Jeremiah 36:20-26 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe… Jehoiakim made the other mistake of thinking that he had removed the danger when he had destroyed the roll that told of it. He could burn the parchment, but did that arrest the tramp of Nebuchadnezzar's army? Putting out the lighthouse lamps does not blow up the reef. Its merciless fangs are as sharp as ever, and all the more surely fatal because they are hid in the darkness. We do not alter facts by refusing to believe them, or to attend to the statement of them. As Bishop Butler says, "Things are as they are," and burning Jeremiah's roll changed nothing. Only it was the throwing away of one more possibility of escape, and made the king a more hopeless victim of the fierce conqueror. (A. Maclaren.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. |
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