Jeremiah 36:24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Yet they were not afraid No, not those princes that trembled at the word when they heard it the first time, Jeremiah 36:16. The fear with which they were then seized quickly wore off, or else they durst not discover it in the king's presence, who showed no concern himself. Nor rent their garments A custom observed among the Jews at the hearing of any dreadful news; neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words How different was the spirit of this king and his courtiers from that of his father Josiah, who, when he heard the words of the law read to him by Shaphan the scribe, both rent his clothes and wept before the Lord in the deepest humiliation and distress, persuaded that great was the wrath about to be poured upon the nation; and yet the parts of the law read to him were certainly neither so particular, nor so immediately adapted to the present state of affairs in the country as the contents of this roll were.