Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year.] This whole chapter is historical and narrative, as also are some others besides this. Historias lege, ne fias historia.
Ver. 2. Take thee a roll of a book,] i.e., A volume. [as Isaiah 8:1] [See Trapp on “Isa 8:1”] And write therein.] Jeremiah had a command to write; so have not our empty scripturients, whose rapes on the innocence of paper, as one phraseth it, make the press almost execrable. Ista prurientis calami scabies potius est, quam scriptio. All the words that I have spoken unto thee.] The sum and substance of all thy sermons for these twenty-three years past. See Jeremiah 1:2 25:3. Olim liber erat instar mappae geographicae. Pineda.
Ver. 3. It may be that the house of Judah will hear, &c.] See here the utility of the Holy Scriptures, and the excellent use that may be made of reading them. A man may be thereby doubtless converted where preaching is wanting, as various were in Queen Mary’s days, when the Word of God was precious; as Augustine was by reading Rom. 13., Fulgentius by the Frophet Jonah, Franciseus Junius by John 1., &c.; the eunuch, (Acts 8:26-39) and those noble Bereans, (Acts 17:11) were notably prepared for conversion by this ordinance. That I may forgive their iniquity and their sin,] i.e., Their sins of all sorts, giving them a free and full discharge. Foxe’s Martyrol.
Ver. 4. Then Jeremiah calIed Baruch, … and Baruch wrote from the mouth.] Dictantis ab ore pependit. Jeremiah, it seemeth, had either not written his prophecies, or not so legibly, or in loose papers only; now he hath them fair written out into a book, making the same use of Baruch as afterward Paul did of Tertius, (Romans 16:22) who himself wrote no very good hand, as some have gathered from Galatians 6:11; [See Trapp on “Ga 6:11”] Baruch iste notarius et diaconus Ieremiae, simulque propheta fuit. -Oecolamp.
Ver. 5. I am shut up.] Or, I am detained, or restrained; haply by some legal pollution that he had contracted, as by touching a dead carcase, &c.; or by some bodily infirmity, or by the lying in wait of his enemies, or by the Spirit of God, [as Acts 16:6,7] for a punishment to the Jews by the prophet’s absence and silence, and for the safety of his servant in those perilous times.
Ver. 6. Therefore go thou, and read in the roll.] A minister, when he cannot himself officiate, must provide another in his stead. Which thou hast written from my mouth.] And which the Holy Ghost hath put into my mouth, both matter and words. Upon the fasting day.] A very fit time for the reading of the Scriptures, that the people then convened might hear and fear, and supplicate, and convert, and God might heal them. The fast here mentioned was not the ordinary yearly fast, called the day of expiation or atonement, but another that was conceptivum et liberum, kept on some special occasion for the averting of God’s judgment, such as was that at Nineveh. There was afterwards, indeed, a yearly fast kept in November, to bewail this wicked practice of King Jehoiakim in cutting and casting into the fire this blessed book. Genebrard., Ex Menologio Hebraeor.
Ver. 7. It may be they will present their supplication.] Heb., Their supplication will fall before the Lord. Fasting of itself is but a “bodily exercise,” and profiteth little. If the soul be not afflicted, rebel flesh tamed, prayers edged, and reformation effected, men fast to no purpose. (Isaiah 58:3,5 Zechariah 5:5,7)
Ver. 8. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according, &c.] Nihil de sua saliva admiscens. He faithfully performed the prophet Jeremiah’s commands, not standing to cast perils, being thereunto heartened and hardened by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 45:5)
Ver. 9. They proclaimed a fast.] Haply for fear of the Chaldeans, who, having lately beaten Pharaohnecho, was like enough to invade Judea; or else, because of that great dearth. (Jeremiah 14:1,2,12 36:6)
Ver. 10. Then Baruch read in the book.] He read with a courage, verbis non solum disertis sed et exertis, out of a chamber window, that the people under him might the better hear. In the chamber of Gemariah.] Who himself, it seemeth, was not present, but his son Micaiah was, and carried his father and the rest of the princes the news. (Jeremiah 36:12)
Ver. 11. When Micaiah the son of Gemariah had heard.] With what affection he heard the book read by Baruch is uncertain. We have many Herodian hearers before us a second time—such, I mean, as have a Herod’s heart toward the preacher, and little do we know who they are that sit before us; those precious balms we bring break their heads with a witness, and make the blood run about their ears.
Ver. 12. Then he went down into the king’s house.] For there was his father and the rest of the princes, suam aulam vel gulam confectantes, following their court delights, while the people were now humbling themselves before the Lord, and trembling at his Word. Great men are, many of them, of that Earl of Westmoreland’s mind, who profanely said, I need not pray to God, since having tenants enough to pray for me.