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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 36:19 - 36:32
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The Roll Destroyed and Rewritten
v. 19. Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be. The reading had made a deep impression upon them, but they had an instinctive feeling that Jeremiah and Baruch were in danger of their lives on account of the message which they proclaimed, especially since a report of the happening had to be made to the king.
v. 20. And they went in to the king, into the court, the great hall or throne-room, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama, the scribe, leaving it in his office for safe-keeping, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
v. 21. So the king sent Jehudi, who seems to have been the court messenger, 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, literally, "over the king"; for, since they were standing in his presence, their heads were higher than his.
v. 22. Now, the king sat in the winter-house, in one of the inner and sheltered rooms of the palace, where also the great hall was situated, in the ninth month, corresponding roughly to our December; and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him, a brazen vessel with glowing charcoal such as are used in the Orient.
v. 23. And it came to pass that, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, the writer's knife with which the reed or style used for writing was pointed from time to time, 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. The king had become so enraged on account of the passage which he had heard that he could not contain himself, but laid blasphemous hands upon the sacred roll, slashing it right and left and destroying it completely.
v. 24. Yet they were not afraid, they were not terrified by the Lord's threats, nor rent their garments, as they should have done in grief and mourning over their sins and the Lord's impending punishment upon them, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
v. 25. Nevertheless, Einathan and Delaiah and Gemariah, three, at least, of the king's counselors, had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them, he was deaf to all remonstrances.
v. 26. But the king commanded Jerahmeel, the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shele-miah, the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremiah, the prophet, that is, to arrest them; but the Lord hid them, He did not permit the searchers to find their hiding-place.
v. 27. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
v. 28. Take thee again another roll, a new strip of parchment, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, hath burned.
v. 29. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord, 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 thence man and beast? The king had evidently given vent to his anger in exclamations of this kind when he destroyed the roll.
v. 30. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, for his son Jehoiachin was nothing but a vassal of the foreign emperor and could in no sense call the kingdom his own; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost, namely, in the hardships attending his exile.
v. 31. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, for by following the king they placed themselves in the same condemnation with him; 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; but they hearkened not.
v. 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 unto them many like words; for Jeremiah had received other inspired messages, and the Lord took this opportunity of embodying them all in the book which was to be preserved as a testimony against the disobedient nation and its king.