A Scroll for Future Days (36:1-32) 609- The Scroll Is Rewritten (36:27-32)
36 27 And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king burned the
roll, that is, the words that Baruch wrote from the dictation of Jeremiah:(^28) 0nce again, take for yourself another roll and write on it all the former
words that were contained on the first roll, which Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, burned.
(^29) And concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you shall say, Thus said
Yahweh: You, you have burned this roll, saying, 'Why have you writ-
ten on it "the king of Babylon will surely come and destroy this land
and make to cease from it human and beast"?'
(^30) Therefore thus said Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah:
He shall not have one to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead
body shall be thrown out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
(^31) And I will reckon upon him and upon his offspring and upon his
servants their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and upon the in-
habitants of Jerusalem and to the men of Judah all the evil that I spoke
to them, but they did not listen.
(^32) So Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, the
scribe, and he wrote upon it from the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of
the scroll that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned in the fire. And besides,
many words like these were added to them.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
MT 36:27-32 = LXX 43:27-32. The upper limit of this narrative segment,
which has continuity with the prior segments in w 1-8 and w 9-26 but is
nevertheless a separate accounting in its own right, is marked by a setumah in
MA and ML and a petubah in MP before v 27. Its lower limit is marked by a
petubah in MA and MP and a setumah in ML after v 32, which is also the chap-
ter division. The MA, ML, and MP all have a setumah after v 29, which separates
the two oracles. The ML and MP have another setumah after v 31, separating
Oracle II from the narrative conclusion.
This segment reports a final directive from Yahweh to Jeremiah at the end of
his early career (w 27-28) and Jeremiah's execution of this directive (v 32).
Usually the directive and execution appear together (13:1-2, 3-5, 6-7; 18:2-3;
25:15-17; 35:2-4; 36:2-4), but here they are broken up in order to frame two
oracles that come in the center. The LXX similarly divides a superscription to
frame the Elam Oracle (see Rhetoric and Composition for 49:34-39). Oracle I
indicts King Jehoiakim and is addressed directly to him (v 29). Oracle II judges
the king, his offspring and servants, and the rest of the people for not heeding
Yahweh's word (w 30-31 ). This oracle appears to be addressed to a Judahite
audience, but not directly, because its main concern is to render judgment on
the king.