Limitless Word
“Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.
Jeremiah 36:2 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.
  • KJV Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
  • BSB “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.
  • NKJV “Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.
  • NLT “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God tells Jeremiah to write all his prophecies against Israel, Judah, and the nations on a scroll. The full message is to be preserved in writing.

Overview

The LORD commands a comprehensive record of every word spoken from Josiah's days onward. Putting the prophecies in writing ensures their permanence and wider reach. This concern to preserve God's word in a fixed form anticipates the formation of Scripture, through which God still speaks today.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 30

  • Jer 30:2“Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book.
  • Jer 36:6Therefore you go, and read from the scroll, which you have written from my mouth, Yahweh’s words in the ears of the people in Yahweh’s house on the fast day. Also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.
  • Exod 17:14Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.”
  • Jer 1:10Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
  • Jer 25:3From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, Yahweh’s word has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.
  • Jer 51:60Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
  • Ps 40:7Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
  • Jer 25:9–29behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
  • Ezek 2:9When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;
  • Jer 36:23When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
  • Ezra 6:2A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record:
  • Isa 8:1Yahweh said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz’;
  • Hos 8:12I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing.
  • Deut 31:24When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
  • Zech 5:1–4Then again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.
  • Rev 5:1–9I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.
  • Isa 30:8–9Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
  • Jer 32:30–35“For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh.
  • Job 31:35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!
  • Jer 23:13–14“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
  • Jer 45:1The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
  • Jer 36:29Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Yahweh says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein, saying, ‘The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and animal?’”’
  • Ezek 3:1–3He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
  • Hab 2:2–3Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
  • Jer 1:2–3Yahweh’s word came to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
  • Jer 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
  • Jer 3:3–10Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed.
  • Jer 47:1–7Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza.
  • Jer 2:4Hear Yahweh’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!
  • 2 Kgs 17:18–20Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Jeremiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Jeremiah 36:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JeremiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.

How Jeremiah 36:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.