Jeremiah 36:23

After Jehudi had read a few columns of text, Jehoiakim reached over and cut off what he had read and tossed it into the fire. He did this with the whole scroll; he burned it all up. This was a symbolic act; Jehoiakim was claiming that Jeremiah’s prophecies would come to an end just as surely as his scroll came to an end. [Note: M. Kessler, "The Significance of Jeremiah 36," Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 81 (1969):382.] Jehoiakim’s slow, methodical destruction of the scroll made his rejection of its message a much more emphatic gesture than if he had burned the whole thing at once in a fit of rage. [Note: Kidner, p. 121.]

Scrolls consisted of several sheet of papyrus or parchment that had been glued together and wrapped around a small rod. As the reader rolled the scroll off the rod and read it from right to left, the printing appeared in parallel, perpendicular columns that resembled doors. The Hebrew word for "column," delathoth, literally means "door." Binding documents in book (codex) form was unknown in Old Testament times.

This king’s response to hearing the Lord’s Word stands in stark contrast to that of his father Josiah, who tore his clothes in remorse when he heard the law scroll read to him (2 Kings 22:11-20). Josiah had feared and called the people to repentance, but Jehoiakim feared nothing and called for the prophet’s arrest.