Jeremiah
Chapter 36
1 In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, of Judah, this message came to Jeremiah from God:
2 Get a scroll and write down all the words I’ve told you about Israel, Judah, and all other countries, from the time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until now.
3 Perhaps the people of Judah will hear about the bad things I plan to do to them, so they might turn from their wicked ways, and then I can forgive their wrongs and their sin.
4 Jeremiah asked Baruch, Neriah’s son, to write down all of God’s words that he had spoken to him on a scroll.
5 Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am locked up; I can’t go into God’s house.”
6 So go and read the scroll you wrote from my words to the people in God’s house on the day of fasting. Also read it to everyone from Judah who comes from their towns.
7 They might ask God for mercy and stop doing evil, because God is very angry with them.
8 Baruch, Neriah’s son, followed all that Jeremiah the prophet told him, reading God’s words from the book in God’s house.
9 In the fifth year of King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah of Judah, during the ninth month, they announced a fast for everyone in Jerusalem and for all who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem.
10 Baruch read Jeremiah’s words from the book in God’s house, in Gemariah’s room, son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper area, near the new gate entrance of God’s house, to all the people listening.
11 When Michaiah, son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard all of God’s words from the book,
12 He went to the king’s palace, to the secretary’s room, and all the leaders were sitting there, including Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the leaders.
13 Then Michaiah told everyone what he had heard when Baruch read the book to the people.
14 So all the leaders sent Jehudi, Nethaniah’s son, Shelemiah’s grandson, and Cushi’s great-grandson, to Baruch. They said, “Bring the scroll you’ve been reading to the people, and come here.” Baruch, Neriah’s son, took the scroll and went to them.
15 They told him, “Please sit and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.
16 When they heard all the words, they became very scared and said to Baruch, “We will definitely tell the king all these words.”
17 They asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you write down all these words as he spoke them?”
18 Baruch replied to them, “He said all these things to me out loud, and I wrote them down with ink in the book.”
19 The leaders told Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and don’t let anyone know where you are.”
20 They entered the king’s court and left the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, then told the king everything.
21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he brought it from Elishama the secretary’s room. Then Jehudi read it to the king and all the princes standing near the king.
22 The king was sitting in his winter home during the ninth month, and a fire was burning in front of him.
23 When Jehudi had read three or four pages, he cut them with a penknife and threw them into the fire on the hearth until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire on the hearth.
24 They were not scared, nor did they tear their clothes, not the king, nor any of his servants who heard these words.
25 Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah asked the king not to burn the scroll, but he wouldn’t listen to them.
26 The king told Jerahmeel, Hammelech’s son, Seraiah, Azriel’s son, and Shelemiah, Abdeel’s son, to capture Baruch the writer and Jeremiah the prophet; but God protected them.
27 Then God spoke to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch wrote down as Jeremiah dictated, saying,
28 Get another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah burned.
29 Tell King Jehoiakim of Judah that God says: You have burned the scroll because it said that the king of Babylon would come, destroy this land, and take away both people and animals.
30 God says about Jehoiakim, king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his dead body will be thrown out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
31 I will punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their wrongs. I will bring all the bad things I said would happen to them, to the people of Jerusalem, and to the people of Judah because they did not listen.
32 Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to Baruch the writer, Neriah’s son. He wrote down all the words from Jeremiah that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned. They added many more similar words as well.