Jeremiah 36

God tells Jeremiah to write all his warnings on a scroll, hoping Judah will finally repent. Baruch reads it publicly, the officials are alarmed, but King Jehoiakim cuts it up and burns it. God’s word cannot be destroyed: it is written again, with more added, and judgment is pronounced on the king.

Jeremiah 36:1-2

In Jehoiakim’s fourth year, God commands Jeremiah to put his spoken messages into writing. They covered Israel, Judah and the nations, reaching back over some twenty years to Josiah’s reign. What had been preached would now be fixed in a form that could be read again and again.

BSA: scroll (“a rolled-up book, like a parchment”): God’s word is set down as a lasting written record, not only a passing sermon.

See also: Habakkuk 2:2.

Jeremiah 36:3

God’s purpose is mercy. He speaks of coming calamity so that people will hear, turn, and be forgiven. The word ‘perhaps’ shows God’s hope, and shows that the choice is real. Warning is itself a kindness.

BSA: turn (“return, repent”): Repentance means coming back to God, not just feeling sorry. forgive (“pardon, be merciful to”): God longs to pardon, and the warning is meant to open that door.

Hebrew: שׁוּב (shuv, H7725) — “to turn, return.” This Hebrew word pictures turning around and walking back toward God. It is the Old Testament’s main word for repentance.

See also: Ezekiel 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9.

Jeremiah 36:4

Jeremiah calls his friend and secretary Baruch, who writes down everything as Jeremiah speaks it. The words are God’s, spoken through the prophet and carefully recorded. This is how the message came to be preserved for us.

BSA: dictation (“from the mouth, as spoken”): The words came from Jeremiah’s own mouth, and Baruch wrote them faithfully.

Jeremiah 36:5-6

Jeremiah is barred from the temple, so Baruch must go in his place. The fast day would bring crowds from all over Judah, a perfect audience for a message about repentance. God finds a way to be heard even when his prophet is shut out.

BSA: restricted (“shut up, restrained”): Jeremiah was held back from the temple, but the word of God was not held back.

See also: 2 Timothy 2:9.

Jeremiah 36:7

Jeremiah’s hope is that the people will bring their petition to the LORD, humbly asking for mercy, and turn from evil. He does not hide how great God’s anger is. The seriousness of the warning is what gives the call to repent its urgency.

BSA: petition (“supplication, humble request for favor”): The proper response to God’s anger is to cry to him humbly for mercy.

Jeremiah 36:8-10

Baruch obeys without fuss, reading God’s words aloud at the temple on the fast day. This was in the ninth month of the fifth year, perhaps a year after the writing. He stands in a room belonging to Gemariah, whose family was friendly to Jeremiah. A quiet scribe becomes a bold messenger.

BSA: fast (“a time of abstaining from food, a spiritual discipline”): People gathered with hungry bodies, which should have meant hearts ready to listen.

Jeremiah 36:11-13

Micaiah, Gemariah’s son, hears the reading and goes straight to the officials in the royal palace. He does not keep it to himself. He reports everything he has heard. Word moves from the temple courtyard toward the seat of power.

BSA: reported (“call out, proclaim”): Micaiah passes on the message in full, so the leaders hear it for themselves.

Jeremiah 36:14-15

The officials summon Baruch and ask him to read the scroll to them. Their courtesy (‘Please sit down’) shows they take the matter seriously. Baruch reads it again, this time to the leaders of the nation.

BSA: read (“call out, proclaim”): The scroll was meant to be read aloud and heard, not merely looked at.

Jeremiah 36:16-19

The officials are afraid, for they sense the words are true and dangerous. They agree the king must be told, but they first make sure the words really came from Jeremiah. Then they tell Baruch and Jeremiah to hide, knowing the king’s temper. They show some wisdom, though not yet obedience.

BSA: fear (“dread, being startled”): The words struck them with real alarm, as a message from God should. hide (“conceal, keep secret”): The officials protect God’s servants from the king’s anger.

See also: 1 Kings 18:4.

Jeremiah 36:20-22

The scroll is put in safekeeping, and the officials report to the king. Jehoiakim sends for it and has it read while he sits warming himself by a fire in his winter quarters. The scene is comfortable and careless, in sharp contrast with the gravity of the message.

BSA: winter (“autumn, harvest time”): It was the cold season, the ninth month, so a fire burned in the room.

Jeremiah 36:23

As each few columns are read, Jehoiakim slices them off with a scribe’s knife and throws them into the fire until the whole scroll is gone. It is an act of open contempt toward God’s word. He seems to think that destroying the page will destroy the warning.

Hebrew: תַּעַר (ta’ar, H8593) — “knife, razor.” This is the scribe’s own knife, used for trimming scrolls and pens. The king turns a tool of writing into a tool for destroying God’s word.

See also: Isaiah 40:8.

Jeremiah 36:24-25

Hearing God’s word, the king and his servants neither trembled nor tore their clothes, the usual sign of grief and repentance. His father Josiah had done exactly that when he heard the Law. Three officials plead with him, but he will not listen.

BSA: tear (“rend, rip apart”): Tearing clothes was the expected sign of sorrow before God, and they refused it.

Jeremiah 36:26

Instead of repenting, the king orders the arrest of Baruch and Jeremiah. Yet the LORD had hidden them. Neither the king’s power nor his anger can reach those whom God is guarding. His servants are safe until his purpose for them is done.

BSA: hidden (“concealed, protected”): God’s hiding was active protection, not luck.

See also: Psalm 91:1.

Jeremiah 36:27-28

After the burning, God’s word comes again: write it all again. The destruction of the paper changes nothing about the message. What God has said stands, whatever men do with the scroll.

BSA: rewrite (“write again, record”): God simply restores what was destroyed, showing his word cannot be silenced.

See also: Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25.

Jeremiah 36:29

God quotes the king’s own angry question back to him. Jehoiakim resented the warning that Babylon would come and empty the land. He treated the messenger as the problem, and so the message as false. God exposes his reasoning.

BSA: destroy (“ruin, corrupt”): The warning was of real devastation, which the king refused to face.

Jeremiah 36:30-31

The judgment is specific. Jehoiakim’s line will not hold David’s throne, and his body will lie exposed. His family, servants and the whole people will share the consequences, because they were warned and would not listen. God’s patience had been long, and his warnings clear.

BSA: listen (“hear, obey”): In Scripture, to hear truly means to obey.

See also: 2 Kings 24:6.

Jeremiah 36:32

Jeremiah dictates again and Baruch writes it all out afresh. Then more is added. The king’s fire only made the word grow larger. What men try to destroy, God preserves, and the reader today holds that same word.

BSA: added (“included, appended”): The second scroll held everything in the first, plus more.

See also: Acts 5:38-39.