Jehudi

Biblical Record

Jehudi appears only in Jeremiah 36. The text introduces him as "Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi" (Jeremiah 36:14). The Hebrew name Jehudi is identical to the word meaning "a Judahite" or "a Jew."

In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, Baruch read to the people in the temple the scroll containing the prophecies of Jeremiah. When the princes (high officials) heard of this, they sent Jehudi to have Baruch bring the scroll to them (Jeremiah 36:14). On hearing the words, the princes were alarmed and resolved to report them to the king, and they told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide.

The king then sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe, where it had been kept, and read it before the king and the princes who stood beside him (Jeremiah 36:21). As he read before the fire in the winter house, each time he had read three or four leaves, the king cut off that portion with a penknife and cast it into the fire, until the entire scroll was consumed (Jeremiah 36:23). Afterward Jeremiah had Baruch write the same words again, and many similar words were added (Jeremiah 36:32). Scripture does not record Jehudi's own thoughts or reactions, nor anything of his later life.

Significance in Scripture

Jehudi is the one who actually read aloud the words of the prophet as they passed from the people through the princes to the king himself. Jeremiah 36 contrasts the princes, who were afraid when they heard the words, with the king, who burned them and yet was not afraid (Jeremiah 36:24). Jehudi stands as the reader in the very scene where this contrast unfolds. The New Testament does not mention Jehudi.

Interpretive Questions

• Interpreters have offered various explanations for the four-generation genealogy that reaches back to his great-grandfather Cushi. Some, noting that the name Cushi is associated with "Cushite" (Ethiopian), regard the record as an indication that the family was of foreign descent, but the text itself does not confirm this.
• The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 36:23 does not explicitly state who cut the scroll. Most translations, however, including the Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Revised Version, take the king as the subject on the basis of the context.
• Jehudijah in 1 Chronicles 4:18 has a similar name but is a different person.

In the Korean Church

In Korean churches, sermons on Jeremiah 36 usually focus on Jehoiakim's burning of the word and on the fact that the word was nevertheless written again and preserved. Jehudi is mentioned in this context as a figure in the scene, but no widely known preaching tradition or hymnody treats him separately.