Jeremiah 36:29

Jer 36:29 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

Ver. 29. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim,] i.e., Add this doleful doom of his to the new written roll, and direct it to Jehoiakim. Some think the prophet told him these things to his face, like as Eliah presented himself to Ahab, whom before he had fled from, and dealt freely with him; but that is not so likely.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36:29-31 To die without heirs or a decent burial was to suffer the worst imaginable fate (see 22:19; Eccl 6:3). Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin ruled for just three months. Unlike his father, Jehoiachin took Jeremiah’s warning seriously and surrendered to the Babylonians, who took him and others to Babylon as captives (Jer 22:24-30; 2 Kgs 24:8-16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

These are Jehoiakim’s words.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

say to Jehoiakim--not in person, as Jeremiah was "hidden" (Jer 36:26), but by the written word of prophecy.

saying, Why--This is what the king had desired to be said to Jeremiah if he should be found; kings often dislike the truth to be told them.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

We now see what reward Jehoiakim brought on himself, by his impiety and perverseness. But there are two clauses; in the first, God reproves him for having insolently dared to impose silence on the Prophet; and in the second, he adds a punishment.

Thou shalt say to Jeholakim We are to take על ol, here for אל, al, as it appears from the context; it indeed properly means concerning, or upon, as in the next verse, God thus speaks of Jehoiakim. But as the Prophet is here bidden in the second person to address him, the other meaning, to, is better, even that he was bidden to address the king, and to address him by name: Then it is, “Thou shalt speak to Jehoiakim, the king of Judah.” The word king, is mentioned not so much for honor’s sake, as to shew that he in vain gloried in honor, or in a title of dignity; for as we have elsewhere seen, the Prophet had been sent to reprove mountains and hills, and not to spare kings or kingdoms. (Micah 6:1; Jeremiah 1:10) It had then been said to him,

“I have set thee over nations and kingdoms.”

As then Jehoiakim could not be so filled with pride as to think that everything was lawful to him, God intimates that there was no reason that royal splendor should dazzle his mind and his senses, for he made no account of such masks, and that no elevation in the world could intercept the course of prophetic truth. In a word, Jeremiah is here encouraged to persevere, lest the high position of the king should terrify him, or enervate his mind, so as not to declare faithfully the commands of God.

A twofold admonition may be hence gathered. The first belongs to kings, and to those who are great in wealth or power on the earth; they are warned to submit reverently to God’s word, and not to think themselves exempted from what is common to all, or absolved, on account of their dignity, for God has no respect of persons. The other admonition belongs to teachers, and that is, that they are, with closed eyes, to do whatever God commands them, without shewing any respect of persons; and thus they are to fear no offenses, nor even the name of a king, nor a drawn sword, nor any dangers.

The crime is in the first place mentioned, Thou hast burnt the book, saying, Why hast thou written in it, By coming come shall the king of Babylon, and shall destroy this city Here God shews what especially was the reason why Jehoiakim cast the book into the fire, even because he could not endure the free reproofs and the threatenings contained in it. When God spares hypocrites, or does not touch their vices, they can bear prophetic teaching; but when the sore is touched, immediately they become angry; and this was the continual contest which God’s Prophets had with the ungodly: for if they had flattered them and spoken smooth words to them, if they had always promised something joyful and prosperous to the ungodly, they would have been received with great favor and applause; but the word of God was unpleasant and bitter; and it exasperated their minds when they heard that God was displeased and angry with them.

This passage then ought to be carefully noticed; for the Spirit of God points out, as by the finger, the fountain of all contumacy, even because hypocrites wish to agree or to make a covenant with God, that he should not deal severely with them, and that his Prophets should only speak smoothly. But it is necessary that God’s word should correspond with the nature of its author. For, as God knows the heart, he penetrates into the inmost recesses; and so also his word is a two-edged sword, and thus it pierces men even to the very marrow, and discerns between the thoughts and the affections, as the Apostle teaches us. (Hebrews 4:12) Hence it is, that hypocrites become mad, when God summons them to judgment. When any one handles gently a man full of ulcers, there is no sign of uneasiness given; but when a surgeon presses the ulcers, then he becomes irritated, and then also comes out what was before hidden. Similar is the case with hypocrites; for as it has been said, they do not clamor against God, nor even make any complaints, when the simple truth is declared; but when they are urged with reproofs and with threatenings, then their rage is kindled, then they manifest in every way their virulence. And this is set forth here, when the Prophet says, that the book was burnt, because it was written in it that the king of Babylon would come to destroy or lay waste the land, and to remove from it both man and beast

So we see that the prophecy of Micah exasperated all the Jews, when he said that Jerusalem would be reduced into heaps of stones. (Micah 3:12)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

29. Why hast thou written, etc.] a quotation, though not verbatim, from Jer_25:9 f.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thou shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah,.... Or, "concerning" (w) him; since the prophet was hid, and he was in quest of him; nor was it safe for him to appear in person before him; though this may be understood as what should be put into the second roll, and in that he addressed to him:

thus saith the Lord, thou hast burnt this roll; or "that roll"; or had suffered or ordered it to be burnt, giving this as a reason for it:

saying, why hast thou therein written; what the king would have to be a great falsehood, and which he thought never came from the Lord; but was a device of Jeremiah, to whom he ascribed the writing of them, though it was Baruch's, because dictated by him:

saying, the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land,

and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? by killing some, and carrying off others, so that the destruction should be complete. He takes no notice of himself and his family, as if his concern was only for the nation; and that he took it ill that anything should be said which expressed the ruin of that, and might dishearten the inhabitants of it.

(w) "de", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The king of Babylon ... - These words do not prove that Nebuchadnezzar had not already come, and compelled Jehoiakim to become his vassal. The force lies in the last words, which predict such a coming as would make the land utterly desolate: and this would be the result of the king throwing off the Chaldaean yoke.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It speaketh nothing but the impotency, and passion, and debauchery of human nature, to swell against any revelations of the Divine-will; the counsels of the Lord shall stand, and men only further entangle themselves by struggling in the Lord’s net. Jehoiakim burns one roll, God will have the same thing wrote in another. We learn here both what was the matter of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and the cause of the king’s anger; he had prophesied that the king of Babylon should come, take Jerusalem; and lay the country waste, which, as to Jehoiakim’s part, was fulfilled within six years after this, more fully in eighteen years; but corrupt princes can endure nothing that shall make their lives uneasy.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou shalt say to Jehoiakim; rather, concerning Jehoiakim. Intercourse between Jehoiakim and the prophet was broken off by the preceding scene. The speech begins in the oratio directa, but soon passes into the Obliqua. cause to cease... man and beast. A forcible description of the completeness of the devastation.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.