Jeremiah 36:17-19 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

(17-19) Tell us now, How didst thou write...? — The question was clearly put as a judicial interrogatory. The princes were anxious to ascertain how far each of the parties concerned was responsible. Had Baruch exercised any discretion in writing so that the words were his, though the substance was Jeremiah’s? or had he, on his own responsibility, and without the prophet’s will, published what had been written privately? or had every syllable as it was read come from the prophet’s lips? The scribe’s answer showed that the last hypothesis answered to the facts of the case. On hearing this they, obviously with a friendly regard, advise him and the prophet to hide themselves till they should see what effect the report would have on the king’s mind. It would appear from Jeremiah 36:19 that Jeremiah, though “shut up” and unable to go into the house of the Lord (Jeremiah 36:5), was not actually so imprisoned as to hinder him from concealing himself. Either, therefore, we must assume that he was in a “libera custodia,” that gave him facilities for an escape, which the princes connived at, or that by “shut up” he meant only hindered by some cause or other. The latter seems the more probable hypothesis. In the concealment of the prophet we find a parallel to that of Elijah and the other prophets under Ahab (1 Kings 17:3; 1 Kings 18:4), of Polycarp (Mart. Polyc. c. 5), perhaps also of Luther in the Wartburg.