Jeremiah 36:6

In the Lord’s house upon the fasting day. — Literally, a fast day. We learn from Jeremiah 36:9 that this was one of the special fasts “proclaimed” in times of national distress (comp. Joel 2:1; 2 Chronicles 20:3; 1 Kings 21:10), and it was accordingly a time when the courts of the Temple would be more than usually thronged, and when, it might be hoped, the people gathered in them would be more than usually disposed to listen to warnings and exhortations to repentance. Probably, however, the king had proclaimed the fast by the advice of the priests and false prophets, to rouse the people to the “holy war” of an enthusiastic religious resistance to the Chaldeans, and this may account for the eagerness of Jeremiah to counteract the scheme by the unlooked-for sermon. The addition, “and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah,” implies that Baruch was, if opportunity offered, to read the words of the prophecy on other occasions and to other gatherings of the people. The ordinary fast of the Day of Atonement was, it will be remembered, in the seventh month — i.e., October; this accordingly was in November or December. This agrees, it may be noted, with the charcoal fire which was burning in the king’s chamber (Jeremiah 36:22).