36:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year 1 that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. 2 36:2 “Get a scroll. 3 Write on it everything I have told you to say 4 about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. 5 36:3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. 6 If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” 7
36:4 So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. Then Jeremiah dictated to Baruch everything the Lord had told him to say and Baruch wrote it all down in a scroll. 8 36:5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go 9 into the Lord’s temple. 36:6 So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast 10 in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll. 11 36:7 Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. 12 For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” 13
36:8 So Baruch son of Neriah did exactly what the prophet Jeremiah had told him to do. He read what the Lord had said from the scroll in the temple of the Lord. 14
1 sn The fourth year that Jehoiakim…was ruling over Judah would have been 605/4
2 tn Heb “This word came to Jeremiah from the
3 sn Heb “a roll [or scroll] of a document.” Scrolls consisted of pieces of leather or parchment sewn together and rolled up on wooden rollers. The writing was written from right to left and from top to bottom in columns and the scroll unrolled from the left roller and rolled onto the right one as the scroll was read. The scroll varied in length depending on the contents. This scroll was probably not all that long since it was read three times in a single day (vv. 10-11, 15-16, 21-23).
4 sn The intent is hardly that of giving a verbatim report of everything that the
5 sn This refers to the messages that Jeremiah delivered during the last eighteen years of Josiah, the three month reign of Jehoahaz and the first four years of Jehoiakim’s reign (the period between Josiah’s thirteenth year [cf. 1:2] and the fourth year of Jehoiakim [v. 1]). The exact content of this scroll is unknown since many of the messages in the present book are undated. It is also not known what relation this scroll had to the present form of the book of Jeremiah, since this scroll was destroyed and another one written that contained more than this one did (cf. v. 32). Since Jeremiah continued his ministry down to the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6
6 tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”
7 tn Heb “their iniquity and their sin.”
8 tn Heb “Then Baruch wrote down on a scroll from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the
9 tn Heb “I am restrained; I cannot go into.” The word “restrained” is used elsewhere in Jeremiah of his being confined to the courtyard of the guardhouse (33:1; 39:15). However, that occurred only later during the tenth year of Zedekiah (Jer 32:1-2) and Jeremiah appears here to be free to come and go as he pleased (vv. 19, 26). The word is used in the active voice of the
10 sn Regular fast days were not a part of Israel’s religious calendar. Rather fast days were called on special occasions, i.e., in times of drought or a locust plague (Joel 1:14; 2:15), or during a military crisis (2 Chr 20:3), or after defeat in battle (1 Sam 31:13; 2 Sam 1:12). A fast day was likely chosen for the reading of the scroll because the people would be more mindful of the crisis they were in and be in more of a repentant mood. The events referred to in the study note on v. 1 would have provided the basis for Jeremiah’s anticipation of a fast day when the scroll could be read.
11 tn Heb “So you go and read from the scroll which you have written from my mouth the words of the
12 tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”
13 tn Heb “For great is the anger and the wrath which the
14 tn Heb “And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that the prophet Jeremiah commanded him with regard to reading from the scroll the words of the