Jeremiah - episode 5

This thing I commanded them: Listen to my voice

In this post we continue to tell the reading of Jeremiah’s words in the Jerusalem Temple.
«Then Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house, in the ears of all the people. When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard from the scroll all the words of the LORD, he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s room: and behold, all the officials were sitting there, Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the officials. Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. Therefore all the officials 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. They said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.” So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it happened, 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.”» (Jer 36,10-16). The officials’ reaction is understandable: Jeremiah is severe with the governing class (see Jeremiah - episode 2), including the monarchy and the Temple, to which he addresses oracles of destruction (see Jer 7,14). In the prophet’s opinion the real religion is listening to the Lord’s Word and being just towards the neighbors. «Behold, you trust in lying words, that can’t profit. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are delivered”; that you may do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? [...] For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’» (Jer 7,8-11.22-23).
Now let us see the king’s behavior; the scene recalls intentionally, in a negative way, the one told in 2Kgs 22, where the Book of the Law found in the Temple is read to King Josiah (see Josiah - episode 1). Here we have the offspring of the previous main characters: Jehoiakim is Josiah’s son, Gemariah is Shaphan the scribe’s son. Moreover, there is a book containing the Lord’s Word (Jeremiah’s prophecies). Jehoiakim does not tear his garments (his father did it instead), on the contrary he is contemptuous and he destroys the scroll. Josiah commanded to consult the Lord (they did it through Prophetess Hulda), Jehoiakim commands to capture Prophet Jeremiah. Hulda gave Josiah two oracles from the Lord, Jeremiah does the same with Jehoiakim, but to curse him («against Jehoiakim king of Judah [...]»). Josiah listened to the Lord: for that, he will go to his grave in peace; his son’s dead body, instead, will have no burial: Jehoiakim will die during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege to Jerusalem (caused by his rebellion to the king of Babylon).



«Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go, hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.” They went in to the king into the court; but they had put the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king. So 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 officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him. It happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with a knife, 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. They were not afraid, nor tore their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words. Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not hear them. The king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, “Take again another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. Against Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written therein, saying, “The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and animal?”’” Therefore thus says the LORD against Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He shall have none to sit on the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they did not listen.”’” Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many like words» (Jer 36,19-32).
Follow in the next post.