BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 36

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 36 of 52•32 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Jeremiah 36 Overview

Jeremiah dictates his prophecies to Baruch, who reads the scroll publicly; King Jehoiakim cuts and burns it piece by piece, but Jeremiah dictates a replacement scroll with additional words and announces judgment on the king.

JeremiahBook

36Chapter

32Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 36

Coming from

Jeremiah tests the Rechabites by offering them wine; they refuse because of their ancestor Jonadab’s command, and God uses their family obedience to shame Judah’s persistent refusal to heed repeated prophetic commands.

In this chapter

Leads into

Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to pray while refusing his message; Babylon temporarily withdraws because of Egypt, but Jeremiah insists the Chaldeans will return, is falsely accused of desertion, beaten, imprisoned, and later moved to a safer court prison.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter gives a rare window into the production, public reading, attempted destruction, and rewriting of a prophetic book.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 36 is the chapter’s own movement: destroying a copy does not destroy god’s word. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Destroying a copy does not destroy God’s word

The burned scroll is replaced, and the message expands.

Leaders are accountable for how they receive Scripture

Jehoiakim’s contempt contrasts with officials who fear when they hear the words.

Written revelation preserves warning beyond one spoken moment

The scroll allows Jeremiah’s message to reach temple worshipers, officials, and the king.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 22

Josiah responds humbly when a book of the law is read, providing a sharp contrast with Jehoiakim burning Jeremiah’s scroll.

2 Timothy 3:16

The New Testament’s doctrine of inspired Scripture fits the seriousness with which prophetic writings function here.

Revelation 22:18-19

The final Bible warning against tampering with revelation resonates with Jehoiakim’s arrogant treatment of God’s word.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not assume preservation means no physical manuscript can ever be destroyed.

Jehoiakim successfully burns a scroll; God preserves the message by causing it to be written again.

Do not romanticize every official as hostile.

Some officials respond with fear and attempt to protect Jeremiah and Baruch.

Read Jeremiah 36 watching for…

Jeremiah dictating to Baruch

the public reading

officials’ fearful response

Jehoiakim cutting and burning the scroll

the rewritten scroll with added words

Chapter outline3 sections

1-8Jeremiah dictates his prophecies to Baruch, who reads the scroll in the temple 9-19Officials hear the scroll, warn Jeremiah and Baruch to hide, and report the words to the king 20-32Jehoiakim burns the scroll, so Jeremiah dictates it again with added words of judgment

And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:

Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.

And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD's house.

And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.

Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.

When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,

Then he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even 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 princes.

Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.

And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.

Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth?

Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.

Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.

And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.

So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.

Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.

And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.

Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.

But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, 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 roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.

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?

Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon 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.

And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.

Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.