YHWH Commands Jeremiah To Rewrite The Scroll And Declares The Punishment That He Will Bring On King Jehoiakim Because Of What He Has Done (Jeremiah 36:27-32).
Jeremiah is consequently told to prepare a second scroll containing details of his prophecies, to replace the one that had been burned, and he took the opportunity that this presented to expand on the previous scroll. Meanwhile YHWH assured Jehoiakim that His wrath was coming on him in that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy the land, and in that the succession would not be maintained by his descendants. Furthermore, because of his action in rejecting the scroll and treating it ignominiously, his body too would be treated ignominiously on death. He had cast YHWH's words on the fire. His own body would be cast on the ground outside the walls of Jerusalem, open to the fiery heat of the sun by day and to the frost by night.
‘Then the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,'
As a result of Jehoiakim burning the scroll YHWH sent a further word to Jeremiah about him. Note the emphasis on Jehoiakim's actually having burned the words. This was his crime, that he had burned the words of YHWH.
“Take yourself again another roll, and write in it all the former words which were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.”
Jeremiah was then told to take another roll of papyri and write on it all the words that had been written on the earlier scroll which Jehoiakim had burned.
‘And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, “Thus says YHWH, You have burned this roll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from within it man and beast?' ”
‘You have burned this roll' does not necessarily mean that Jehoiakim had burned it himself. It simply suggests that he was responsible for its burning, although it may in fact be that he did actually burn it himself in order to demonstrate his contempt for Jeremiah's prophecies. The reason for his actions is given. It was because he took objection to the suggestion that the king of Babylon would come and destroy the land to such an extent that man and beast would cease from it.
‘Therefore thus says YHWH concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He will have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.”
Jehoiakim himself would receive a twofold punishment. Firstly he would have no one to sit on the throne of David once he was gone, and secondly his dead body would be humiliated by being cast out to face the ravages of the weather. He had cast YHWH's words into the heat, he himself would be cast to both heat and cold.
The first was fulfilled in that Jehoiachin, while ruling for king for three months, was possibly never crowned, (certainly not in the time honoured way for the resources necessary were partly in Babylonian hands), and definitely never ruled over the land. For the whole three months he was shut up in Jerusalem under siege. He was then followed by his uncle. We do not have details of how the second was fulfilled (the ignominious treatment of his body) but it is clear elsewhere that he suffered ignominiously on his death (compare Jeremiah 22:18-19), and unusually nothing is said about his burial in 2 Kings.
“And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil which I have pronounced against them, but they did not listen.”
Furthermore YHWH's judgments on Judah as written about in the scroll would be fulfilled. He, his family and his ruling men would all be punished for their iniquity, and all the evil that YHWH had declared would be brought on them. And it was all because they would not listen.
‘Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many similar words.'
So Jeremiah did what YHWH had commanded, took another scroll and handed it to Baruch, who wrote down in it all that had been written in the previous book, together with a number of additions along the same lines.