Jeremiah 36:26

Then Jehoiakim ordered the arrest of Baruch and Jeremiah, but the officials sent to make the arrest could not find them, because the Lord had hidden them. According to Jewish tradition, the accuracy of which is uncertain, Jeremiah’s place of concealment was the so-called "Grotto of Jeremiah" outside the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem. Having destroyed the scroll, the king turned next to destroy its authors. Jehoiakim did not continue to hunt down Jeremiah, however, because later the prophet was able to move about the city (ch. 35).

"The narrative in these verses seems to have been composed as a conscious parallel to 2 Kings 22. In each case a scroll is brought before the king. First the scroll comes into the hands of a state official (2 Kings 22:9-10; Jeremiah 36:10-11). Both narratives record the reaction of the king (2 Kings 22:11-13; Jeremiah 36:23-26). Both narratives refer to an oracle that follows the king’s response (2 Kings 22:15-20; Jeremiah 36:28-31). In 2 Kings 22:11 Josiah ’rent his clothes’; in Jeremiah 36:24 Jehoiakim did not rend his clothes but rent the scroll." [Note: Thompson, p. 628.]

"Josiah burns altars in an attempt at reform; Jehoiakim attempts to invalidate the message by burning the scroll. Josiah ’heard’ the word of the LORD, while Jehoiakim pointedly does not ’hear.’ Finally, the end result is that God ’hears’ Josiah, but the outcome for Jehoiakim and Judah is another matter as Jeremiah 36:30-31 clearly indicate . . ." [Note: Keown, p. 203. For further development of these contrasts, see C. D. Isbell, "2 Kings 22:3-23:24 and Jeremiah 36 : A Stylistic Comparison," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 8 (1978):33-45; and M. Kessler, "Form Critical Suggestions on Jeremiah 36," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 28 (1966):389-401.]