Jeremiah 36:22

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The narrator places King Jehoiakim in the ninth month, seated in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him, immediately after Jehudi reads the prophetic scroll to him and his standing officials.

The words — The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הַחֹרֶף (beit ha-choref) translates literally as "house of winter," identifying a specifically heated royal residence used during the cold season.

The thread — The same architectural term appears in Amos 3:15 as a structure slated for destruction, and parallels the expanded luxury condemned in Jeremiah 22:14.

Why it lands — The text establishes the precise time and location of the king’s defiance before describing his subsequent cutting and burning of the scroll, requiring the reader to note the deliberate, seasonal setting that frames his rejection of the written word.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וְהַמֶּ֗לֶךְve./ha./Me.lekhand/ the/ king יוֹשֵׁב֙yo.Shev[was] sitting בֵּ֣יתbeit[the] house of הַחֹ֔רֶףha./Cho.refthe/ winter בַּחֹ֖דֶשׁba./Cho.deshin the/ month הַתְּשִׁיעִ֑יha./te.shi.'I<the>/ ninth וְאֶת־ve./'Etand/ <obj.>הָאָ֖חha./'Achthe/ fire-pot לְפָנָ֥יוle./fa.Na/v<to>/ before/ him מְבֹעָֽרֶת׃me.vo.'A.ret[was] kindled

King James Version

Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.

Cross-references

Amos 3:15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish, and the great houses will come to an end,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:20 But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 22:14 who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.
Jeremiah 36:9 Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.