Jeremiah 36

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll

36In the fourth year of Jehoiakimⁱ son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Take a scroll^j and write on it all the words^k I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah^l till now. ³Perhaps^m when the people of Judah hearⁿ about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn^o from their wicked ways; then I will forgive^p their wickedness and their sin.”

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch^q son of Neriah,^r and while Jeremiah dictated^s all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.^{t 5}Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. ⁶So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting^u and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated.^v Read them to all the people of Judah^w who come in from their towns. ⁷Perhaps they will bring their petition^x before the Lord and will each turn^y from their wicked ways, for the anger^z and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.”

⁸Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the Lord’s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll. ⁹In the ninth month^a of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting^b before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah. ¹⁰From the room of Gemariah^c son of Shaphan^d the secretary,^e which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate^f of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord’s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.

¹¹When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, ¹²he went down to the secretary’s^g room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan^h son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.^{i 13}After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, ¹⁴all the officials sent Jehudi^j son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Bring the scroll^k from which you have read to the people and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. ¹⁵They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.”

So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear^l and said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” ¹⁷Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write^m all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?”

¹⁸“Yes,” Baruch replied, “he dictatedⁿ all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

¹⁹Then the officials^o said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide.^p Don’t let anyone know where you are.”

²⁰After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. ²¹The king sent Jehudi^q to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king^r and all the officials standing beside him. ²²It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment,^s with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. ²³Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll,^t the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.^{u 24}The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear,^v nor did they tear their clothes.^{w 25}Even though Elnathan, Delaiah^x and Gemariah^y urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest^z Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden^a them.

²⁷After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation,^b the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁸“Take another scroll^c and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. ²⁹Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it^d both man and beast?”^{e 30}Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim^f king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out^g and exposed^h to the heat by day and the frost by night.^{i 31}I will punish him and his children^j and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster^k I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.^l’ ”

³²So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated,^m Baruch wroteⁿ on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned^o in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.