The text suggests some pragmatic reasons why the Lord might instruct Jeremiah to write these words on a scroll. First, Jeremiah has been banned from going to the temple, so he cannot preach. Secondly, the Babylonians are closing in on Jerusalem meaning the possible death of Jeremiah. Having a written form of his messages would mean they are not lost to the people who survive. The explicit reason the Lord gives in the text is that it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
The main reason for writing the scroll is that, even now, it may lead to repentance. There is no doubt that this concentrated form of Jeremiah’s message, bringing together what he had delivered on many occasions over the years, should have made a powerful impression on its hearers by its total impact.
1 Even as judgment approaches in the form of the Babylonian army, there is still hope that Judah will repent. But that hope fades as the story unfolds in Jeremiah 35:1–19.2
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”