Lives of Scripture

Seraiah son of Azriel is named as one of three officials -- alongside Jerahmeel, the king's son, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel -- whom King Jehoiakim commanded to seize the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch (Jeremiah 36:26). The order came directly after the king had listened to Jeremiah's scroll of warnings against Judah being read aloud, cut it into pieces with a scribe's knife, and burned the entire thing in his winter-house brazier, unmoved and unafraid despite officials pleading with him not to destroy it (36:21-25). Jehoiakim's response to God's word was contempt followed by an attempt to silence the messenger by force. Seraiah's role, brief as it is, places him on the side of a king actively resisting the LORD -- yet the mission failed: "the LORD hid them," and Jeremiah simply dictated the scroll's contents again, with more added besides (36:26-32).