The Scroll Read in the Temple
1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2 “Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” 4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all Yahweh’s words, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book. 5 Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted. I can’t go into Yahweh’s house. 6 Therefore you go, and read from the scroll which you have written from my mouth, Yahweh’s words, in the ears of the people in Yahweh’s house on the fast day. Also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. 7 It may be they will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will each return from his evil way; for Yahweh has pronounced great anger and wrath against this people.” 8 Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book Yahweh’s words in Yahweh’s house. 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.”
Twenty-three years of preaching are put into writing so that a banned prophet can still be heard, and the officials who hear it are frightened in exactly the right way.
The purpose of the writing is stated before anything is written, and it is not archival: It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity. The scroll exists to be made unnecessary. And what goes on it is everything spoken since the days of Josiah. Two decades of oracles are assembled at once, which is the book's own account of how it came to exist.
The reason a scroll is needed at all is given in one word from Jeremiah: I am restricted. I can't go into Yahweh's house. He is barred from the temple. The response is not to defy the ban but to route around it. The words go where the man cannot, carried by a scribe, and the whole chapter turns on that substitution. A prophet can be excluded from a building. A document can be read in it by somebody else.
The reading is timed for a fast day, when people have come in from all the towns of Judah. It happens from a room belonging to the family that had already protected Jeremiah once Jeremiah 26:24. From there the news travels the way news travels in a small administration. A young man hears it, goes down to the palace, and reports to a room full of officials. They send for Baruch and ask him to sit and read it again.
Their reaction is the standard by which everyone else in the chapter is measured. When they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said they would have to tell the king. Then they ask a careful question — how did you write all these words at his mouth? — and get a careful answer: he dictated, and I wrote them with ink. The officials establish the provenance of a document before acting on it. Having established it, they do the only sensible thing left. They tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide, and not to let anyone know where they are. These are the same princes who will later leave him in a cistern, and here they behave better than the king does. The book does not tidy any of that up.
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