Jeremiah 36

¹In the fourth year of Jehoiʹakim the son of Josiʹah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiʹah until today. ³It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which 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.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriʹah, and Baruch wrote upon a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him. ⁵And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am debarred from going to the house of the Lord; ⁶so you are to go, and on a fast day in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll which you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities. ⁷It may be that their supplication will come before the Lord, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” ⁸And Baruch the son of Neriʹah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

⁹In the fifth year of Jehoiʹakim the son of Josiʹah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord. ¹⁰Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariʹah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.

¹¹When Micaiʹah the son of Gemariʹah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, ¹²he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber; and all the princes were sitting there: Elishʹama the secretary, Delaiʹah the son of Shemaiʹah, Elnaʹthan the son of Achbor, Gemariʹah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiʹah the son of Hananiʹah, and all the princes. ¹³And Micaiʹah told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴Then all the princes sent Jehuʹdi the son of Nethaniʹah, son of Shelemiʹah, son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriʹah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. ¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down and read it.” So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear; and they said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” ¹⁷Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?” ¹⁸Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.” ¹⁹Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”

²⁰So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in the chamber of Elishʹama the secretary; and they reported all the words to the king. ²¹Then the king sent Jehuʹdi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishʹama the secretary; and Jehuʹdi read it to the king and all the princes who stood beside the king. ²²It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. ²³As Jehuʹdi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. ²⁴Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was afraid, nor did they rend their garments. ²⁵Even when Elnaʹthan and Delaiʹah and Gemariʹah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶And the king commanded Jerahʹmeel the king’s son and Seraiʹah the son of Azʹri-el and Shelemiʹah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.

²⁷Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁸“Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiʹakim the king of Judah has burned. ²⁹And concerning Jehoiʹakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?” ³⁰Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiʹakim king of Judah, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. ³¹And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’ ”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriʹah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiʹakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.