612 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSJehoiakim for burning the first roll, giving also a reason for his having done
what he did, which the audience has not heard before. Jehoiakim, it turns out,
was unwilling to accept Yahweh's word that the king of Babylon could come
and destroy Judah. No surprise. The king is also the subject of a second oracle
spoken to an unspecified audience. Jehoiakim will not have a son to occupy
David's throne. What is more, he will be denied a proper burial. His dead body
will be thrown out on open land, where it will be exposed to the day heat and
the night cold. Yahweh will reckon with this wicked and unrepentant king, as
well as his offspring and servants. As for the others who remain in Judah and
Jerusalem, Yahweh will bring upon them the promised evil about which they
have already heard, but to which they would not listen. Following the oracles,
the narrator tells us that Jeremiah replaced the destroyed scroll as directed. He
took another writing-scroll, gave it to Baruch, and Baruch wrote on it all the
words appearing on the scroll that Jehoiakim burned. To this scroll, the audi-
ence is also told, many similar words were added.
Although Oracle I is addressed directly to the king, it assuredly would not
have been spoken in his hearing, since Jeremiah and Baruch are now at an un-
disclosed location. The same is true with Oracle II, which is addressed to an
unspecified audience and concerns all of Judah, but is a judgment, neverthe-
less, targeting Jehoiakim. Both oracles are probably to be dated in Jehoiakim's
fifth year (v 9), and what the narrative reports can also be dated then. The final
statement that many similar words were added to the original collection comes
from a later time-exactly when, we do not know.
When this concluding narrative segmeul is heard following the earlier seg-
ments, it will become apparent to the audience that Yahweh is more powerful
than Judah's strident king. Jehoiakim sought to discredit Jeremiah's prophecy;
Yahweh answered by confirming it. In fact, Yahweh said a good deal more than
what was written on the first scroll, and now this also will be preserved.