Jeremiah 36:1–26

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

¹In the ^afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²“Take a ^1ascroll 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 calamity which I plan to 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 the Lord which He had spoken to him.

⁵Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am ^1arestricted; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.

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

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

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

⁹Now in the ^afifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ^bninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who ^ccame from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a ^dfast before the Lord.

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

¹¹Now when ^aMicaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the Lord from the book,

¹²he 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.

¹³Micaiah ^adeclared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book to 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 to the people and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah ^btook the scroll in his hand and went to them.

¹⁵They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch ^aread it to them.

¹⁶When they had heard all the words, they turned in ^afear one to another and said to Baruch, “We will surely ^breport all these words to the king.”

¹⁷And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell 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 Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to 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 to the king as well as to 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.

²³When 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 was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

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

²⁵Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah ^apleaded 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 ^aseize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the ^bLord hid them.