E K M 1-3. Command of Yahaveh. The 1st Scroll.
N 4. Obedience of Jeremiah. "
M 5-7. Command of Jeremiah. "
N 5-10. Obedience of Baruch. "
L r 11-13. Scroll reported to princes.
s 14. Roll brought.
t 15. Roll read.
u 16. Fear.
v 17,18. Jeremiah and Baruch.
w 19. Their concealment.
L r 20. Scroll reported to the king.
s 21-. Roll brought.
t -21-23. Roll destroyed.
u 24,25. No fear.
v 26-. Jeremiah and Baruch.
w -26. Their concealment.
K O 27,28. Jeremiah. Command. The 2nd Scroll.
P 29. Jehoiakim. Incrimination. "
P 30,31. Threatening. "
O 32. Jeremiah. Obedience. "
496 B.C.
Jeremiah 36)
1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (this was after Nebuchadnezzar had left Jerusalem with his band of young captives, including Daniel. The city had become quieted down again) the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 "Take thee a writing scroll of a book (Heb. megillah, the name given to 5 Books; Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), and write therein all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel (these words were now to be written because Israel had been already in dispersion 114 years, and could not be spoken, as they were when Judah alone was concerned. Cp. 25:2), and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake to you, from the days of Josiah (see 1:1-3. Not only what is recorded in ch. 25, but what Yehovah has spoken to him for the past 23 years), even to this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch (= blessed. He was the brother to Seraiah. Cp. 32:12 with 51:59) the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken to him, upon a roll of a book.
5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, "I am shut up (not in prison [for cp. v.19], but in hiding, or from some unexplained reason); I cannot go into the house of the LORD:
6 Therefore go you, and read in the roll, which you hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon a fast day (being in the 9th month [v.9], it was not that prescribed in the Law, which was in the 7th month [Lev. 16:29; 23:27): and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
7 It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.
8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD'S house.
495 B.C.
9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month (our December), all the People of Jerusalem, and all the People who were coming in and out of the cities of Jerusalem, had proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
10 Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah (he was the brother of Ahikam [26:24], and not the Gemariah of 29:3, who was Hilkiah's son) the son of Shaphan the scribe (see 2 Kings 22:3. At the time of this history Elishama was the scribe [unless there were more than one]. See vv.12,20,21), in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house, in the ears of all the people.
11 When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out from the book all the words of the LORD,
12 Then he went down into the king's house (cp. 22;1), into the scribe's chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan (the king's emissary against Uririah [26:22]) the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
13 Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read in the book in the ears of the people.
14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the roll wherein you have read in the ears of the people, and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came to them.
15 And they said to him, "Sit down now (cp. "stood" [v.21]. Showing that these princes were favorable to Jeremiah), and read it in our ears." So Baruch read it in their ears.
16 Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words." (Showing their earnestness and sincerity in the matter.)
17 And they asked Baruch, saying, "Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?"
18 Then Baruch answered them, "He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."
19 Then said the princes to Baruch, "Go, hide you, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you be.
20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber.
And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.
22 Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brasier (i.e. the vessel into which the burning charcoal was put from the hearth in houses of the better sort) burning before him.
23 And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, he (i.e. the king) cut it up into fragment with a scribe's knife (The word's of Yehovah are cut up today, not with a scribe's knife, but with scribe's pens in the hand of modern critics. Yet they are not "afraid".), and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
24 Yet they were not afraid (the courtiers were less open to holy fear than the People were. See v.9. Contrast Jehoiakim's father, king Josiah [2 Kings 22:11]. Contrast also the sentences pronounced on them [2 Kings 22:18-20 with v.20, below on "him"), nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
25 Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll (Showing that Elnathan was less hostile than we might perhaps have concluded from 26:22 and 2 Kings 24:8): but he would not hear them.
26 But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech (= the king. Cp. 38:6. 1 Kings 22:26. 2 Kings 11:1,2. Zeph. 1:8), and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet:
but the LORD hid them.
27 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah (the word of the Lord was "not bound". Cp. 2 Tim. 2:9), after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
28 "Take you again another roll (we are not told what became of this, so it may have got, later, into the hands of Nehemiah, when he visited the Temple ruins), and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.
29 And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah (not verbally to Jehoiakim, but in the other scroll), 'Thus says the LORD; 'You have burned this roll, saying, 'Why have you written therein, saying, 'The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and beast?' '
30 Therefore thus says the LORD of Jehoiakim king concerning Judah; He shall have none sitting (implying performance. His son Jehoiachin reigned only 3 months, and then only on sufferance [2 Kings 24:6-8]. See 22:30) 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. 31 And I will visit upon him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the calamity that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.' ' "
32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides to them many like unto them. (They are preserved to us in this book to a large extent.)