Jeremiah 36 · WEB

The Scroll Burned and Rewritten

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In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²"Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

³It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."

⁴Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all Yahweh's words, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book.

⁵Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, "I am shut up. I can't go into Yahweh's house.

⁶Therefore you go, and read from the scroll which you have written from my mouth, Yahweh's words, in the ears of the people in Yahweh's house on the fasting day. Also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.

⁷It may be they will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will each return from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has pronounced against this people."

⁸Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book Yahweh's words in Yahweh's house.

⁹Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before Yahweh.

¹⁰Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the book in Yahweh's house, in the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's house, in the ears of all the people.

¹¹When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard from the book all Yahweh's words,

¹²he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's room; and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

¹³Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

¹⁴Therefore 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 scroll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them.

¹⁵They said to him, "Sit down now, and read it in our ears." So Baruch read it in their ears.

¹⁶Now when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words."

¹⁷They asked Baruch, saying, "Tell us now, how did you write all these words at his mouth?"

¹⁸Then Baruch answered them, "He dictated all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."

¹⁹Then the princes said to Baruch, "Go, hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are."

²⁰They went in to the king into the court, but they had laid up the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. They told all the words in the ears of the king.

²¹So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.

²²Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him.

²³When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁴The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn't tear their garments.

²⁵Moreover Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them.

²⁶The king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Yahweh hid them.

²⁷Then Yahweh's word came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

²⁸"Take again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.

²⁹Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, 'Yahweh says: "You have burned this scroll, saying, 'Why have you written in it, saying, "The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from there man and animal?"'

³⁰Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'He will have no one to sit on David's throne. His dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost.

³¹I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn't listen.'"'"

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

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Summary

Jeremiah 36 is the Bible's most dramatic story about the power and indestructibility of God's word. God commands Jeremiah to dictate all his prophecies onto a scroll — twenty-three years' worth. Because Jeremiah is restricted from the temple, his scribe Baruch reads the scroll publicly on a fast day. Officials hear it, are genuinely alarmed, and warn Baruch to hide. They report to King Jehoiakim, who has the scroll read to him column by column — and cuts each section off with a penknife and throws it into the fire, despite three officials begging him to stop. He shows no fear, tears no garments (unlike his father Josiah when the Torah was read to him). He orders Jeremiah and Baruch arrested, but God hides them. Then God commands Jeremiah to dictate the entire scroll again — and this time, "many similar words were added." The king burned the word, but the word grew.

Themes

The indestructibility of God's word — burned by a king, immediately rewritten and expanded
Contrasting responses to Scripture — Josiah tore his garments; Jehoiakim cut the scroll
The courage of intermediaries — Baruch, the officials who warned him, those who begged the king to stop
God's word as a persistent offer of grace — even the scroll's purpose was repentance, not just judgment

Key verses

Jer 36:23-24 — “The king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire... The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn't tear their garments.”
Jer 36:3 — “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, that they may each return from his evil way.”
Jer 36:32 — “Then Jeremiah took another scroll... and many similar words were added to them.”

Context & background

The date is 605-604 BC — the fourth/fifth year of Jehoiakim — the same year Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish and became the regional superpower. Jehoiakim was sitting in his "winter house" (v. 22, a section of the palace used in cold months) with a brazier for heat in the ninth month (November/December). The scroll was a papyrus or leather roll written in columns; Jehudi read three or four columns at a time before the king sliced them off. The contrast with Josiah is deliberate: when the Book of the Law was read to Josiah in 622 BC, he tore his clothes in repentance (2 Kings 22:11); his son Jehoiakim tears the scroll itself. Baruch son of Neriah was Jeremiah's faithful scribe and companion throughout the book; his brother Seraiah also served Jeremiah (51:59). A clay seal impression (bulla) reading "Belonging to Berekhyahu son of Neriyahu the scribe" — almost certainly Baruch — has been found in archaeological excavations near Jerusalem (modern Jerusalem, Israel). The phrase "many similar words were added" (v. 32) means the destruction of the scroll resulted in a longer, fuller version — a principle of divine irony.

Cross-references

2 Kings 22:10-13 — Josiah tearing his garments when the Book of the Law is read — the contrast to Jehoiakim
Acts 19:19-20 — Books of magic burned in Ephesus, "so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail"
Isaiah 40:8 — "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever"
Jeremiah 22:18-19 — The earlier prophecy of Jehoiakim's disgraceful burial, confirmed here in verse 30
Matthew 5:18 — "Until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter... shall pass away from the law"

The Scroll Burned and Rewritten

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