cannot get into the temple. The crowds have come in from the towns of Judah, and the man God told to speak cannot get into the temple. So his secretary carries the message in instead, and reads it aloud in a room of the upper court where all the people can hear.
Baruch reads because Jeremiah cannot. One writer makes that restriction the point of the whole scene:
The prophet was bound, but the word of God was not. He is always above the shifting circumstances of man. He is greater than the obstacles that seem to shut out the testimony of His servants.
Commentators differ on what kept Jeremiah out of the temple:
Jeremiah was "shut in." This does not mean that he was a prisoner (see verse 19). It probably means that he was not allowed to enter the LORD's house because of some ceremonial impurity. So he sent Baruch, his secretary, to read the scroll to the people on the fast day.
Months passed between the writing of the scroll and its public reading. The wait was not reluctance:
The spirit of obedience before long finds a fitting moment for serving the Lord.
Writing the scroll took time, and the men doing the work knew what they were handling:
This work clearly took a long time, since Baruch did not read the book publicly to the people until the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim (v.9). One can picture the two men in the house where Jeremiah lived. The Spirit of God guides the prophet as he carefully dictates the words of the Lord. Baruch gives himself to the task of writing on the scroll. All the while both men know they are passing on the very words of God to those who would read the message.
The verse names the room: a chamber belonging to Gemariah son of Shaphan. Behind that name stand three generations of one family, and the message travelled beyond the crowd who heard it:
Shaphan, along with Hilkiah, had found the book of the law at the time when repairs were made in the temple. Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, seems to have followed in the steps of his devout father (v.26). His own son, Micah, hears all the words of the Lord from the book as Baruch reads them aloud. He is so struck by them that he goes down into the scribe's chamber, where all the princes had gathered. There he tells them all the words that he has heard (v.13). In the same way, young people who are able to attend meetings might want to pass on what has been read or said to sick or elderly people who cannot leave their homes. Such quiet service is useful, and those who receive it value it greatly.
The day that gathered the crowd was a fast day. From the outside it looked like repentance:
Outwardly, there was fasting, but the fast did not express the true state of heart of the king or the nation. They were like the disciples of the Pharisees at a later time. Those disciples often fasted (Luke 5:33), but they had no heart for the Son of God who was present among them. Mere outward religious observances are of no value in the sight of God. He wants reality: a heart that is true before Him, and a life that gives Him pleasure.
God had a purpose in this warning, and it was not Judah's ruin:
Jehoiakim had already reigned four years, and God had given him time to turn to Him. But wickedness had increased. So God gave a further warning, in the hope that the king and his people would repent of their sins and return to the LORD their God.
- Unstoppable — Jeremiah could not enter the temple, but the word of God reached it anyway. God is greater than the obstacles that seem to silence His servants.
- Dictated — Jeremiah spoke and Baruch wrote. Both men knew they were passing on the very words of God, not their own.
- Timed — Baruch waited for the fast day. The spirit of obedience finds its fitting moment instead of forcing one.
- Inherited — the room belonged to Shaphan's family. Shaphan had found the book of the law, his son Gemariah lent the room, and his grandson carried the message on.
- Merciful — the reading came after years of patience. Its aim was not to condemn Judah but to bring the nation back to the LORD their God.
And Micah the son of Gemariah the son of Shaphan heard out of the book all the words of Jehovah;
Baruch has just read Jeremiah's scroll aloud in the temple court. Out of the whole crowd, one listener is named: Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan. The verse says only that he heard — yet everything that follows in the chapter, right up to the king's knife, starts with that hearing.
Jeremiah could not go to the temple himself, so he sent Baruch in his place. One commentator draws the contrast:
The prophet was bound, but the word of God was not. He is always above the shifting circumstances of man, and greater than the obstacles that seem to shut out the testimony of His servants.
The reading happened on a day of national fasting, with crowds gathered from the cities of Judah.
Outwardly, there was fasting, but the fast did not express the true state of heart of the king or the nation... Outward religious ceremonies on their own have no value in God's sight. He wants what is real: a heart that is true before Him, and a life that gives Him pleasure.
The verse names Micaiah's father and grandfather, and both names carry history.
Shaphan, along with Hilkiah, had found the book of the law at the time when repairs were made in the temple. Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, seems to have followed in the steps of his pious father. His own son hears "all the words of the LORD from the scroll" as Baruch reads them aloud. He is so impressed by them that he goes down into the scribe's room where all the princes had gathered. There he declares to them all the words that he has heard. (In the same way, young people who can attend meetings might want to pass on what was read or said there. They can carry it to sick or elderly people who cannot leave home. Such quiet service is very useful, and those who receive it value it greatly.)
Yet one writer notes of Shaphan that "this man's son became a leader in idolatry... Over him clearly the Word of God had no power" (W. W. Fereday). Shared ancestry guaranteed nothing.
Many heard the reading that day. The account follows one listener from the temple into the king's house:
Among those who heard the word of God read, one seemed deeply affected by it: Micaiah son of Gemariah... and he went down to the king's house and reported what he had heard to the assembled princes. Six of the princes are named, for the Lord knew every one that was there, and each will have to give account to God for his attitude to His word.
Micaiah's report set off a chain: the princes sent for Baruch, and then went to the king.
Jeremiah had declared these prophecies many times. It may surprise us that the reading of them seems to be something entirely new to the princes. Perhaps they had seldom heard the prophet in person. In any case, this incident shows the power of the written Word of God. The Gospel may be preached, but only the Word of God is "living and powerful." The Lord Jesus called it "the seed." It was this Word that confronted the princes of Judah that day.
The same scroll that moved Micaiah reached King Jehoiakim's winter room. He cut it up and burned it, and no one trembled.
Jehoiakim saw no more than a scroll. But his guilty conscience felt a horror of that scroll. He hid that horror under contempt, cutting the scroll up and burning its pages in the fire — yet the horror gave his fears away.
Destroying the copy changed nothing: "Unbelief never holds back the judgments of God — it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never makes them less" (William Kelly).
- Heard. Micaiah is named for one reason: he took in "all the words of the LORD" while a whole fasting crowd let them pass by.
- Hindered. Jeremiah was shut up and could not speak. The word travelled anyway. God is greater than the obstacles that seem to silence His servants.
- Handed on. He carried what he heard straight to the officials' room. Passing the word on to those who could not be there is real service.
- Held to account. God knew every person in that room. Each of the six named princes would answer for how he treated that word.
- Hardened. A king burned the same scroll that moved a listener. Burning it only brought nearer the judgment it announced.
and he went down to the king's house, into the scribe's chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
Baruch has just read Jeremiah's scroll aloud in the temple court, and one man in the crowd does not keep quiet about it. He carries it down to the palace, where five named officials sit — and the question is why God records their names at all.
Jeremiah himself could not go to the temple, so his words had to travel by other people. One commentator draws out the contrast:
The prophet was bound, but the word of God was not. He is always above the changing circumstances of man. He is higher than the obstacles that seem to shut out the testimony of His servants.
Micaiah heard the reading and acted on it. That is what moved the word from the temple to the palace. One commentator traces him back to a godly family:
Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, seems to have followed in the steps of his pious father (v.26). His own son, Micah, hears "out of the book all the words of the Lord" as they are read aloud by Baruch. He is so impressed by them that he goes down into the scribe's chamber, where all the officials had gathered. There he declares to them all the words that he has heard (v.13). (In the same way, young people who can attend meetings might want to pass on what was read or said. They can bring it to sick or elderly people who cannot leave their homes. Such quiet service is so useful and so greatly appreciated by those who receive it!)
The verse could have said "the officials were sitting there" and stopped. Instead it gives five names: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah, Elnathan, Gemariah and Zedekiah. Counting Micaiah, who brought the report, one writer sees the list as a record kept on purpose:
Six of the officials are named, for the Lord knew every one that was there, and each will have to give account to God about his attitude to His word. The officials were clearly stirred by the news, for they at once sent Jehudi to bring Baruch and the book that contained the words of God.
No one in this chapter asked the government for a hearing. The message went out to the people at the temple, yet it reached the council room too:
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. The servant of the Lord keeps his own place of lowliness, despised and suffering as his Master would be at a later day; but the message reaches the throne just as surely.
The men named here did not all end up in the same place. The king later cut the scroll to pieces and burned it. Three men from this room tried to stop him:
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, and therefore the Holy Spirit records their names.
- Shut in, not shut down. Jeremiah could not reach the temple. The prophet was bound, but the word of God was not. God is higher than the obstacles that seem to block His servants' testimony.
- Carried. The reading gripped one hearer, Micaiah, and he went and told others. That quiet service is open to anyone who passes on what he heard to someone who could not be there.
- Named. The verse names these men because the Lord knew every one in that room. Each would answer to God for how he treated what he heard.
- Reaching. No one engineered this. God knows how to bring His word before the greatest of men, without our own seeking it. Paul later stood before governors, a king, and an emperor.
- Divided. These men all heard the same words in the same room. Three of them later begged the king not to burn the scroll, and the Holy Spirit records their names for that reverence. Their master reached for a knife.
And Micah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read in the book in the ears of the people.
Baruch has just read Jeremiah's scroll aloud in the temple court. Micaiah, one man who heard it, walks straight down to the officials of Judah and repeats every word — and that one step carries God's warning into the seat of government.
Micaiah was not a stranger to the written word of God. His grandfather was the scribe who handled the book of the law when it turned up again in the temple. His father owned the very room where Baruch read.
Shaphan, along with Hilkiah, had found the book of the law when workmen were repairing the temple. Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, seems to have followed in the steps of his pious father (v.26). His own son, Micah, hears "out of the book all the words of the Lord" as Baruch reads them aloud. He is so impressed by them that he goes down to the scribe's room, where all the princes had gathered. There he tells them all the words he has heard (v.13). In the same way, young people who are able to attend meetings might want to pass on what was read or said to sick or elderly people who cannot leave their homes. Such unseen service is so useful, and those who receive it value it greatly!
Three generations, and in each the same book keeps turning up.
What reached the officials that day was not a report about Jeremiah. It was his own words, written down — and they struck the princes as something new.
It may surprise us that this reading seems to be something completely new to the princes. Jeremiah had declared these prophecies many times. Perhaps they had seldom heard the prophet in person. In any case, this incident illustrates the power of the written Word of God. People may preach the Gospel, but only the Word of God — "the seed", as the Lord Jesus called it — is "living and powerful". It is this Word which confronted the princes of Judah that day.
Baruch read to ordinary worshippers in the temple, not to the court. Yet the words reached the council chamber, and no one had planned 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. Just 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 officials in that room — the writers also call them princes — are not left anonymous. Scripture lists them one by one, and one writer draws a sobering conclusion from that list.
Among those who heard the word of God read, one was deeply affected by it: Michaiah son of Gemariah, one of the princes. He went down to the king's house and reported what he had heard to the princes gathered there. Six of the princes are named, for the Lord knew everyone who was there. Each of them will have to give account to God for his attitude to His word.
Micaiah's report worked. The officials sent for Baruch, heard the scroll themselves, and were shaken — yet their response was caution, not turning back to God.
Fear took hold of all the princes when they heard the words of divine judgment read to them. They said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words." ... It seems clear that the princes knew what the attitude of their master would be when he heard the word of God read. They felt that their king would not welcome anyone who brought him the word of God, since it pronounced judgment on him and his people.
They were right about the king. He rejected the scroll — and gained nothing by it.
The old roll was written out again with many similar words, and more were added, in God's unchanging way. Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God; it brings them about. It may add to them but it never diminishes them.
- Heard. Micaiah listened to a public reading in his father's room in the temple. His family had handled Scripture for three generations.
- Carried. He did not keep it to himself. He walked down to the officials' room and repeated all of it — the same quiet service anyone can do for those who could not be there.
- Reached. That one step carried the word into the council chamber, and then into the palace. No one had planned it.
- Weighed. Every man in that room is named, because each would answer to God for how he treated what he heard.
- Rejected — and enlarged. Fear moved the officials to warn the king. The king rejected the scroll. It came back written out again, with more words added. Refusing God's word never cancels it.
And all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thy hand the roll in which thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. And Baruch the son of Nerijah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.
Baruch has just read Jeremiah's scroll aloud in the temple on a fast day, and one listener carried the news to the officials in the palace. Now they send a messenger for the scroll and for the man who read it.
Jeremiah never asked for a hearing at court. Yet this verse puts his message inside the government's own chamber. One commentator sees God's hand in that.
But God's ways 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.
Jeremiah himself was shut up. The message moved on anyway, from one audience to the next.
Jeremiah 36 gives us another example of how stubbornly the kings of Judah despised the call and the testimony of God. Jeremiah was shut up. But God can never lack the means to bring His testimony to man, whatever efforts they make to escape it. God uses Baruch to write the prophecies of Jeremiah. Baruch reads them first to the people, then to the princes, and at last to the king himself. But the king, hardened in his evil ways, destroys the scroll. At God's direction, Jeremiah has the same words written again, and others too, for he neglects no means to reach and take hold of the people's conscience afresh.
The officials only send for Baruch because someone else told them what he had read. That small act of reporting is worth copying.
His own son, Micah, hears "all the words of the LORD from the book" as Baruch reads them aloud. The words strike him so deeply that he goes down to the scribe's chamber, where all the princes had gathered. There he declares to them every word he has heard. (In the same way, young people who can go to meetings might want to pass on what they heard to sick or elderly people who cannot leave home. Such quiet service is useful, and those who receive it value it greatly!) The princes send for Baruch himself. They ask him to bring the scroll, so that they can hear from his own mouth the text he read to the people.
The verse names the messenger Jehudi through three generations of his family. It names the officials who sent him too. That detail is not filler.
Six of the princes are named, for the Lord knew every one who was there. Each will have to give account to God for his attitude to His word. The news plainly stirred the princes, for they at once sent Jehudi to bring Baruch and the book that contained the words of God.
What reached these men was not a new preacher but a book.
Jeremiah had declared these prophecies many times. It may surprise us that the reading seems completely new to the princes. Perhaps they had seldom heard the prophet in person. In any case, this incident shows the power of the written Word of God. It was this Word which confronted the princes of Judah that day.
The reading shook the officials. What they did next shows how far their fear went.
Fear took hold of all the princes when Baruch read them the words of divine judgment. They said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king all these words." They asked him how he came to have the book, and then told him, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are." … They felt their king would not welcome those who brought him the word of God that pronounced judgment on him and his people.
The king destroyed the scroll. That was not the end of the story.
Here Baruch wrote down the words of God from the mouth of Jeremiah. He read them to the people, and afterwards to the princes. They showed a certain respect for them, but were afraid to stand against the king. … This is God's answer. None of His words will perish. They increase and prosper in the purpose for which they are sent.
- Written — Jeremiah spoke the words and Baruch wrote them down. A scroll, not a new sermon, confronted the officials of Judah.
- Carried — one young hearer told men who had not been there. Without him, nobody in the palace sends for Baruch.
- Summoned — God brought His word into the council chamber. His servant never sought the opening, just as Paul later stood before rulers.
- Recorded — Scripture keeps the names of the messenger and the officials. Each one must answer to God for how he treated that word.
- Indestructible — the officials hid Baruch, the king destroyed the scroll, and God had the words written again with more added.
And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. And Baruch read [it] in their ears.
Baruch had read the scroll aloud in the temple courtyard. Now it reaches the king's palace, where Judah's officials sit in the scribe's room and send for the reader. Their words — sit down and read it — sound respectful. As the rest of the chapter shows, listening is not the same as obeying.
Neither Jeremiah nor Baruch asked for a hearing at the palace. Yet the words Jeremiah dictated reached the most powerful men in the country.
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 before governors, a king, and an emperor, so the words of the Lord through Jeremiah came into the council chamber and the court. […] And they said to him, "Sit down and read it." So Baruch read it to them.
Paul, the apostle, also had to state his case before rulers instead of preaching in a pulpit.
The chapter lists who was sitting in that room, name by name.
Six of the princes are named. The Lord knew every one who was there, and each will have to give account to God about his attitude to His word. The news clearly stirred the princes, for they sent Jehudi at once to bring Baruch and the book that contained the words of God.
Jeremiah had spoken these words many times. What confronted these men was hearing them read from a book.
Jeremiah had declared these prophecies many times. It may surprise us that the reading of them seems to be something completely new for the princes. Perhaps they had rarely heard the prophet in person. Either way, this incident shows the power of the written Word of God. People may preach the Gospel, but only the Word of God — "the seed", as the Lord Jesus called it — is "living and powerful". It is this Word which confronted the princes of Judah that day.
After the reading, the officials asked Baruch how the scroll was made.
They want to be sure how the scroll was written. Baruch confirms it plainly: "He spoke all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."
The words landed. The men were frightened and decided the king had to hear them. Then they told the two men behind the scroll to disappear.
Fear took hold of all the princes when they heard the words of divine judgment read to them. They said to Baruch, "We will certainly tell the king all these words." They asked Baruch how he came to have the book, and then said to him, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are." Clearly the princes knew what their master's attitude would be when he heard the word of God read.
The king's answer to this scroll was to burn it. That did not end the matter.
God is not mocked! He knows how men are treating His own God-breathed records, making them common and merely human, and He will deal with them accordingly. Here Baruch wrote the words of God as Jeremiah spoke them. He read them to the people, and later to the princes. They showed a certain respect to them, but feared to stand up to the king. "Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it, as Jeremiah spoke, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in that for which they are sent.
Refusing the message did not cancel it — it added to it.
Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God; instead it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
- Delivered. No one campaigned for a hearing, yet God brought His word into the palace council room.
- Read. The princes wanted the book itself read aloud, and the written Word confronted them.
- Verified. When the officials asked how the scroll was made, Baruch answered plainly: Jeremiah spoke, he wrote it in ink.
- Feared. The words frightened every man in the room. They warned Jeremiah and Baruch to hide instead of standing with them.
- Preserved. Jehoiakim burned the scroll. Baruch wrote it again with more words added. Unbelief never reduces God's judgments; it brings them on.
And it came to pass, when they heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said unto Baruch, We will certainly report to the king all these words.
Baruch read Jeremiah's scroll aloud, and fear went round the room of Judah's ruling officials. They agreed at once to tell the king — but does fear of God's word mean a person has bowed to it?
Baruch was a scribe with a scroll, not a man with access to power. Yet the words reached the rulers of Judah. One writer sees God's own hand in that:
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 servant of the Lord keeps his own place of lowliness, despised and suffering as his Master would be later; but the message reaches the throne just the same.
The officials were shaken. They promised to report everything — and in the same breath told Baruch to hide. They already knew what their king was like:
Fear laid hold on all the officials when they heard the words of divine judgment read to them. They said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the king." They asked Baruch how he came to have the book. Then they said to him, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are." 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 the men who brought him the word of God. That word pronounced judgment on him and on his people. At this point the officials, moved by some among them, wanted to protect the men who, in faithfulness to God and His people, were not afraid to read His word.
The chapter does not just say "the officials." It names them. One writer sees why that matters:
Six of the officials are named, because the Lord knew every one who was there. Each will have to give account to God for his attitude to His word.
The same men appear a few verses later, watching the king destroy the scroll. What had happened to their fear?
The officials 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, nor did they tear their garments." Men soon get used to hearing about judgment, and become indifferent to the warnings God gives them.
Judah had a recent example of what that fear should have produced. An earlier king heard a book read aloud, and it broke him:
Josiah heard the words of the book found in the house of the Lord. He tore his clothes. He 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."
The king burned the scroll. That was not the end of it:
The old scroll was repeated with many like words, and more were added, according to the unchanging way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
Another writer widens it from one king to every reader:
Man cannot get rid of the Word of God: He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But by the way he treats it, man shows his guilt and profanity. He secures for himself the very judgments God's word speaks of.
- Reached. God set His word in front of the greatest men in Judah. Jeremiah did not arrange it, and did not need to.
- Feared. Fear took hold of every official present; the word did touch them, and they promised to carry it to the king.
- Named. The record names six of them. The Lord knew each man there, and each must give account for how he treated God's word.
- Faded. By the time the king burned the scroll, that fear was gone. People grow used to warnings of judgment and stop feeling them.
- Refused. Josiah tore his clothes at a book read aloud; this king burned the scroll. Fear that never bends the heart changes nothing — and the word came back, longer than before.
And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words from his mouth?
The king's officials have just heard the scroll read aloud, and they are frightened. Before they take it to the king, they turn to Baruch with one question: where did these words come from?
Jeremiah could not go to the temple himself, so Baruch read for him. The message went further than the temple court. It reached the room where the nation's officials sat.
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.
Their question was not idle curiosity. They already sensed what the king would do with such a document, and their advice to Baruch shows it.
Fear gripped all the princes when they heard the words of divine judgment read to them, and they said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words." Having asked Baruch how he came to have the book, they said to him, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no one know where you are." It seems clear that the princes knew how their master would react when he heard the word of God read.
One writer pictures Jeremiah and Baruch at work in the house.
So the prophet dictated all the words of the Lord to Baruch his friend, who wrote them down on a scroll. One can picture the two men in the house where Jeremiah lived. Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, the prophet dictates the words of the Lord with care. Baruch gives himself to writing them on the scroll. All the while both men know that they are passing on the very words of God to those who would read the message.
When pressed, Baruch gave them no room to doubt it.
When they seek assurance about how he wrote the scroll, Baruch gives them a plain confirmation: "He spoke all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."
One writer raises the obvious objection and answers it.
Jeremiah is now commanded to put in writing all the words the Lord had spoken to him. He then dictated all the words to Baruch, who wrote them down. But, asks a critic, how could he remember all he had spoken? The same Spirit who gave the messages to him gave them to the prophet again.
The officials asked about words, and Baruch answered about words. One writer applies that to Scripture as a whole.
An inspiration that covered only the thoughts would be useless for giving us authoritative Scriptures. Suppose Paul and Peter and John received wonderful ideas from God, but had no divine guidance when it came to expressing those ideas for the benefit of others. To assure us of that is to take away with the left hand what is offered by the right.
Baruch's careful answer makes the king's response all the more shocking. Jehoiakim burned the scroll, and the chapter ends by showing how little that achieved.
God is not mocked! He knows how men are handling His own God-breathed records. They treat them as common and make them merely human, and He will deal with them accordingly. Here Baruch wrote the words of God from the mouth of Jeremiah. He read them in the hearing of the people, and afterwards of the princes. They showed a certain respect for them, but were afraid to stand against the king. "Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, who wrote on it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them." This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in what they are sent to do.
- Dictated — Baruch told the officials that the prophet spoke and he wrote. The scroll is no summary and no paraphrase.
- Recalled — the same Spirit who first gave Jeremiah the messages gave them to him again for the writing. Years of preaching went down word for word.
- Worded — if God gave only the thoughts and men chose the wording, one hand would offer us ideas while the other took the authority away.
- Carried — no one planned it. God brought that written word out of the prophet's house into the temple court, then the council chamber, then the palace.
- Preserved — the king burned the scroll and gained nothing. None of God's words perish; the second scroll came back with many more words added.
And Baruch said unto them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote [them] with ink in the book.
The princes of Judah have just heard Baruch read the scroll aloud. Before they take it to the king, they want to know one thing: where did this book come from?
The princes were not asking out of idle curiosity. They wanted to be sure of the chain: was this Jeremiah's message, and had it been recorded exactly?
When they seek assurance of how the scroll was written, Baruch gives them express confirmation: "He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."
(The older translation quoted here reads "pronounced"; the ESV renders it "dictated.")
Baruch's short answer covers months of work. One writer pictures how it was done:
So the prophet dictated all the words of the Lord to Baruch his friend, who wrote them down on a scroll. This work clearly took a long time. The book was not read to the people in public until the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim. One can picture the two men in the house where Jeremiah lived. Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, the prophet carefully dictates the words of the Lord. Baruch gives himself to the work of writing on the scroll. All the while, both men know they are passing on the very words of God to those who would read the message.
Baruch names his tools: ink and a scroll. Writers note that finds from Egypt match this everyday detail.
We know from the papyrus rolls found in Egypt that people wrote with pen, or reed, and ink in early times. Jeremiah had Baruch write the condemnations against Israel and Judah in a book with ink, Jer. 36:18. They carried the horn that held the ink in the belt, as people still do in some parts of the East today.
Jeremiah had been preaching for years before this. One writer raises the obvious objection:
The LORD now commands Jeremiah to write down all the words He had spoken to him. The purpose was that the people might hear of all the evil, think about it, and turn to the Lord for forgiveness. How gracious and merciful He is! He then dictated all the words to Baruch, who wrote them down. But, asks a critic, how could he remember all he had spoken? The same Spirit who first gave the messages to him gave them to the prophet again.
The same writer uses Baruch's words as evidence of who wrote the book of Jeremiah:
No other prophet was told to write as often as Jeremiah was… Then Baruch testified that he wrote in a book all these words that came from Jeremiah's lips (36:18). And when the scroll was burned, the Lord said, "Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll" (36:28).
Baruch does not say he caught Jeremiah's meaning and wrote it in his own style. He says the words came from the prophet's mouth to his pen. One writer draws the same point from Paul's letter to the Corinthians:
Here the apostle clearly claims inspiration for what he spoke — and inspiration of the very words at that. Even more so, if that were possible, for what he wrote. The inspiration he claims relates to "words." If the Scriptures, as they were first written, do not give us God's thoughts clothed in God-chosen words, we have no inspiration of any real value at all.
The king would soon burn this scroll. The ink went up in smoke; the words did not.
God is not mocked! He knows how men are treating His own God-breathed records, profaning them and making them merely human. He will deal with such men accordingly. Here Baruch wrote the words of God from the mouth of Jeremiah, and read them in the hearing of the people, and of the princes afterwards. They showed a certain respect for them, but they were afraid to stand against the king… This is God's answer: none of His words will perish. They grow and succeed in the very work He sends them to do.
- Mouth — Baruch's answer traces the scroll back one step at a time: Jeremiah spoke the words, and the scribe took them down rather than composing them.
- Memory — no man could recall years of preaching; the Spirit who first gave the messages gave them again for the writing.
- Ink — the reed pen and the ink-horn in the belt were everyday tools of that world; God's lasting word came through them.
- Words — writers hold that inspiration reaches the actual wording, not just the general sense — God's thoughts in God-chosen words.
- Fire — the king burned the scroll, and God told Jeremiah to write it again; none of God's words perish, and they do the work He sends them to do.
And the princes said unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; that none may know where ye are.
The officials have just heard Baruch read the scroll aloud, and it has shaken them. They will report it to the king. First, though, they tell the two men behind the book to disappear. Their warning raises two questions. What should faith do when telling the truth turns dangerous? And who decides whether God's servant is found or not?
The advice was not panic. These men served the king and could see what was coming.
Fear gripped all the officials when the words of God's judgment were read to them, and they said to Baruch, "We will certainly tell the king all these words." … It seems clear that the officials knew how their master would react when he heard the word of God read out. They felt that their king would not welcome men who brought him a word from God that announced judgment on him and his people. At this point the officials, urged on by some among them, wanted to protect men who were faithful to God and His people and were not afraid to read His word.
Their caution went further than a warning.
It almost seemed that the officials sensed what would happen to the Book. When they told the king what it contained, they did not bring it with them. They left it in the room of Elishama the scribe.
Earlier in the chapter, Jeremiah could not go to the house of the Lord himself (verse 5). This verse shows he was not a prisoner. You cannot tell a man to go and hide if he is already locked in a cell.
Jeremiah was "shut in." This does not mean he was a prisoner (see verse 19). It probably means he was not allowed to enter the LORD's house because of some ceremonial impurity.
Some assume a faithful man should have stood his ground. But the Lord's own word to His servants points the other way.
Faith never teaches anyone to go looking for danger and trouble. It teaches us to walk the path of Christ in peace and thankfulness. The Lord has not called His servants to leave that path. Some of us may have been struck by this: the Lord told His disciples that when one city persecuted them, they should flee to another. That is certainly not chasing martyrdom. It is the opposite.
The two men took the advice and hid. Later, no one could find them. Scripture gives the credit to God, not to the hiding place — and God does not always shield His servants this way.
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 chose, when it suited His purpose beyond our understanding, He blocked their evil plans. That is what happened here. The servants of the Lord had hidden themselves on the advice of the officials, and now they cannot be found, because "the LORD hid them."
The same hand that hid the men also guarded the message they carried.
Vain hope to escape from the hand of Jehovah, who not only hid His servants, but repeated His threats and yet more.
This work had already cost Baruch something.
Baruch had given noble help to the prophet Jeremiah in his fruitless work, and had shed tears as well. He felt the heavy pressure of the day. Everything had gone bad, as we say. The people were as stubborn as ever, and they had turned a deaf ear to God's calls through His servants.
Baruch had his own lesson to learn, and it was not about his safety.
The great lesson for Baruch was this: in a day of judgment, the right attitude for a servant of God is to stop seeking things for himself. … A lowly mind always suits a believer, but in an evil day it is the only safety. Humility is always right, but it is also the only thing that keeps a person from judgment. I am speaking now not of God's final judgment, but of the judgment He carries out in this world.
- Warned — The officials trembled at the words. They knew their king well enough to see what was coming.
- Free — The order to hide shows Jeremiah was no prisoner. Something kept him from the house of the Lord, but it did not keep him off the streets.
- Fled — Stepping out of danger was not unbelief. Faith does not go looking for trouble, and the Lord told His disciples to move on when one city turned against them.
- Hidden — Men gave the advice, but God did the hiding. He guarded His word as well, and gave it back with more added.
- Humbled — Baruch's lesson was to seek nothing for himself. In an evil day, lowliness is not just right; it is safety.
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.
And after that the king had burned the roll, and the words that Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, has cut up the scroll, burned it, and sent men to arrest the two who made it. Then God speaks again, which raises a plain question: what can a fire do to what God has said?
For Jeremiah this was personal. Months of work had gone up in smoke, and the king had thrown his message back at him a second time.
Jeremiah felt it deeply when he learned that the roll was destroyed. It had taken so much effort to write. Once more his ministry has been rejected. But the word of the Lord comes to him: "Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll."
The king's knife and fire changed nothing. One writer shows how pointless the effort was.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Men inspired by the enemy of God's truth can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. People have burned Bibles a thousand times over! … His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers attacked the Bible. They are gone. The Bible is still with us. The Lord tells Jeremiah to take another roll. Once more He dictates the same words to him, and Jeremiah dictates them again to Baruch, "with many like words," including a message of judgment about the miserable end of the wicked king.
Verse 26 and verse 27 stand side by side. God does two things at once: He hides Jeremiah and Baruch, the scribe who wrote the scroll at his dictation, and He repeats the message.
It was hopeless to think of escaping the hand of the Lord. He not only hid His servants; He repeated His threats and added more.
God does not always step in like this. At other times He has let His enemies go the whole way.
Sometimes the Lord has allowed men to do their worst. He has let them kill His servants, as He allowed them to kill His Son. But when He willed it, when it suited a purpose of His that we cannot understand, He stopped their evil plans. That is what happened here. The Lord's servants had hidden themselves, as the officials advised, and no one could find them, because "The Lord hid them."
The second scroll was not a copy with the hard parts softened. What the king destroyed came back longer. One writer calls this God's unchanging way.
The old roll was written again with many like words, and more was added, in line with God's unchanging way. Unbelief never holds back God's judgments; instead it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never makes them less.
If God's word is beyond reach, the burning was never about the scroll. It showed what the man holding the knife was like. One writer sees the same thing coming again before a later judgment.
Men cut up and destroyed the prophet's roll before Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The same kind of thing will happen before the judgment of Christendom. This does not mean man can get rid of the Word of God. God knows how to preserve it, just as He did here. But by the way he treats it, man shows his guilt and his irreverence. He brings on himself the very judgments that God's word speaks of.
Jehoiakim's method was crude. Quieter methods are still at work.
Satan uses other means to discredit the Scripture. He spreads doubts ("Has God really spoken?" — Gen. 3) or promotes the idea that the Bible contains the Word of God, but is not the Word of God, as some theologians state. Others use human reasoning, supposedly to explain the Bible. Some strike passages out of it, others add to it, and still others twist or pretend to edit it. But God watches over His Word.
- Burned. The king cut up the scroll and burned it. Trying to destroy God's word is as pointless as trying to destroy God Himself.
- Hidden. God hid Jeremiah and Baruch. He does not always stop His enemies, so this rescue was His own choice.
- Spoken again. The word of the Lord came a second time, with the instruction to write the very words the fire had consumed.
- Enlarged. Unbelief never reduces God's sentence. The replacement scroll carried the old words plus many more, and a personal judgment on the king.
- Exposed. No one gets rid of Scripture. The way a man treats it shows what he is, and it brings on him the judgment written there.
Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
Jehoiakim had just burned the prophet's scroll in his fire. God's reply to that fire is this verse: write it again.
Jeremiah felt this loss. What God sent back was not comfort but a task.
The destruction of the roll hit Jeremiah hard; it had taken so much effort to write. Once more his ministry met rejection. But the word of the Lord comes to him, telling him to take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, the one Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned (v.28).
The question behind the verse is whether a king with a fire can get rid of what God has said.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How often men have burned Bibles — a thousand times over! In pagan Rome and papal Rome Satan has raged against the Bible. His Word lives on. And now the devil, camouflaged as an angel of light, tries it again under the cover of "devout scholarship" and "reverent criticism". His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers attacked the Bible. They are gone; the Bible is still with us.
Burning the scroll deleted nothing from it. The question is what the burning did to the man who lit the fire.
Man cannot get rid of the Word of God. He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But by the way man treats it, he shows his own guilt and profanity, and secures for himself the judgments that God's word speaks of. We see this in the Scripture-mutilating king in our chapter.
The rewritten roll came back longer, and that is God's settled way:
The old roll was repeated with many like words, and more were added according to the invariable way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them but it never diminishes them.
God asks for a copy, not a softened edition.
Here Baruch wrote the words of God from the mouth of Jeremiah. He read them to the people, and afterwards to the princes. They showed a certain respect for them, but were afraid to stand up to the king. Jeremiah then took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe. At Jeremiah's dictation Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, "and many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). This is God's answer; none of His words will perish; they increase and prosper in the work for which they are sent.
And the rewritten scroll outlived the man who burned it:
Safe in the place where the Lord had hidden them, Jeremiah and Baruch produce the roll again, with all the words that had been on the roll the king destroyed. The foolish king had little idea of what would follow. God carried out to the letter the judgment Jeremiah had pronounced. Then, many centuries later, millions would read the very words Jeremiah had written. They would read the record of his own wicked and foolish act too, for the instruction of the people of God, and to warn those who, like him, would be profane enough to interfere with the written word of God.
The same dislike is at work today, with a pen instead of a fire.
Modernism, like Jehoiakim, does not like the word of God. The king did not want to hear of the judgment of God that was about to come upon him and his nation because of their sins... The modern thinkers of the professing church do not like many things in the Scriptures. 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.
- Burned. A king with a knife and a fire could destroy a scroll — he could not destroy one word that God had spoken.
- Rewritten. God's response to the fire was a command: take another scroll and put back everything that was in the first one.
- Increased. The copy lost nothing, and God added more words to it. His words do not perish; they increase and prosper.
- Repaid. The fire cancelled no judgment. It drew those judgments down on the man who lit it.
- Read. Millions now read the words he burned. They read his act with them, as a warning to anyone who still takes a knife to Scripture.
And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith Jehovah Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from it man and beast?
Jehoiakim had just sliced up Jeremiah's scroll and burned it. Now God sends the prophet back with a message for the king himself. God quotes the king's own objection back to him. His quarrel was never with the writing, but with the judgment written in it.
His protest was aimed at what the scroll announced. Babylon's king would come and empty the land of man and beast. He did not argue the point. He destroyed the page.
The poor king showed his complete unbelief. His way of getting rid of the judgment was by destroying the scroll. "When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and threw it into the fire on the hearth, until the whole scroll was burned up" (verse 23). This was an act of daring irreverence before God; futile and complete folly, but no less sin.
God had left the king a way out. Burning the scroll did more than ignore a warning. It threw away an offer of mercy.
Neither king Jehoiakim, nor anyone like him who has cut up the Scriptures or burned them, has ever truly known the God who gave them by inspiration. Nor have they known that the word of God is a living word that cannot be destroyed. So the Lord told His servant Jeremiah to "Take another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned." There was also a special word for the king. It told him of the judgment about to fall on him, on his children, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the chance to repent. He not only refused it; he treated the mercy of the God of Israel with contempt.
The fire destroyed nothing that mattered. It only fastened the judgment onto the man who lit it.
Man cannot get rid of the Word of God. He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But the way a man treats it shows his guilt and irreverence. It brings on him the very judgments that God's word speaks of — as we read of the Scripture-cutting king in our chapter.
The rewritten scroll came back longer than the first. Fighting the message only hurries what the message announced.
The old scroll was written again with many similar words, and more were added, in the way God always works. Unbelief never stops the judgments of God; it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never lessens them.
The king had also denied a prophet an honourable grave. God repaid him in kind.
So the king who denied the prophet's body an honourable burial was himself "buried with the burial of a donkey." He cut up and burned God's book. In turn his own body was torn and burned, left unburied in the scorching sun.
What happened to that scroll has happened to the Bible many times since.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. The efforts of men inspired by the enemy of God's truth can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How often men have burned the Bibles — a thousand times over! … Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
The king never saw the irony coming.
The foolish and irreverent king might cut the scroll, but he could not set aside the divine judgments that were written on it. Little did he think that the very words of the scroll, and his wicked action, would be read by millions of people throughout the world thousands of years after he was dead.
One writer applies this to our own day.
What passes for criticism is only the mind of man pushing into the holy things of God, and daring to reject as God's word what He has given for the instruction and blessing of His people.
- The complaint — Jehoiakim's issue was the content: Babylon coming, the land stripped bare. He answered a message he could not refute by burning it.
- The mercy — the scroll offered the king a way back. Burning it threw away mercy, not just a warning.
- The futility — cutting the page did not cut the sentence. How a man treats God's word proves his guilt and hurries the judgment.
- The reckoning — he burned God's book and denied a prophet a grave. He got a donkey's burial and an unburied body.
- The survival — God had the scroll written again, with more added. The king is dust. Destroying God's Word is as possible as destroying God.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had just cut up the scroll of Jeremiah's words and burned it, piece by piece. This verse is God's reply — a sentence on the king himself, touching his throne, his family line, and his dead body.
But Jehoiakim did have a son, Jehoiachin, who took the throne after him. So how was this word true? One writer answers it from the force of the word and from the family tree:
Jeremiah said of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin's father, "He shall have none to sit on the throne of David" (Jer. 36:30). The word "sit" here means to "firmly sit," or "dwell." Jehoiachin's short three-month reign was certainly not that. And Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's successor, was Jehoiakim's brother, not his son.
Another writer asks the same question, and answers from what became of the son:
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? A wretched one he was — Jehoiachin, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months before the lion came up from his thicket. The destroyer of the nations was on his way. He was God's avenger against a king who did evil in the LORD's sight, just as his father had done.
The second half of the sentence strips him of a grave. Earlier God had said he would be buried "with the burial of a donkey" (Jeremiah 22:19). One writer links that to what Jehoiakim did to the scroll:
It means that a donkey has no burial, and so Jehoiakim would have no burial. He is the only king of Judah whose burial is not recorded. Jeremiah may have added these words at God's command, after this king had cut the scroll to pieces and burned it in the fire. Most likely this uniquely shameful end was announced because he had done that wicked work: he cut the Word of God to pieces and threw it into the fire.
Jehoiakim had once refused a dead prophet an honourable burial. What he did came back on him:
So the king denied the prophet's body an honourable burial. In turn he himself was "buried with the burial of a donkey." He mutilated and burned God's book, and his own body was torn and left unburied, burned in the scorching sun.
The sentence reached beyond the king himself. And it came only after he had refused mercy:
There was a special word for the king. It told him of the judgment about to fall on his person, on his descendants, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the chance to repent. He did not just refuse it — he poured contempt on the mercy of the God of Israel.
The king tried to cancel the threat by burning the page that carried it. Two writers say what he achieved:
Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God. It carries them out. It may add to them, but it never lessens them.
God's judgments are not set aside by burning rolls of parchment.
The scroll did not stay burned. The first one was ash. The new one held everything the fire had taken, and more besides:
Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe. Baruch wrote on it every word of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, "and many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). This is God's answer: none of His words shall perish. They increase and prosper in the thing for which they are sent.
One writer names what drives such treatment of the Bible:
It is not faith that does such damage to the messages of the Most High. It is the reckless unbelief of that godless king of Judah. He first cut the prophet's scroll to pieces, then went on to burn it with fire. So when we see men take scissors to the Scriptures, we may well fear that the fire will follow next.
- Mercy first. God gave the king a chance to repent. He refused it, and only then did this sentence fall.
- Throne. "None to sit" means none to sit firmly. His son held the throne three months, and the next king was Jehoiakim's brother, not his son.
- Grave. He is the only king of Judah with no recorded burial. He denied a dead prophet an honourable grave, and got none himself.
- Fire. Burning the page changed nothing. Unbelief never reduces God's judgments; here it enlarged them.
- Word. Jeremiah wrote the scroll again, with more added — what men cut and burn, God restores and increases.
And I will visit their iniquity upon him, and upon his seed, and upon his servants; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; and they have not hearkened.
Jehoiakim had just cut up God's message and burned it piece by piece. This verse is the reply he got back: judgment on the king, his children, his officials, and all Judah, because they would not hear.
A scroll can burn. No flame can touch the One whose words it carried.
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! ... His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
The replacement scroll was not a copy. It carried everything the first one said, and this verse is part of what was new.
The old scroll was repeated with many similar words, and more were added, according to the unchanging way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
The judgment here falls on the king, on his offspring, and on his land. But God had first given him a way out.
In addition, there was a special word for the king, telling him of the divine judgment that was about to fall on his person, on his offspring, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the opportunity to repent, but he had not only refused it, he had profanely despised the mercy of the God of Israel.
The punishment here is not a new subject. It is what the burned scroll already said, now falling on the man who burned it.
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 a man treats it shows his own guilt and profanity. It secures for him the judgments that God's word speaks of. We see this in the king in our chapter who cut up the Scripture.
The next king was Jehoiakim's own son. His reign shows what it means for a father's sin to be visited on his line.
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? Wretched was he, Jehoiachin, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months. Then the lion came up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations was on his way. Under God's providence he came as the avenger against a king who did evil in the sight of Jehovah, just as his father had done.
The closing clause explains the reach of the punishment. The officials in the room had trembled at first; by the end of the scene their fear had drained away.
When the princes first heard the word of God read to them, announcing the judgments that were to come, they were all afraid. But then their profane king cut up the Scripture and threw it into the fire. This time they were not afraid, and they did not tear their garments. Men soon get used to hearing about judgment. They become indifferent to the warnings God gives them.
- Word — the scroll burned, the words did not. Destroying God's Word is as impossible as destroying God Himself. The Bible has outlived every ruler who attacked it.
- Refusal — unbelief never cancels God's judgments; it carries them out, and can only add to them.
- Mercy — God gave this king the chance to repent. He did not just refuse it; he despised the mercy of the God of Israel.
- Reach — the sentence spreads from the king to his offspring, his officials, and all Judah. His own son inherited his father's guilt and misery, and lasted three months.
- Result — how a person handles God's word secures for him the very judgment that word describes. A room that stops trembling at warnings is ripe for them.
And Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Nerijah; and he wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words.
A king had just cut up God's message and burned it, piece by piece. The chapter's last verse gives God's reply: the same prophet, the same scribe, a fresh scroll, and more words than before.
The chapter ends not with the king's bonfire but with a new roll. One writer hears in it God's reply to the way men treat His records.
God is not mocked! He knows the way men are treating His own God-breathed records, profaning and making them merely human, and He will treat them accordingly... This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in the purpose for which they are sent.
Jehoiakim destroyed parchment. One commentator weighs what fire can and cannot reach.
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 again!... Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
Another writer sets the Lord Jesus' own promise beside this verse:
Jeremiah and his friend set to work again to duplicate the destroyed scroll, and "many similar words were added to them" (v.32). The Lord Jesus Himself said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31).
The second roll was not a shorter copy. It held everything the first had, and more.
The old roll was repeated with many like words, and more were added according to the invariable way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them but it never diminishes them.
Refusing a warning does not cancel it. In Jehoiakim's case the new roll carried a new sentence on the king himself:
The prophet wrote "another roll," and added to it. As a mark of God's displeasure he said, "Thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night." How true are the words of the LORD: "Those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
The verse stresses the method: Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation. One writer calls that simple and certain. Human helpers set no limit on God's power to inspire.
Sometimes an assistant writer worked instead of the inspired writer. This is true in both Testaments. A scribe wrote, as Baruch did after Jehoiakim burned the first roll, adding many like words at the prophet's dictation. That is as simple as it is certain... Twenty years, a century, a thousand years — none of it can make any difference to the inspiring power of God. He works through means, or without them, according to His sovereign pleasure and wisdom.
Jeremiah and Baruch worked in hiding. The king never guessed how far that second scroll would travel.
The Lord had hidden Jeremiah and Baruch in a safe place. There they made another roll, with all the words that had been on the roll the king destroyed... The foolish king had no idea what would follow. Centuries after God's judgment through Jeremiah had been carried out to the letter, the very words Jeremiah wrote would be read by millions down the ages. His own wicked and foolish act would be written down and read too — to instruct the people of God, and to warn anyone who, like him, would be irreverent enough to interfere with the written word of God.
- Fire — Jehoiakim's knife and fire reached the parchment and nothing more. Asking whether he destroyed God's word is like asking whether a man can destroy God.
- Answer — The verse is God's reply to the fire: a second roll, written the same way, by the same two men. None of His words perish.
- Addition — The new roll was longer than the first. Refusing a warning never shrinks it. Unbelief can add to God's judgments, but it never reduces them.
- Sentence — The added words named the king's own end: no heir on David's throne, his body left out in the heat and frost. Those who despise God are themselves lightly esteemed.
- Reach — The roll he thought he had ended is now read by millions. His own act stands inside it, warning anyone tempted to tamper with Scripture.