Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

A Scroll for Future Days (36:1-32)

v 7 Perhaps ('Ulay) their petition will be laid before Yahweh, and they will tum

each person from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that

Yahweh has spoken toward this people.

NOTES

585

36:1. the fourth year of Jehoiakim. I.e., 605 B.C. This date had far-reaching sig-

nificance in the ancient world. It was Nebuchadnezzar's first year as king of

Babylon (25:1) and the year in which he delivered to Neco and the Egyptians

a crushing defeat at Carchemish, then soon after, another defeat at Hamath,

leaving the way open to Syria and Palestine, which, within a year came under

his control (cf. 2 Kgs 2 4: 7). In this year Jeremiah issued a blistering attack on

the nations (chap. 25), singling out Egypt for specific judgment ( 46:2-26). But

to his scribe, Baruch, the prophet gave a word of personal deliverance (chap.

45). In this defining moment, Jeremiah also received a divine word to write up

oracles and other utterances made over a period of years. On the slight chrono-

logical discrepancy between the Babylonian Chronicle and Jehoiakim's fourth

year, as well as discussion of the historical background for events occurring in

this year, see Note for 46:2.

this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. The LXX lacks "this" but expands to

"the word of the Lord." It also has "to me" instead of "to Jeremiah," the former

widely judged to be an inferior reading (Giesebrecht; Duhm; Rudolph; Holla-

day; McKane). Giesebrecht notes that Aq, Symm, S, 'T. and Vg all support the

reading of MT. Duhm takes "to me" (''7t-t) ;:is ;:i misn~::icl ::ihhn~vi::ition for "to

Jeremiah"(' ?N for ii1'~1,-'7N). The LXX mistakenly reads "to me" also in 32:26

and 35:12:

2. Take for yourself a writing-scroll, and you shall write on it all the words that
   I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah and concerning all
   the nations. Although the OT refers elsewhere to a writing down of prophetic
   utterances, or to prophetic utterances being disseminated in written form - in
   Jeremiah: 29:1; 30:2; 51:60; and elsewhere: Isa 8:1, 16; 30:8; Hab 2:2-here is
   an actual report of prophetic words being written on a scroll for public reading,
   the only one of its kind in the entire OT The question naturally arises, Was
   this the first time Jeremiah's revelations and preaching were committed to writ-
   ing, or were the same-or some of the same-written down earlier? Graf
   (p. 442) believed that prior to this year Jeremiah had no need to write down his
   prophecies, a view expressed later by Birkeland (1939: 43) and Mowinckel
   (1946: 61). But Duhm thought that Jeremiah's prophecies must have existed
   earlier in writing, a view cited with approval by Peake and one that has been es-
   poused recently by McKane. McKane thinks that Jeremiah had been dictating
   to Baruch all along and that Baruch is now simply collecting oracles already
   written on a single scroll for public reading. This contradicts what is said in v 4
   about Jeremiah dictating to Baruch, as McKane realizes, although this could
   be remedied by taking v 2-which gives the command to write a scroll of oracles