Jehoiakim Burns the First Jeremiah Scroll: The next story is one of the most gripping and vivid of the book. It also has interest as a book that gives a rare glimpse at the preparation, presentation, and development of a biblical book, though at the end of the story the scholar is still left with many questions. For this chapter, see J. A. Dearman, “My Servants the Scribes: Composition and Context in Jeremiah 36,” JBL 109 (1990), pp. 403–21.

36:1–7 These verses describe the instructions that are given to Jeremiah, who then gives instructions to Baruch, his scribe. The first part of the story (see 36:9) is set in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which would be a year after the first siege of Jerusalem according to the dating found in the first verses of the book of Daniel (therefore late 605–60…