Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll

36 In the fourth year of Jehoiakimi son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Take a scrollj and write on it all the wordsk I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiahl till now. 3 Perhapsm when the people of Judah hearn about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turno from their wicked ways; then I will forgivep their wickedness and their sin.”

4 So Jeremiah called Baruchq son of Neriah,r and while Jeremiah dictateds all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.t 5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. 6 So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fastingu and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated.v Read them to all the people of Judahw who come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps they will bring their petitionx before the Lord and will each turny from their wicked ways, for the angerz and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.”

8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the Lord’s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll. 9 In the ninth montha of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fastingb before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah. 10 From the room of Gemariahc son of Shaphand the secretary,e which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gatef of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord’s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.

11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, 12 he went down to the secretary’sg room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathanh son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.i 13 After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, 14 all the officials sent Jehudij son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Bring the scrollk from which you have read to the people and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. 15 They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.”

So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fearl and said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” 17 Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to writem all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?”

18 “Yes,” Baruch replied, “he dictatedn all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

19 Then the officialso said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide.p Don’t let anyone know where you are.”

20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudiq to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the kingr and all the officials standing beside him. 22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment,s with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll,t the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.u 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear,v nor did they tear their clothes.w 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiahx and Gemariahy urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrestz Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hiddena them.

27 After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation,b the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28 “Take another scrollc and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. 29 Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from itd both man and beast?”e 30 Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakimf king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown outg and exposedh to the heat by day and the frost by night.i 31 I will punish him and his childrenj and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disasterk I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.l’ ”

32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated,m Baruch wroten on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burnedo in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.