Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 36:16-19
The Princes Having Listened To What Was Written In The Scroll Ascertain The Facts About It And Feel It Necessary To Inform The King About Its Contents Meanwhile Advising Baruch and Jeremiah To Go Into Hiding (Jeremiah 36:16).
The whole gathering were stirred by the words, for they were clearly a section of the king's council who in general supported Jeremiah's outlook, and filled with apprehension by the words enquired further into their exact source, being determined to bring them to the king's notice. Baruch explained that they had been dictated to him by Jeremiah, while he recorded them. Then in preparation for what they were about to do they recommended to Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go into hiding.
‘Now it came about, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one towards another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.”
Having listened carefully to the words that Baruch read out the whole gathering looked at one another, stirred by the words and apprehensive at what the words had prophesied was coming on Judah. Then they turned to Baruch and assured him that they would bring them to the attention of the king. This was not an unfriendly act, but an indication of how seriously they took them. They knew that in the end they were intended for the king, and would have been aware of some of the events mentioned in them (such as the Temple sermon in chapter 7). Furthermore their reading out in the Temple had made them public knowledge and it would not have been safe to withhold them from the king.
‘And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?”
But before doing so they wanted to be sure of the exact source of the words, and so they asked Baruch to describe the process and the circumstances which had resulted in them being written. It was important to know how far Baruch himself ought to accept responsibility for the words, especially as he had read them out in the Temple, which was not necessarily a scribe's duty. (Besides so-called prophets had many different ways of obtaining their ‘prophetic words' and they wanted to know how far these could be relied on).
‘Then Baruch answered them, “He proclaimed all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll (written record).”
Baruch explained that Jeremiah had proclaimed the words to him while he wrote them down on the scroll. Had he simply been acting as a paid scribe he could have argued that he was ‘only doing his job'. But by proclaiming them in the Temple he had undoubtedly implicated himself.
This is the only mention of ‘ink' in the Old Testament. It was a black carbon (charcoal) mixed with gum or oil and would be brushed on by the stylus which would often be a reed split at the end to form a kind of brush. It would be solidified and kept in the scribe's palette, being moistened by the reed when required.
‘Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are.”
The princes (leading men), who knew only too well what Jehoiakim's reaction might be, then advised Baruch that he and Jeremiah should hide themselves away and leave no trace of their whereabouts. The implication was that the king would otherwise have them arrested, and even put to death. If this was not long after the death of the prophet Uriah who had also proclaimed Jeremiah's words (Jeremiah 26:20) we can understand the danger that Baruch was in. Having given this advice the princes then put the scroll in the room of Elishama the Scribe for safe-keeping. It was stored in the Cabinet office.