UNROLL
A gray winter dawn at a gate of the temple's upper court in Jerusalem: people from the towns of Judah in dark wool cloaks, some in sackcloth, arriving for a fast; a chamber window open above the gateway.

The last days of Judah

Jeremiah 36

What do you do with a word from God you’d rather not hear?

32 verses≈ 8 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)Chapter 36
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

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

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God

“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.

God

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jeremiah 36:3

A plain room lit by one clay oil lamp: a scribe sits cross-legged with a long scroll across his knees, writing with a reed pen, while the prophet stands by the wall in shadow, seen in profile, speaking.

So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah

Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the LORD; so you are to go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the LORD from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities.

Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

So Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. In the house of the LORD he read the words of the LORD from the scroll.

Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah. From the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, which was in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the house of the LORD, Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the hearing of all the people.

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Palace

When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll, he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. And Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.

Then all the officials sent word to Baruch through Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, saying, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come here.” So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them.

The king’s officials

“Please sit down,” they said, “and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

When they had heard all these words, they turned to one another in fear and said to Baruch, “Surely we must report all these words to the king.”

The king’s officials

“Tell us now,” they asked Baruch, “how did you write all these words? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?”

Baruch

“It was at his dictation,” Baruch replied. “He recited all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

The king’s officials

Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide yourselves and tell no one where you are.”

Question

Quick question

The officials heard the scroll, turned to one another in fear, and knew the king had to be told. Look at 36:19.

What did the officials tell Baruch and Jeremiah to do?

Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll

So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king.

Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

A stone room of the palace in gray December light: the king seated side-on in a cedar chair before a clay firepot of glowing charcoal, his officials standing along the wall, a reader holding an unrolled scroll.

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

Close on a clay firepot of glowing coals: strips cut from a scroll curl and blacken in the fire, the cut-off end of the roll lying on the edge of the stand, a small scribe's knife at rest beside it.

And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire.

Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.

Jeremiah Rewrites the Scroll

God
Close on a low wooden table at first light: a fresh tied roll of blank papyrus beside a reed pen and ink palette; on the floor behind it, a cold clay firepot holding only gray ash.

After the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and rewrite on it the very words that were on the original scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned.

God

You are to proclaim concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah that this is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll and said, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon would surely come and destroy this land and deprive it of man and beast?’

Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be thrown out and exposed to heat by day and frost by night. I will punish him and his descendants and servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the calamity about which I warned them but they did not listen.”

Night in a plain room by one clay oil lamp: a scribe writes on a new scroll so long it trails across his knees and onto the floor, the prophet seated close beside him, speaking.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at Jeremiah’s dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

Lord, Your word cannot be burned. Give me a heart that trembles at it and tears what needs tearing, not a knife that cuts away what I don’t want to hear. Amen.

The scroll’s journey

Written36:4Read in thetemple36:10Read to theofficials36:15Read to theking36:21Cut and burned36:23Written again36:32: and more added

Whiteboard

Each hearing came closer to the throne. The king burned the word, and the LORD had it written again, with more.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 36

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A verse to carry with you

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Jeremiah 36:3

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