What Does Jeremiah 36:23 Mean?
And so it came to be, that when Jehudi had called out three or four leaves, he tore it with the scraping blade and threw it into the fire on the hearth, until the whole roll was used up in the fire on the hearth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.THE KEY
The Hebrew verbs nearly echo: קרא (qaraʾ, read or call) followed by קרע (qaraʿ, tear), setting voice beside severing before the scroll reaches the fire.
THE MEANING
You stand before a writing voiced in fragments, then cut and fed to fire until the whole roll is gone. Reading advances by three or four leaves as the roll is progressively torn and burned. The fire consumes the written object completely.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָעֶהָ
vayyiqraʿeha
GROWS FROM
קרע
to tear, rend, or split
“tore” in this verse is vayyiqraʿeha. The verb for tearing is קרע (qaraʿ), while the preceding verb for reading is קרא (qaraʾ). They are distinct roots, but share the same opening consonants and a close sound-shape; English hides how the verse places voicing beside severing.
ALSO GROWS
qaraʿ: to tear or rend
קָרַע
This is the verb family used for cutting the scroll: the word carries the force of physically tearing it apart.
qeraʿ: a tear, rent, or split
קֶרַע
The same root can name the separation a tear leaves behind, keeping the damage and the act of tearing in one word family.
כִּקְרֹא
kiqroʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
to call, proclaim, or read aloud
“called out” in this verse is kiqroʾ. The reading verb belongs to קרא (qaraʾ, call or proclaim), so the written marks become voiced words. Its near-echo with קרע (qaraʿ, tear) makes the reader’s voice and the destruction of the page occupy the same sequence.
ALSO GROWS
qaraʾ: to call, proclaim, or read aloud
קָרָא
The root keeps reading connected to calling: the writing enters the scene as spoken words.
miqraʾ: a reading or convocation
מִקְרָא
This related word shows the call-root can also name a reading or gathered assembly, carrying written words into shared hearing.
הַמְּגִלָּה
hammegillah
GROWS FROM
גלל
to roll or roll away
The Hebrew name מְגִלָּה (megillah, scroll) grows from גלל (galal, roll). The word keeps the object’s rolled form inside its name: this is not an abstract text, but writing carried on a roll that can be unrolled, cut, and burned.
ALSO GROWS
galal: to roll or roll away
גָּלַל
This verb is the seed of the scroll’s name, tying the written words to the physical form that bears them.
galgal: a wheel or rolling thing
גַּלְגַּל
This related word carries the same rolling image into another object, showing how the root reaches from a scroll’s coil to a turning wheel.
THE PATTERN
Destroying the physical carrier of a word does not secure the disappearance of its words.
Take again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned.Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.In this I bear ill, even unto bonds, as one who works ill; but the word of God is not bound.THE THREAD
Then Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah, who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, and many words like these were added to them.Both verses name the scroll מְגִלָּה (megillah, rolled writing), from גלל (galal, roll). The same root links the roll burned here with the new roll that carries the burned words and more.
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