Jeremiah 36

¹ In the fourth year of Jehoiakim[*a], son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh,

² ‘Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Jerusalem and Judah and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the time of Josiah, until today.

³ Perhaps when the House of Judah hears of all the evil I have in mind for them, each man will turn from his evil way, and then I can forgive their misdeeds and their sin.’

⁴ Jeremiah therefore summoned Baruch son of Neriah, who at his dictation wrote down on the scroll all the words Yahweh had spoken to him.

⁹ Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month[*b], there was a summons to a fast in the presence of Yahweh for the whole population of Jerusalem and for all the people who could come to Jerusalem from the towns of Judah.

⁵ Jeremiah then gave Baruch this order: ‘As I am prevented from entering the Temple of Yahweh,

⁶ you yourself must go and, from the scroll you wrote at my dictation, read all the words of Yahweh to the people in his Temple on the day of the fast; read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come in from the towns.

⁷ Perhaps they will offer their prayers to Yahweh and each one turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath with which Yahweh has threatened this people.’

⁸ Baruch son of Neriah duly carried out the order that the prophet Jeremiah had given him, to read all the words of Yahweh from the book in his Temple.

¹⁰ He read the words of Jeremiah from the book; this happened in the apartment of Gemariah, son of Shaphan the secretary, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Temple of Yahweh, where all the people could hear.

¹¹ Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of Yahweh read from the book,

¹² and he went down to the royal palace and into the secretary’s room. All the officials were in session there: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah and all the other officials.

¹³ Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard as Baruch was reading the book to the people.

¹⁴ The officials then by common consent sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah to Baruch, with Shelemiah son of Cushi, to give him this message, ‘Come, and bring the scroll with you which you were reading to the people’. Bringing the scroll with him, Baruch son of Neriah appeared before them.

¹⁵ ‘Sit down,’ they said ‘and read it out.’ So Baruch read it to them.

¹⁶ When they had heard all the words they turned to one another in alarm and said, ‘We must certainly inform the king of all this’.

¹⁷ They then questioned Baruch: ‘Tell us’ they said ‘how you came to write all these words’.

¹⁸ ‘Jeremiah dictated them to me.’ Baruch replied ‘and I wrote them down in ink in this book.’

¹⁹ The officials then said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah had better go into hiding; and do not tell anyone where you are’.

²⁰ Whereupon they went off to the king in the palace court, depositing the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary. And they informed the king of the whole affair.

²¹ The king sent Jehudi for the scroll, and he brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it out to the king and all the officials standing round the king.

²² The king was seated in his winter apartments – it was the ninth month – with a fire burning in a brazier in front of him.

²³ Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the fire in the brazier until the whole of the scroll had been burnt in the brazier fire.

²⁴ But even after hearing all these words, neither the king nor any of his servants took alarm or tore their garments;

²⁵ and although Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll he would not listen to them.

²⁶ He ordered Prince Jerahmeel and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But Yahweh had hidden them.

²⁷ And then the word of Yahweh was addressed to Jeremiah, after the king had burnt the scroll containing the words Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah,

²⁸ ‘Take another scroll and write down all the words that were written on the first scroll burnt by Jehoiakim king of Judah.

²⁹ And as regards Jehoiakim king of Judah, say, “Yahweh says this: You have burnt this scroll, saying: Why have you written down: The king of Babylon will certainly come and lay this country waste and leave it without man or beast?

³⁰ And so, this is what Yahweh says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his corpse will be tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

³¹ I will punish him, his heirs and his servants for their misdeeds; on them, on the citizens of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah I will bring down all the disasters with which I have threatened them, though they have not listened.”‘

³² Jeremiah then took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah he wrote down all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burnt, with many similar words in addition.