The Hebrew ach (distinct from ach meaning 'brother') refers to a fire-pot, hearth, or brazier — a vessel or device for holding burning coals. It appears in the famous scene of King Jehoiakim burning Jeremiah's scroll.
The brazier burning in Jehoiakim's winter palace while he systematically destroyed God's word (Jeremiah 36:22-23) is one of Scripture's most vivid images of human defiance. As each portion of Jeremiah's scroll was read, the king cut it with a knife and cast it into the fire — an act of deliberate, contemptuous rejection of divine revelation. Yet the next chapter records God's instruction to Jeremiah to rewrite everything — plus more. The brazier that consumed God's written word could not extinguish the living Word. This episode prefigures the futility of all attempts to silence or destroy divine revelation. Jesus' words stand: 'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away' (Matthew 24:35).