Jeremiah 35–38

CHAPTER 35

The Rechabites Listen to Jonadab

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of ^aJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²“Go to the house of the ^aRechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the ^bchambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,

⁴and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the ^aman of God, which was beside the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^bthe doorkeeper.

⁵Then I put before the ¹men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “^aDrink wine!”

⁶But they said, “We will not drink wine, for ^aJonadab the son of ^bRechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall ^cnot drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

⁷‘And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but ^atents you shall inhabit all your days, that you may live ^bmany days in the land where you ^csojourn.’

⁸“So we have ^alistened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹nor to build ourselves houses to inhabit; and we ^ado not have vineyard or field or seed.

¹⁰“We have only ^ainhabited tents and have listened and have done according to all that ^bJonadab our father commanded us.

¹¹“But it happened that when ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, let us ^bcome to Jerusalem before the military force of the Chaldeans and before the military force of the Arameans.’ So we have inhabited Jerusalem.”

Yahweh Warns of Judah’s Discipline

¹²Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “^aWill you not receive discipline by listening to My words?” declares Yahweh.

¹⁴“The ^awords of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are established. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have listened to their father’s command. But I have spoken to you, ^brising up early and speaking; yet you have ^cnot listened to Me.

¹⁵“Also I have sent to you all My ^aslaves the prophets, rising up early and sending, saying: ‘^bTurn now every man from his evil way and make good your deeds, and ^cdo not walk after other gods to ¹serve them. Then you will ^dinhabit the land which I have given to you and to your fathers; but you have not ^einclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶‘Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have ^aestablished the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.’”’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, ^aI am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the harmful evil that I have spoken against them because I ^bspoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.’”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have ^alistened to the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands, and done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Jonadab the son of Rechab ^ashall not have a man cut off from ^bstanding before Me ¹always.” ’ ”

CHAPTER 36

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

¹Now it happened that in the ^afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²“Take a ^ascroll of a book and write on it all the ^bwords which I have spoken to you concerning ^cIsrael and concerning Judah and concerning all the ^dnations, from the ^eday I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

³“^aPerhaps the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I devise ¹to bring on them, in order that every man will ^bturn from his evil way; then I will ^cforgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called ^aBaruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a ^1bscroll ²at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh which He had spoken to him.

⁵And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am ^1aconfined; I cannot go into the house of Yahweh.

⁶“So you shall go and ^aread from the scroll, which you have ^bwritten ¹at my dictation, the words of Yahweh ²in the hearing of the people in the house of Yahweh on a ^cfast day. And also you shall read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

⁷“^aPerhaps their supplication will ¹come before Yahweh, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for ^bgreat is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has spoken against this people.”

⁸So Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, ^areading from the book the words of Yahweh in the house of Yahweh.

⁹Now it happened in the ^afifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ^bninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who ^ccame from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem called for a ^dfast before Yahweh.

¹⁰Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh in the ^achamber of ^bGemariah the son of Shaphan the ^cscribe, in the upper court, at the ^dentry of the New Gate of the house of Yahweh, in the hearing of all the people.

¹¹Then ^aMicaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of Yahweh from the book.

¹²And he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were sitting there—^aElishama the scribe, and ^bDelaiah the son of Shemaiah, and ^cElnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

¹³And Micaiah ^adeclared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book in the hearing of the people.

¹⁴Then all the officials sent ^aJehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah ^btook the scroll in his hand and went to them.

¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch ^aread it in their hearing.

¹⁶Now it happened that when they heard all the words, they turned in ^adread one to another and said to Baruch, “We will surely ^bdeclare all these words to the king.”

¹⁷And they asked Baruch, saying, “Declare to us, please, ^ahow did you write all these words? Was it ¹at his dictation?”

¹⁸Then Baruch said to them, “He ^adictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book.”

¹⁹Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go, ^ahide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let anyone know where you are.”

The Scroll Is Burned

²⁰So they went to the ^aking in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of ^bElishama the scribe, and they declared all the words in the hearing of the king.

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi ^aread it in the hearing of the king as well as in the hearing of all the officials who stood beside the king.

²²Now the king was sitting in the ^awinter house in the ^bninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.

²³And it happened that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and ^athrew it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll ¹was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁴Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were ^anot in dread, nor did they ^btear their garments.

²⁵Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah ^ainterceded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to ^atake Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but ^bYahweh hid them.

The Scroll Is Replaced

²⁷Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king had ^aburned the scroll and the words which ^bBaruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying,

²⁸“^aTake again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were ^bon the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

²⁹“And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You have ^aburned this scroll, saying, ‘^bWhy have you written on it ¹that the ^cking of Babylon will certainly come and make this land a ruin and will make man and beast to cease from it?’”

³⁰‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He shall have ^ano one to sit on the throne of David, and his ^bdead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

³¹“And I will also ^apunish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will ^bbring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have spoken about to them—but they did not listen.” ’ ”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he ^awrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many ¹similar words were added to them.

CHAPTER 37

Jeremiah Warns Against Trust in Pharaoh

¹Now ^aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had ^bmade king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of ^cConiah the son of Jehoiakim.

²But ^aneither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet ^aKing Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and ^bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “^cPlease pray…