Lives of Scripture

Shelemiah son of Abdeel served in the royal court of Judah under both King Jehoiakim and King Zedekiah. When Jehoiakim heard Jeremiah's scroll of prophecies read aloud -- warnings that Babylon would destroy Judah -- he cut the scroll apart column by column and burned it in a brazier, unmoved by the warning it contained (Jeremiah 36:20-25). Enraged, the king commanded Shelemiah, along with Jerahmeel the king's son and Seraiah son of Azriel, to seize Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch. But "the LORD hid them" (36:26), and the arrest failed; God simply had Jeremiah dictate the scroll again, with additional words of judgment against Jehoiakim added (36:27-32). Years later, during the Babylonian siege under King Zedekiah, Shelemiah's son Jehucal was sent by the king to ask Jeremiah to pray for the city (37:3), and later still joined other officials pressing for Jeremiah's death (38:1-4). Shelemiah himself never speaks in the text -- he simply obeys a king's order to silence God's prophet, and fails, because God's word cannot be stopped by burning a scroll or arresting a messenger. His brief appearance is a small, specific instance of the resistance Jeremiah faced throughout his ministry from the very court he was called to warn.