4
Then Jeremiah called
1Baruch the son of Neriah, and
2Baruch wrote on
3a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD that he had spoken to him.
5
And Jeremiah ordered
4Baruch, saying,
5"I am banned from going to the house of the LORD,
6
so you are to go, and
6on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the LORD's house you shall read the words of the LORD from the scroll that 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.
7
7It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the LORD,
8and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people."
8
And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the LORD in the LORD's house.
9
9In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
10in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem
11proclaimed a fast before the LORD.
10
Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the LORD, in
12the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD's house.
11
When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, son of
13Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll,
12
he went down to the king's house, into the secretary's chamber, and
14all the officials were sitting there:
15Elishama the secretary,
16Delaiah the son of Shemaiah,
17Elnathan
18the son of Achbor,
19Gemariah the son of
20Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the officials.
13
And Micaiah told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people.
14
Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, son of
21Shelemiah, 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 Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
15
And they said to him, "Sit down and read it." So Baruch read it to them.
16
When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear. And they said to Baruch,
22"We must report all these words to the king."
17
Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?"
18
Baruch answered them, "He dictated all these words to me,
23while I wrote them with ink on the scroll."
19
Then the officials said to Baruch, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are."
20
So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in
24the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and they reported all the words to the king.
21
Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary. And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king.
22
It was
25the ninth month, and the king was sitting in
26the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him.
23
As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.
24
Yet
27neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid,
28nor did they tear their garments.
25
Even when
29Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah
30urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26
And the king commanded Jerahmeel the
31king's son and Seraiah the son of Azriel and
32Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize
33Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.
27
Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that 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 Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.
29
And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, 'Thus says the LORD, You have burned this scroll, saying,
34"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?"
30
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah:
35He shall have none
36to sit on the throne of David,
37and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
31
38And 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 people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.'"
32
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to
39Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who
40wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.