Jeremiah 36:1–26

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.