The officials seek to verify the authenticity and origin of the scroll before reporting to the king, needing to establish whether these are genuinely Jeremiah’s prophetic words or Baruch’s own composition, which would determine the scroll’s authority and their response to its warnings.

Baruch confirmed that Jeremiah dictated all the words to him while he wrote them with ink on the scroll (Jeremiah 36:18). This straightforward affirmation established the prophetic origin and divine authority of the scroll’s contents.

The officials’ question probes the scroll’s origin because prophetic authority depends on the prophet, not the scribe. By asking “how” Baruch wrote these words, they investigate the composition process, was this Baruch’s summary or Jeremiah’s direct dictation? The Hebrew “at his mouth” (mippiv) indicates oral transmission, the standard method for preserving prophetic oracles in cultures where writing materials were expensive and literacy limited. Why ask rather than assume? Because if Baruch merely summarized or interpreted Jeremiah’s teachings, the scroll would lack the direct prophetic authority needed to confront the king. The question reveals their recognition that God’s word must be transmitted with precision, not paraphrase. This inquiry becomes pivotal when Jehoiakim later burns the scroll, the officials’ verification ensured they knew they were rejecting God’s direct word, not a scribe’s interpretation, sealing Judah’s judgment.