Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 36:27-32

"Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: 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 Jehovah 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 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. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein 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 unto them many like words." — Jeremiah 36:27-32 (ASV)

Here, the restoration of the text is described.

1. First, the command to restore the scroll is given: take it again. As written previously: they will wage war against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you (Jeremiah 1:19).

2. Second, God threatens death to the one who destroyed it, in the words: and you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah. For this reason, God rebukes him for his sin: you have burned it. As the proverb says, Destruction will come suddenly upon the man who stubbornly despises the one who reproves him, and there will be no remedy (Proverbs 29:1).

   God also threatens a punishment, beginning with the words, therefore, thus says the LORD. This includes the end of the royal succession: there will be no one of his line to sit upon the throne of David or to hold power any longer in Judah. His body will also be discarded: and his body will be cast out—left for the burial of a donkey. As Isaiah prophesied, But you have been cast out from your tomb like a useless branch, polluted and wrapped up among those who were slain with the sword and have gone down to the bottom of the pit, like a rotten corpse (Isaiah 14:19).

   The punishment extends to his subjects, beginning with his own household: I will visit his iniquities upon him and upon his descendants. As the Psalm says, I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with stripes (Psalms 88:33). Then, concerning the others: I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah all the evil I have pronounced against them. For as the LORD says, I am the LORD, and there is no one else; I make light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I the LORD make all these things (Isaiah 45:7).

3. Third, the text describes the fulfillment of the command: and Jeremiah took another scroll. For, Wisdom conquers evil .