A Scroll for Future Days (36:1-32) 605curse on the scroll. This explains why the king and those with him do not tear
their garments: The threat is now removed. But the king's action, like Hana-
niah' s breaking the yoke off Jeremiah's neck ( 28: 10-11), will come to nothing
because Yahweh is not behind it.
three or four columns. Hebrew salos delat6t we> arba'iJ.. In one of the Lachish
Letters (4:3) delet, lit., "door," is employed for the "column" of a scroll (Tor-
czyner 1938: 79-80), a usage that may go back to writing boards having panels.
On the Assyrian writing boards found at Nimrud, see D. J. Wiseman (1955)
and M. Howard ( 195 5). Albright ( 1970: 39 n. 5), commenting on the use of dlt
in the Amman Citadel Inscription (line 5), said the word there, probably at
Lachish, and also in Hebrew meant "announcement board," and he agreed
after earlier doubts that it could mean "column of a scroll" in the present
verse (cf. Hicks 1983: 54-55). If Jehudi is doing the reading and Jehoiakim the
cutting, which is the usual assumption, then after Jehudi has read three or four
columns and they fall to the ground, the king cuts them off and throws them
into the fire. The process continues until the entire scroll is read and de-
stroyed. Hicks, who thinks the scroll was made of skins, argues that the king is
cutting sutures holding the skins together (p. 61). Cutting animal skins with a
penknife is possible but would be more difficult. It makes more sense if papyrus
is being cut. Also, even an angry king is not likely to have submitted himself to
the smoke and stench of skins burning indoors.
he would tear it. Hebrew yiqra'eha. Calvin notes a wordplay with the prior
kiqr6> ("as he proclaimed"). Another wordplay is evident in the repetition of
this same verb in v 24, where it says that those hearing the scroll being read
"did not tear" (lo> qare'u) their garments. The subject of the verbs, as we men-
tioned, is unclear; it could be either Jehudi or the king.
the scribe's knife. Hebrew ta'ar hassi5per. A penknife used for cutting papyrus.
Most likely it belongs to Jehudi, which means he is seen to be a ready scribe.
The LXX again omits "the scribe."
and would throw it into the fire. On the singular "he would throw (it)" after
the plural "columns," see GKC § 13 5p. In the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon
(410-11) there is a solemn warning not to consign the tablet containing the
treaty stipulations to the fire or to destroy it by other means (Wiseman l 958a:
59-60; ANET^3 5 38). A string of curses follows, showing what will happen if the
vassal king does this. The words of the present scroll deal with a covenant be-
tween Yahweh and his people, and consigning it to the flames will bring to pass
the curses on this king and his nation.
the entire roll. The LXX has pas ho chartes ("the entire papyrus"); see Note
on v 2.
- And they did not tremble, and they did not tear their garments-the king
and all his servants who were hearing all these words. For "and they did not
tremble," the LXX has kai auk ezetesan ("and they did not examine"). At the
earlier reading of the scroll before the princes (v 16), three of whom are present
here, there was holy fear. Other contrasts of an indirect nature are also being
made. The narrator is telling us that the king tore (qr') the scroll instead of