FRAMEWORKS:
Jeremiah 36: Jehoiakim
burns Jeremiah's scroll
[Preliminary
Comment: We find here an example of the folly and arrogance
of Jehoiakim. When Jeremiah is told by the Lord to create a scroll
recording all his prophecies, the king had the scroll cut up and
burnt. The Lord declares a sentence of death over him and instructs
Jeremiah to create a second scroll which he does. The king is
eventually taken to Babylon where he dies.]
v.1-3
The Lord instructs Jeremiah to write a record of his prophecies
v.1
In
the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king
of Judah, [ i.e. 605/4 ]
this word came to Jeremiah from the
Lord:
v.2
‘Take
a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning
Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began
speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now.
v.3
Perhaps
when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict
on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will
forgive their wickedness and their sin.'
v.4-7
Jeremiah dictates to Baruch and tells him to read the scroll in
the Temple
v.4
So
Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated
all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on
the scroll.
v.5
Then
Jeremiah told Baruch, ‘I am restricted; I am not allowed to go
to the Lord's temple.
v.6
So
you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to
the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote
as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in
from their towns.
v.7
Perhaps
they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn
from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against
this people by the Lord are great.'
v.8-10
Baruch does this and a time of fasting is proclaimed
v.8
Baruch
son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to
do; at the Lord's temple he read the words of the Lord from the
scroll.
v.9
In
the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king
of Judah, a time of fasting before the Lord was proclaimed for
all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns
of Judah.
v.10
From
the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in
the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple,
Baruch read to all the people at the Lord's temple the words of
Jeremiah from the scroll.
v.11-14
The officials instruct Baruch to bring the scroll to them
v.11
When
Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words
of the Lord from the scroll,
v.12
he
went down to the secretary's room in the royal palace, where all
the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son
of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah
son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.
v.13
After
Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people
from the scroll,
v.14
all
the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah,
the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, ‘Bring the scroll from which
you have read to the people and come.' So Baruch son of Neriah
went to them with the scroll in his hand.
v.15-20
They say Baruch and Jeremiah should hide while they go and tell
the king
v.
15 They
said to him, ‘Sit down, please, and read it to us.'
So
Baruch read it to them.
v.16
When
they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear
and said to Baruch, ‘We must report all these words to the king.'
v.17
Then
they asked Baruch, ‘Tell us, how did you come to write all this?
Did Jeremiah dictate it?'
v.18
‘Yes,'
Baruch replied, ‘he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote
them in ink on the scroll.'
v.19
Then
the officials said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah, go and hide.
Don't let anyone know where you are.'
v.20
After
they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they
went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him.
v.21-26
As the scroll is read, the kings cuts and burns it
v.21
The
king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from
the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and
all the officials standing beside him.
v.22
It
was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment,
with a fire burning in the brazier in front of him.
v.23
Whenever
Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king
cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the brazier,
until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
v.24
The
king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no
fear, nor did they tear their clothes.
v.25
Even
though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn
the scroll, he would not listen to them.
v.26
Instead,
the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of
Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe
and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.
v.27,28
The Lord tells Jeremiah to write a second scroll
v.27
After
the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had
written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah:
v.28
‘Take
another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the
first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.
v.29-31
God declares the kings death
v.29
Also
tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, “This is what the Lord says: you
burned that scroll and said, ‘Why did you write on it that the
king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and
wipe from it both man and beast?'
v.30
Therefore
this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: he will
have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown
out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.
v.31
I
will punish him and his children and his attendants for their
wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem
and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them,
because they have not listened.”'
v.32
Jeremiah writes an even longer scroll
v.32
So
Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch
son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, 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.
Continue
to Chapter 37