Jerahmeel
Jerahmeel, the son of Hammelech, was one of the officers sent by King Jehoiakim to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch.
Biography
Jerahmeel, identified as the son of Hammelech, was a royal official in the court of King Jehoiakim of Judah during the late seventh century BC. He appears in Jeremiah 36:26 as one of three officers commanded by the king to arrest the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch after the scroll containing Jeremiah's dictated prophecies was read aloud in the royal court. Jehoiakim had responded to the scroll's warnings of judgment by slicing it apart and burning it piece by piece, then ordering the arrest of those responsible. The designation 'son of the king' may indicate royal blood or simply a court title. Crucially, the text notes that God hid Jeremiah and Baruch before they could be seized.
Significance
Jerahmeel's role in Jeremiah 36 places him at one of the most dramatic confrontations between prophetic authority and royal defiance in the Old Testament. His mission to suppress God's word, commanded by a king who literally destroyed the divine scroll, stands as a sobering warning against those who resist God's revelation. Yet the episode ultimately affirms that no human authority can silence or eliminate God's message, Jeremiah and Baruch escaped, and Jeremiah was commanded to rewrite the scroll with additional words of judgment (Jeremiah 36:32). Jerahmeel thus serves as a foil to the indestructibility of God's Word.
Verse Appearances (1)
Jeremiah
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]