2 Kings 2:1

Elijah Makes a Swift Departure

2:1 Just before ¹  the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal.

Jeremiah 36:2

36:2 “Get a scroll. ²  Write on it everything I have told you to say ³  about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 36:23

36:23 As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ⁵  of the scroll, the king ⁶  would cut them off with a penknife ⁷  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 36:28-32

36:28 “Get another ⁹  scroll and write on it everything ¹⁰  that was written on the original scroll ¹¹  that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned. 36:29 Tell King Jehoiakim of Judah, ‘The Lord says, “You burned the scroll. You asked ¹²  Jeremiah, ‘How dare you write in this scroll that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and wipe out all the people and animals on it?’” ¹³  36:30 So the Lord says concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, “None of his line will occupy the throne of David. ¹⁴  His dead body will be thrown out to be exposed to scorching heat by day and frost by night. ¹⁵  36:31 I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ¹⁶  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ¹⁷  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ¹⁸  36:32 Then Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on this scroll everything that had been on the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. They also added on this scroll several other messages of the same kind. ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 2:9-10

2:9 Then I looked and realized a hand was stretched out to me, and in it was a written scroll. 2:10 He unrolled it before me, and it had writing on the front ²⁰  and back; ²¹  written on it were laments, mourning, and woe.

Daniel 5:5

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ²²  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²³  The king was watching the back ²⁴  of the hand that was writing.

Daniel 5:25-29

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ²⁵  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ²⁶  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ²⁷  As for mene ²⁸  – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres ²⁹  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ³⁰  Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.

[2:1]  ¹ tn Or “when.”

[36:2]  ² 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).

[36:2]  ³ sn The intent is hardly that of giving a verbatim report of everything that the Lord had told him to say or of everything that he had actually said. What the scroll undoubtedly contained was a synopsis of Jeremiah’s messages as constructed from his memory.

[36:2]  ⁴ 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 b.c. (1:2) and beyond (cf. Jer 40-44) much more was added to those two scrolls even later.

[36:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.

[36:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.

[36:23]  ⁷ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.

[36:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”

[36:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “Return, take another.” The verb “return” is used in the sense of repetition “take again” (cf. BDB 998 s.v. שׁוּב Qal.8). The idea is already contained in “Get another” so most modern English versions do not represent it.

[36:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the former words/things.”

[36:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “first [or former] scroll.”

[36:29]  ¹² tn Or “In essence you asked.” For explanation see the translator’s note on the end of the verse.

[36:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “You burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why did you write on it, saying, “The king of Babylon will certainly come [the infinitive absolute before the finite verb expresses certainty here as several places elsewhere in Jeremiah] and destroy this land and exterminate from it both man and beast.”’” The sentence raises several difficulties for translating literally. I.e., the “you” in “why did you write” is undefined, though it obviously refers to Jeremiah. The gerund “saying” that introduces ‘Why did you write’ does not fit very well with “you burned the scroll.” Gerunds of this sort are normally explanatory. Lastly, there is no indication in the narrative that Jehoiakim ever directly asked Jeremiah this question. In fact, he had been hidden out of sight so Jehoiakim couldn’t confront him. The question is presented rhetorically, expressing Jehoiakim’s thoughts or intents and giving the rational for burning the scroll, i.e., he questioned Jeremiah’s right to say such things. The translation has attempted to be as literal as possible without resolving some of these difficulties. One level of embedded quotes has been eliminated for greater simplicity. For the rendering of “How dare you” for the interrogative “why do you” see the translator’s note on 26:9.

[36:30]  ¹⁴ sn This prophesy was not “totally” fulfilled because his son Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) did occupy the throne for three months (2 Kgs 23:8). However, his rule was negligible and after his capitulation and exile to Babylon, he himself was promised that neither he nor his successors would occupy the throne of David (cf. Jer 22:30; and see the study notes on 22:24, 30).

[36:30]  ¹⁵ sn Compare the more poetic prophecy in Jer 22:18-19 and see the study note on 22:19.

[36:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for their iniquity.”

[36:31]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[36:31]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all the disaster which I spoke against them and they did not listen [or obey].”

[36:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And he wrote upon it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned in the fire. And many words like these were added to them besides [or further].” The translation uses the more active form in the last line because of the tendency in contemporary English style to avoid the passive. It also uses the words “everything” for “all the words” and “messages” for “words” because those are legitimate usages of these phrases, and they avoid the mistaken impression that Jeremiah repeated verbatim the words on the former scroll or repeated verbatim the messages that he had delivered during the course of the preceding twenty-three years.

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “on the face.”

[2:10]  ²¹ sn Written on the front and back. While it was common for papyrus scrolls to have writing on both sides the same was not true for leather scrolls.

[5:5]  ²² tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ²³ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ²⁴ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[5:25]  ²⁵ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

[5:25]  ²⁶ tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

[5:26]  ²⁷ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

[5:26]  ²⁸ tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”

[5:28]  ²⁹ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

[5:29]  ³⁰ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”