Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jeremiah dictates to Baruch a book of his oracles and threats, and commands him to read it in the temple before all the people. King Jehoiakim burns the book, and orders Jeremiah and Baruch to be killed: Jeremiah flees, and soon at God's command writes a second, more threatening book.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 36:1-32
1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2. Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day: 3. if perhaps the house of Judah, hearing all the evils which I purpose to do to them, may turn back each one from his most wicked way: and I will be merciful to their iniquity and sin. 4. So 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 to him, in a scroll of a book: 5. and Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up, and cannot enter the house of the Lord. 6. Therefore go in yourself, and read from the scroll, in which you have written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the house of the Lord, on a day of fasting: moreover in the hearing of all Judah, who come from their cities, you shall read to them: 7. if perhaps their prayer may fall before the Lord, and each one may turn from his most wicked way: for great is the fury and indignation which the Lord has spoken against this people. 8. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the house of the Lord. 9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month: they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to the whole multitude that had flowed together from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. 10. And Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the treasury chamber of Gamariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entrance of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people. 11. And when Micaiah the son of Gamariah the son of Shaphan had heard all the words of the Lord from the book: 12. he went down into the king's house to the chamber of the scribe: and behold all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gamariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. 13. And Micaiah told them all the words that he had heard Baruch reading from the scroll 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: The scroll from which you read in the hearing of the people, take it in your hand, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them. 15. And they said to him: Sit down, and read these things in our ears. And Baruch read in their ears. 16. Therefore when they had heard all the words, they looked in astonishment at one another, and said to Baruch: We must report all these words to the king. 17. And they asked him, saying: Tell us how you wrote all these words from his mouth. 18. And Baruch said to them: From his mouth he spoke as if reading to me all these words: and I wrote them in the scroll with ink. 19. And the princes said to Baruch: Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are. 20. And they went in to the king into the court: but the scroll they deposited in the treasury chamber of Elishama the scribe: and they reported all the words in the hearing of the king. 21. And the king sent Jehudi to take the scroll: who taking it from the treasury chamber of Elishama the scribe, read it in the hearing of the king, and all the princes who stood around the king. 22. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month: and a brazier was set before him full of coals. 23. And when Jehudi had read three or four pages, he cut it with a scribe's knife, and cast it into the fire that was on the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire that was on the brazier. 24. And they did not fear, nor did they rend their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. 25. Nevertheless Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gamariah, protested to the king that he should not burn the book: and he did not listen to them. 26. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe, and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them. 27. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, after the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying: 28. Again take another scroll: and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned. 29. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah: Thus says the Lord: You have burned that scroll, saying: Why have you written in it, announcing: The king of Babylon shall come swiftly, and shall devastate this land, and shall cause man and beast to cease from it? 30. Therefore thus says the Lord against Jehoiakim king of Judah: There shall be none of him to sit upon the throne of David; and his corpse shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night. 31. And I will visit against him, and against his seed, and against his servants, their iniquities; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have spoken to them, and they did not listen. 32. And Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah the scribe: who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned with fire: and moreover many more words were added than had been before.
Verse 1
1. And it came to pass in the fourth year (of the reign) of Jehoiakim, after Jehoiakim, having settled matters with Nebuchadnezzar, had returned from Babylon, but not so securely that the Jews did not still fear Nebuchadnezzar's return; whence to avert him they proclaimed a fast, verse 6.
Verse 2
2. Scroll, in Hebrew megillah, signifies a rolling up; for anciently a book was like a geographical map, being as it were one membrane, sewn together from various membranes, which was rolled up into a cylinder; for this is the Hebrew megillah, and the Latin volumen (scroll).
You will say: How then did it have pages or leaves, as is stated in verse 23?
I answer first: Pages are called either the partial membranes sewn together to make one long and wide membrane; or the individual windings, or parts wound around the cylinder, which were individually unrolled and opened out in order so that they could be read. Hence for pages the Hebrew is delatot, that is, doors, gates, that is, openings, unfoldings, unrolled turns.
Second, by pages can be understood paragraphs, or chapters, into which the book was divided, according to the distinction and variety of material, namely of the oracles described in it.
Third, Sanchez thinks this book had a different form from what a scroll commonly had in ancient times, namely a square form, so that there were distinct pages in it, as is the case in our books. For the use of these even at that time is gathered from what Josephus writes, book XII of the Antiquities, chapter 5, concerning the letter of the Lacedaemonians given to Onias the high priest, in which
at the end these words are read: 'Demoteles is the one who delivered these letters to you, written on a square page, and sealed with the seal of an eagle holding a dragon in its claws.' But these letters were public instruments of friendship and alliance.
The sum of the writing of this book was, as is clear from verse 29: 'The king of Babylon shall come swiftly, and shall devastate this land, and shall cause man and beast to cease from it.' This book was therefore either a compendium of all the prophecies of Jeremiah, or certainly the very book of the prophecy of Jeremiah from chapter 1 up to this point. So Sanchez. For this is plainly what the words of God mean when He says: 'Write in it all the words that I have spoken to you, etc., from the days of Josiah even to this day.' Whence it is clear that Jeremiah, from the 13th year of Josiah, when he began to prophesy, up to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, who is named here, for 22 years, had not written his oracles, or rather had indeed written them on various sheets, but had not arranged them into one book and scroll. Therefore God here commands him to do this: because in this fourth year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar began to reign, who was to fulfill these oracles, and to devastate the Jews and other nations.
Verse 4
4. So Jeremiah called Baruch, so that he as a scribe might write this scroll at Jeremiah's dictation, either because Jeremiah wrote less neatly, and formed poor characters, as Sanchez holds: or because Jeremiah was wholly intent on conceiving and dictating the prophecy: or because, shut up in a dark prison, he could not see well enough to write: or because the work was long; for the entire prophecy of Jeremiah had to be copied out.
Verse 5
5. I am shut up — in prison by King Jehoiakim, who feared that, if he allowed me to be free, I would with my sad oracles terrify and break the spirits of the people. So Theodoret, Rabanus, Thomas, Lyranus. Or because I wished to read the book to them, I was therefore imprisoned by them. So Lyranus and Dionysius. Nevertheless, lest the king should kill him, he was released by the princes, so that he might hide himself, verse 19.
Second, others more plainly translate the Hebrew atsur as: I am detained, I am prevented, namely either by King Jehoiakim, as Sanchez holds; or by the Spirit of God, from entering the temple and reading the book, lest I be killed there. So Vatablus, Pagninus, a Castro and Maldonatus.
From this it is clear that the Prophets sometimes prophesied by word, sometimes by writing, and sometimes, as was common, by both means. For the written letter cannot be killed, again it does not blush, and finally it is transmitted to those who are absent and to posterity. On this matter there exists an elegant riddle of the Greek poet Antiphanes:
A woman by nature, she holds infants in her arms. They are mute, yet they can produce a voice Through all the roads of the earth and across the ocean wave, And any absent mortal whom she wishes may hear: And yet the sense of hearing is deaf to it.
Which the poetess Sappho explains thus: The feminine nature is the letter, which carries around infant letters, which though they are mute, nevertheless speak to those who are far away, to whomever she wishes: but no one hears her being read, not even the one standing beside her: wherefore letters seem equally deaf and mute: mute to the reader, deaf to the bystander.
Again from this writing of Baruch it is clear how ancient was the practice of writing with pen and ink among the Hebrews.
Verse 6
6. On a day of fasting. — Note, verse 9, this fast was proclaimed before this command of Jeremiah, and indeed to appease God, and to avert the Chaldeans; for it was in the ninth month, as is stated in verse 9, in which up to that point no fast had been proclaimed either by God or by the Synagogue, as is clear from the Menology of the Hebrews found in Genebrard. After this, however, because of the burning of this book of Jeremiah, the Jews proclaimed an annual fast on the seventh day of the ninth month, as is clear from the said Menology. Therefore less correctly do some understand by the day of fasting the feast of expiation, on which a fast was imposed on all under penalty of death, which was celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month, Leviticus 23:27.
7. If perhaps it may fall. — Note: For prayer to fall before the Lord means that it is acceptable to the Lord, and that God is entreated by it. Hence in the following chapter, verse 19, our translator renders this Hebrew phrase: 'May my supplication prevail in your sight.' So the Chaldee, St. Thomas and Dionysius.
But because this book is read to the people so that they may be converted and pray to God, and so it might be acceptable: hence better do Maldonatus, Sanchez, Hugo and Vatablus explain it thus, if it may fall, that is, if perhaps the Jews, terrified and moved to compunction by the threats of the destruction which God intends through the Chaldeans, may turn to the Lord, that they may humble, prostrate and deeply lower themselves and their prayers, so that as suppliants they may beg pardon from God. With a similar phrase Jeremiah says, chapter 38, verse 26: 'I prostrated my prayers before the king.' Whence it follows here: 'And let each one turn back from his most wicked way.' Similar is Daniel 9:17. See here what the threats of Jeremiah and preachers are wont to accomplish: namely threats are like medicines, by which the stirred-up humors of sinners are expelled.
Verse 9
9. In the fifth year of Jehoiakim, etc., they proclaimed a fast (by the public voice of a herald they announced a fast) before the Lord, that is, in the temple, namely so that all might fast 'before the Lord,' that is, bowing themselves and praying before the presence of the Lord, as he said in verse 7: 'If perhaps their prayer may fall before the Lord.' So Maldonatus.
Note: This fast was proclaimed in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, as is stated here. Therefore it was proclaimed after the siege of Jerusalem, and its devastation, which occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, in which Jehoiakim the king himself, along with many of the people of Jerusalem, was captured and led away to Babylon; but promising Nebuchadnezzar fidelity and tribute for the future, he was soon, it seems, in the same year released in Jerusalem: where he immediately reverted to his old ways, and threw off the Chaldean yoke. For this reason, at God's prompting Jeremiah ordered Baruch to copy out the book of his oracles, and to read it to the king and the nobles, so that they might conduct themselves modestly, and submit themselves according to the pledge given to the Chaldeans; otherwise they would bring destruction upon themselves, the city and the kingdom, as in fact happened.
Now the proclamation of this fast preceded the reading of the book, by which Baruch read the oracles and threats of Jeremiah to the princes, as is clear from what follows. Therefore this fast was not proclaimed to avert these threats and the Chaldeans; but rather as a sign of public mourning; because in the preceding year the city had been captured and plundered by the Chaldeans, and many vessels of the temple along with the king and nobles had been carried away to Babylon. Therefore they mourned this disaster with this public and solemn fast; in which at the same time they prayed that God would henceforth avert such a disaster from them, and would no longer allow the city with its temple to be so polluted and devastated by the uncircumcised.
Verse 12
12. To the treasury chamber (that is, the room: see what was said on the preceding chapter, verses 2 and 4) of the scribe, that is, the secretary, or, as Vatablus says, the royal chancellor.
16. They looked in astonishment at one another, gazing at each other in amazement.
Verse 18
18. From his mouth he spoke as if reading. He dictated to me promptly and fluently, as if he were reading these things from a book. Baruch signifies that these words were not premeditated by Jeremiah, nor sought out, but suggested by the Holy Spirit, so that he could say with David, Psalm 44:2: 'My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly.' So Maldonatus. Therefore Jeremiah here dictated all his oracles without a book and as it were restored them; just as many think, though falsely, that Ezra dictated and restored the Sacred Scripture that had been burned in the destruction.
Verse 19
19. Go, and hide, you and Jeremiah. The princes urge this upon them because they knew the character and purpose of King Jehoiakim, who being arrogant and not tolerating being subjected to the Chaldean, hated Jeremiah who was urging, indeed commanding from the mouth of God, that he submit to him. Therefore lest Jehoiakim, when they again proclaim submission, become indignant and punish them with prison or death, they advise them to flee and hide.
Verse 22
22. Now the king was sitting, in Hebrew iosheb, that is, he was dwelling in the house in which he was accustomed to stay during winter: for it was the ninth month, that is, November.
And a brazier was set, a small hearth or receptacle for coals, by which the king warmed himself. So the Septuagint and the Chaldee.
Verse 23
23. Pages, that is, the unrolled turns in the unrolling of the scroll or rolled-up book, as I said at verse 2. Moreover he says 'three or four,' because he had read three, and had begun the fourth; and because he speaks as people commonly do.
He cut it (namely the king Jehoiakim himself, as is clear from verses 27 and 29, seized with fury) with a scribe's knife, that is, a penknife. So Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus and Vatablus. The Hebrews err in thinking this book was the Lamentations of Jeremiah; for this book contained threats of a future destruction: but the Lamentations contain laments over a past destruction.
Verse 24
24. And they did not fear, nor did they rend their garments (that is, they did not show fear and horror by rending their garments: it is a hendiadys): the king (who had cut and burned the book: for he above all should have repented of his deed and fury) and all his servants. For it was the custom among the Hebrews, that in the case of blasphemy and injury to God, all who heard should rend their garments, so that by this very act they might detest and execrate the injury done to God. For it was a grave injury to God, to cut and burn His book and oracles; wherefore posterity, on account of this cut book, proclaimed a public and annual fast, as I said above. So Josiah, the father of Jehoiakim, 'when he had heard the words of the book of the law of the Lord, rent his garments,' 4 Kings 22. Indeed even the impious Ahab did the same, 3 Kings 21.
Verse 26
26. But the Lord hid them, namely in the same place to which they had fled to hide: for example, in the house of some good and pious man: for there God protected them, and turned the imagination or the eyes of those who sought them in another direction, so that they would not approach that place, and would not find Jeremiah and Baruch. So the Chaldee, Rabanus and Hugo. So Christ hid Himself, John 8, not by fleeing, but by making Himself invisible, as Theophylact, Euthymius, Lyranus, Maldonatus and others say in the same passage.
Otherwise, St. Thomas, who thinks that God here by a miracle hid Jeremiah and Baruch, either by transporting them to hiding places, as He transported Elijah; or by holding or blinding the eyes of those looking for them, so that they would not see Jeremiah and Baruch. Jeremiah was here a type of Christ, who, being sought by the Jews unto death, hid Himself, and passing through their midst went His way; indeed toward the end of His life He withdrew to the city of Ephraim, John 11:54, because His hour had not yet come.
not of Judah; and consequently they were not of the stock of Jehoiakim.
And his corpse shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night, that is, Jehoiakim will be killed by the Chaldeans, and his corpse will be cast out unburied, to rot in a public place. This is the disgraceful burial of a donkey, which he predicted for him in chapter 22.
Aristides admirably says in his oration on Eteo, volume I: 'While death is set before all equally, this certainly, that one having achieved the most glorious things, may die gloriously, not hated by gods or men, is not given to all, but to very few.' He adds to this a spur: because our life is short, so that even if you count the years of Nestor, it is the smallest part of eternity, indeed nothing.
Verse 29
29. He shall come swiftly. In Hebrew bo iabo, that is, coming he shall come, that is, the one coming will not delay on the way; but swiftly like an eagle he will fly, his arrival will outrun the rumor, he will be at your gates before you hear that he has set out from Babylon. Vatablus translates, he shall most certainly come.
He shall cause to cease, he will kill or take away men and beasts.
Verse 30
30. There shall be none of him who shall sit, namely for a long time and absolutely: for his son Jeconiah reigned only three months, and therefore is reckoned as though he had not reigned. So Theodoret. And the descendants of Jeconiah were not kings, but leaders of the people. Some of the Maccabees were kings; but they were from the tribe of Levi, not Judah; and consequently they were not from the stock of Jehoiakim.
Verse 31
31. And they did not listen, that is, because they did not listen, that is, obey the commands and oracles of God issued through Jeremiah.
32. Many more words were added than had been before. In Hebrew, many words were added, similar to those former ones, that is, threatening. So the Septuagint, the Chaldee, Vatablus and others.