Who was Shelemiah in the Bible?

Shelemiah was the grandfather of Jehudi, a court official during the reign of King Jehoiakim. He is mentioned only in the context of his grandson, who read the prophet Jeremiah's scroll to the king's officials (Jeremiah 36:14).

What is the significance of Shelemiah in the Bible?

Shelemiah's significance is indirect but crucial; his lineage connects to a key event in the Book of Jeremiah. His grandson, Jehudi, was the official who read Jeremiah's prophetic scroll, which King Jehoiakim then burned, highlighting the king's rejection of God's word (Jeremiah 36:21-23).

What key events in the Bible involve Shelemiah's family?

The key event involving Shelemiah's family is when his grandson, Jehudi, read Jeremiah's scroll aloud to King Jehoiakim and his officials. This reading led directly to the king cutting and burning the scroll, a defiant act against God's prophecy (Jeremiah 36:20-24).

Shelemiah

Old TestamentDivided MonarchyMaleSon of cushi

Shelemiah, the grandfather of Jehudi, who read Jeremiah's scroll to the officials.

Shelemiah

Biography

Shelemiah, son of Cushi, is known from Scripture solely through his grandson Jehudi, the court official who read Jeremiah's scroll before King Jehoiakim of Judah (Jeremiah 36:14, 21, 23). The text traces Jehudi's lineage back three generations, to his father Nethaniah, his grandfather Shelemiah, and his great-grandfather Cushi, an unusual depth of genealogical identification suggesting that Jehudi's family held some recognized standing in the royal court. Shelemiah himself does not appear as an active character; his significance is entirely derived from his place in a family line that found itself at the center of a pivotal moment in prophetic history, when Jehoiakim contemptuously burned Jeremiah's scroll column by column.

Significance

Shelemiah's theological importance is indirect but meaningful. The dramatic events of Jeremiah 36, the public reading of the prophetic scroll, the royal rejection, and the subsequent burning, represent a defining moment of Judah's willful rejection of God's word before the Babylonian exile. Shelemiah stands behind this narrative as an ancestor of the official who conveyed the scroll. The three-generation genealogy signals that Jehudi's family had a stake in the civic and spiritual life of Jerusalem. Through such family lines, Scripture traces how ordinary households intersect with extraordinary moments in redemptive history, bearing witness to both human resistance and divine persistence in preserving prophetic testimony.

Verse Appearances (1)

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 36:14

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]

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