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Jer_36:23 And it came to pass, [that] when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, 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.
Ver. 23. When Jehudi had read three or four leaves.] Vespasian is said to have been patientissimus veri, {a} very patient of truth; so was good Josiah, whose heart melted at the hearing of the law; {2Ch_34:27} but so was not this degenerate son of his, Jehoiakim, but more like Tiberius, that tiger, who tore with his teeth all that displeased him; or like Vitellius the tyrant, of whom Tacitus {b} saith, Ita formatae principis aures, ut aspera quae utilia: nec quidquam nisi iucundum et non laesurum acciperet, That his ears were of that temper that he could hear no counsel, though never so profitable, unless it were pleasant, and did suit with his humours.
He cut it with the penknife.] Why? what could he dislike in that precious piece? Of Petronius’s Satyricon one said well, Tolle obscaena et tollis omnia; of Jeremiah’s prophecies I may safely say, Tolle sancta, et tollis omnia. But this brutish prince could not away with downright truth, &c.
And cast it into the fire.] O stultitiam! quid innocentes chartae commeruerant? {c} O madness! what evil had those innocent papers deserved that they nmst die this double death, as it were? Those magical books at Ephesus were worthily burned; {Act_19:19} Aretine’s love-books are so lascivious that they deserve to be burned, saith Boissard, {d} together with their author; many seditious pamphlets are now committed to Vulcan to be corrected, and more should be; but, O sancta Apocalysis! as that martyr once said when he took up the book of the Revelation, cast into the same fire with himself; so, O holy Jeremiah! what hast thou said or written to be thus slashed, and then cast into the fire? Jehoiakim is the first we read of that ever offered to burn the Bible. Antiochus, indeed, did the like afterwards, and Dioclesian the tyrant, and now the Pope. But though there were not a Bible left upon earth, yet "for ever, O Lord, thy Word is stablished in heaven," saith David. {Psa_119:89}
Until all the roll was consumed.] So far was he from repenting of his wickedness, that he fed his eyes with such a sad spectacle, and was ready to say, as Solon did when he burned the usurers’ bonds in Athens, that he never saw a fairer or clearer fire burn in all his life.
{a} Quintilian.
{b} Lib. iii. Hist.
{c} Oecolamp.
{d} Bois., Biblioth.