YHWH Tells Jeremiah To Write Down His Prophecies (Jeremiah 36:1-3).
‘And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,'
This event is fairly precisely dated, occurring in 605 BC. It may possibly have been just prior to Jerusalem's enforced submission to Nebuchadnezzar after he had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, and had sacked Ashkelon (this would explain the calling of a fast day as they may have been deciding what they would do next in the face of the sacking of Ashkelon).
Alternatively others see it as a fast declared after their subjection to Babylon, with it being intended as a sad memorial of it, with a view to stirring up antagonism against the Babylonians. We could then see in this an attempt by Jeremiah to quell that sense of rebellion.
“Take you a roll of a written record, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.”
Jeremiah was commanded to take ‘a roll of a written record', a phrase also occurring in Psalms 40:7; Ezekiel 2:9; Ezekiel 3:1; Zechariah 5:1-2. This would probably be made up of papyrus strips glued together to form a scroll of up to ten metres (thirty feet) long and thirty centimetres (ten inches) wide. The scroll would be wound round two ‘rollers', two suitable pieces of wood, which could be held one in each hand so that the scroll could be unrolled from one piece of wood on to the other while it was being read. The writing would be in columns parallel to the two rods and following one after the other. Thus one or two columns, or even more, could be seen at a time as the scroll was being read.
On it he was to write ‘all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.' It probably contained a good deal of Chapter s 1-20 and possibly some of what followed later (prophesied prior to this date).
It is difficult to believe that YHWH only ever suggested this need to write down his prophecies to Jeremiah, and we may therefore see it as probable that most of the prophets followed this tactic (compare Hosea 8:12; Isa 30:8; 2 Chronicles 21:12; 2 Chronicles 26:22; Job 19:23). Indeed it is quite probable that Jesus called Matthew (Levi), the public servant and experienced keeper of records, for that very purpose.
“It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
The expressed hope was that Judah would hear of the evils which YHWH purposed to bring on them because of their disobedience, and would repent, ‘returning every man from his evil way', so that their inward sin and their outward acts of transgression might be forgiven, thus enabling YHWH to alter course. God was still concerned to bring all men to repentance and into a knowledge of the truth.