Jehudi

Jehudi son of Nethaniah is a court-official at Jehoiakim's court whose role in Jeremiah 36 is to fetch and then read aloud the prophet's scroll, the same scroll the king will burn three or four columns at a time.

Sent to Fetch Baruch and the Scroll

When the princes hear from Micaiah what was read in the temple, they send Jehudi to bring Baruch and the roll: "Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the roll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came to them" (Jer 36:14). His four-tier patronymic — Nethaniah, Shelemiah, Cushi — fixes him in the court hierarchy.

Reading the Scroll Before Jehoiakim

When the princes report to the king, the king in turn sends Jehudi for the scroll and has him read it: "So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king" (Jer 36:21).

The reading then becomes the occasion for Jehoiakim's destruction of the scroll: "And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that [the king] cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier" (Jer 36:23). Jehudi's reading-rate — three or four columns at a time — sets the cadence of the king's cutting and burning.