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Jeremiah 36:29-31

Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Yahweh says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from there man and animal?’ ” ’ Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn’t listen.” ’ ”

World English Bible · Public Domain
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Jeremiah 36:29-31 sits inside this longer paragraph.

Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, “Take again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Yahweh says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from there man and animal?’ ” ’ Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn’t listen.” ’ ”

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Yahweh says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from there man and animal?’ ” ’

    Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

    I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn’t listen.” ’ ”

  • KJV King James Version

    And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

    Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

    And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say: Thus saith the LORD: Thou hast burned this roll, saying: Why hast thou written therein, saying: The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

    Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

    And I will visit upon him and his seed and his servants their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearkened not.'

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Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

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Cross-references (31)

  • Proverbs 29:1 (v31) He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.
  • Isaiah 30:10 (v29) who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.
  • Jeremiah 22:30 (v30) Yahweh says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper,…
  • Jeremiah 26:9 (v29) Why have you prophesied in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant?’ ”…
  • Deuteronomy 29:19 (v29) and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the…
Show all 31 cross-references
  • 2 Kings 24:12-15 (v30) and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers;…
  • Job 15:24 (v29) Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
  • Isaiah 29:21 (v29) who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with…
  • Isaiah 45:9 (v29) Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you…
  • Jeremiah 19:15 (v31) “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced…
  • Jeremiah 23:34 (v31) As for the prophet, the priest, and the people, who say, ‘The message from Yahweh,’ I will even punish that man and his household.
  • Jeremiah 32:3 (v29) For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the…
  • Jeremiah 35:17 (v31) “Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all…
  • Genesis 31:40 (v30) This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
  • Leviticus 26:14 (v31) “ ‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments,
  • Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (v31) But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which…
  • Job 40:8 (v29) Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
  • Jeremiah 11:8 (v31) Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the…
  • Jeremiah 17:18 (v31) Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on…
  • Jeremiah 21:4-7 (v29) ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king…
  • Jeremiah 21:10 (v29) For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good,” says Yahweh. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and…
  • Jeremiah 28:8 (v29) The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil,…
  • Jeremiah 29:17-19 (v31) Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that…
  • Jeremiah 32:28-30 (v29) Therefore Yahweh says: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,…
  • Jeremiah 34:21-22 (v29) “I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their life and into…
  • Jeremiah 44:4-14 (v31) However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, don’t do this abominable thing that I…
  • Matthew 23:37 (v31) “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children…
  • Acts 5:28 (v29) saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to…
  • Acts 5:39 (v29) But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!”
  • 1 Corinthians 10:22 (v29) Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
  • Jeremiah 22:18-19 (v30) Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They won’t lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah…

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv29–31 We now see what reward Jehoiakim brought on himself,…

We now see what reward Jehoiakim brought on himself, by his impiety and perverseness. But there are two clauses; in the first, God reproves him for having insolently dared to impose silence on the Prophet; and in the second, he adds a punishment.

Thou shalt say to Jeholakim We are to take על ol, here for אל, al, as it appears from the context; it indeed properly means concerning, or upon, as in the next verse, God thus speaks of Jehoiakim. But as the Prophet is here bidden in the second person to address him, the other meaning, to, is better, even that he was bidden to address the king, and to address him by name: Then it is, “Thou shalt speak to Jehoiakim, the king of Judah.” The word king, is mentioned not so much for honor’s sake, as to shew that he in vain gloried in honor, or in a title of dignity; for as we have elsewhere seen, the Prophet had been sent to reprove mountains and hills, and not to spare kings or kingdoms. (Micah 6:1; Jeremiah 1:10) It had then been said to him,

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“I have set thee over nations and kingdoms.”

As then Jehoiakim could not be so filled with pride as to think that everything was lawful to him, God intimates that there was no reason that royal splendor should dazzle his mind and his senses, for he made no account of such masks, and that no elevation in the world could intercept the course of prophetic truth. In a word, Jeremiah is here encouraged to persevere, lest the high position of the king should terrify him, or enervate his mind, so as not to declare faithfully the commands of God.

A twofold admonition may be hence gathered. The first belongs to kings, and to those who are great in wealth or power on the earth; they are warned to submit reverently to God’s word, and not to think themselves exempted from what is common to all, or absolved, on account of their dignity, for God has no respect of persons. The other admonition belongs to teachers, and that is, that they are, with closed eyes, to do whatever God commands them, without shewing any respect of persons; and thus they are to fear no offenses, nor even the name of a king, nor a drawn sword, nor any dangers.

The crime is in the first place mentioned, Thou hast burnt the book, saying, Why hast thou written in it, By coming come shall the king of Babylon, and shall destroy this city Here God shews what especially was the reason why Jehoiakim cast the book into the fire, even because he could not endure the free reproofs and the threatenings contained in it. When God spares hypocrites, or does not touch their vices, they can bear prophetic teaching; but when the sore is touched, immediately they become angry; and this was the continual contest which God’s Prophets had with the ungodly: for if they had flattered them and spoken smooth words to them, if they had always promised something joyful and prosperous to the ungodly, they would have been received with great favor and applause; but the word of God was unpleasant and bitter; and it exasperated their minds when they heard that God was displeased and angry with them.

This passage then ought to be carefully noticed; for the Spirit of God points out, as by the finger, the fountain of all contumacy, even because hypocrites wish to agree or to make a covenant with God, that he should not deal severely with them, and that his Prophets should only speak smoothly. But it is necessary that God’s word should correspond with the nature of its author. For, as God knows the heart, he penetrates into the inmost recesses; and so also his word is a two-edged sword, and thus it pierces men even to the very marrow, and discerns between the thoughts and the affections, as the Apostle teaches us. (Hebrews 4:12) Hence it is, that hypocrites become mad, when God summons them to judgment. When any one handles gently a man full of ulcers, there is no sign of uneasiness given; but when a surgeon presses the ulcers, then he becomes irritated, and then also comes out what was before hidden. Similar is the case with hypocrites; for as it has been said, they do not clamor against God, nor even make any complaints, when the simple truth is declared; but when they are urged with reproofs and with threatenings, then their rage is kindled, then they manifest in every way their virulence. And this is set forth here, when the Prophet says, that the book was burnt, because it was written in it that the king of Babylon would come to destroy or lay waste the land, and to remove from it both man and beast

So we see that the prophecy of Micah exasperated all the Jews, when he said that Jerusalem would be reduced into heaps of stones. (Micah 3:12)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv29–30 These are Jehoiakim’s words.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv29–31 Jer 36:29 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv29–31 It speaketh nothing but the impotency, and passion, and…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv29–31 And thou shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah,....…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v30 None to sit - That is, none that shall…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v30 Verse 30. He shall have none to sit upon…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v30 Jer 36:30-31. He shall have none to sit on…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv29–30 The king of Babylon ... - These words do…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v30 None, &c. Because his son, Joachin or Jechonias, within…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv29–30 say to Jehoiakim--not in person, as Jeremiah was "hidden"…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v30 30. None to sit — The three months’ reign…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv29–30 29. Why hast thou written, etc.] a quotation, though…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv29–31 Thou shalt say to Jehoiakim; rather, concerning Jehoiakim. Intercourse…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v30 will ever sit on the throne of David
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v29 36:29-31 To die without heirs or a decent burial…
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