Jeremiah 36:30: A Failed Prophecy?

King Jehoiakim had personally taken his knife and cut off the scroll with the words of the Lord from Jeremiah the prophet, section by section, as it was being read. Each piece was then tossed into the fire. For this, Jeremiah had a new oracle of doom when he rewrote the scroll: No descendant of Jehoiakim would sit on the throne of David.

Was this prediction fulfilled? As it turned out, when Jehoiakim died in 597 B.C. , his son Jehoiachin took over for a mere three months, apparently without any official coronation ceremony, for Jerusalem was under siege from the king of Babylon. Jehoiachin was not allowed to remain on the throne; instead, his uncle Zedekiah was installed by the Babylonians in his place, as Jehoiachin and his sons were carted off to exile, where he remained until he died (see 2 Kings 24:6 and 2 Chron 36:9).

The Hebrew verb yasab "to sit [on the throne]," when used of a king, carries with it a certain sense of permanence and stability, which a short reign of approximately ninety days hardly appears to properly signify. Jehoiakim's son was not allowed to remain on the throne, if he ever could properly be said to occupy it: he was unceremoniously removed.

Thus the king who "cast" the Word of God into the fire that was burning in the palace on that cold day would himself be "cast" (the same Hebrew word) out so that his dead body would be exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.

See also comment on "Are Old Testament Prophecies Really Accurate?"