Jeremiah 36:9-19
The proclaimed word of God confronts the nation’s leadership and forces a response to the warning of coming judgment.
9 Now 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.
10 Then 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.
11 When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all Yahweh’s words,
12 he 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.
13 Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
14 Therefore 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.
15 They said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.
16 Now 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.”
17 They asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words at his mouth?”
18 Then Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”
19 Then the princes said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah go hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”
The proclaimed word of God confronts the nation’s leadership and forces a response to the warning of coming judgment.
To record the public reading of Jeremiah’s scroll in the temple and the growing alarm among Judah’s officials as they hear the prophetic warning.
This passage continues the narrative of Jeremiah’s scroll. After Baruch reads the message in the temple courts, the report reaches Judah’s officials who investigate the message and begin to grasp the seriousness of its warnings.
Baruch reads Jeremiah’s scroll publicly during a national fast in Jerusalem, and the message reaches the royal officials.
The Scroll Written, Read, Cut, Burned, and Written Again
Jehoiakim can cut and burn the scroll, but he cannot destroy the word of the LORD; the rejected word is rewritten, expanded, and fulfilled in judgment.