A Written Record of Jeremiah’s Prophecies

¹In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

²Get a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you—concerning Israel and Judah and all the nations—from the time I first spoke to you in the days of Josiah to this day. ³Perhaps when the House of Judah hear of all the disasters I intend to bring upon them, they will turn back from their wicked ways, and I will pardon their iniquity and their sin. ⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote down in the scroll, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all the words which the Lord had spoken to him.

⁵Jeremiah instructed Baruch, “I am in hiding; I cannot go to the House of the Lord. ⁶But you go and read aloud the words of the Lord from the scroll which you wrote at my dictation, to all the people in the House of the Lord on a fast day; thus you will also be reading them to all the Judeans who come in from the towns. ⁷Perhaps their entreaty will be accepted by the Lord, if they turn back from their wicked ways. For great is the anger and wrath with which the Lord has threatened this people.”

⁸Baruch son of Neriah did just as the prophet Jeremiah had instructed him, about reading the words of the Lord from the scroll in the House of the Lord. ⁹In the ninth month of the fifth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people coming from Judah proclaimed a fast before the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁰It was then that Baruch—in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, near the new gateway of the House of the Lord—read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll to all the people in the House of the Lord.

¹¹Micaiah son of Gemariah son of Shaphan heard all the words of the Lord [read] from the scroll, ¹²and he went down to the king’s palace, to the chamber of the scribe. There he found all the officials in session: El-ishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³And Micaiah told them all that he had heard as Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.

¹⁴Then all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah son of Shelemiah son of Cushi to say to Baruch, “Take that scroll from which you read to the people, and come along!” And Baruch took the scroll and came to them.

¹⁵They said, “Sit down and read it to us.” And Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶When they heard all these words, they turned to each other in fear; and they said to Baruch, “We must report all this to the king.”

¹⁷And they questioned Baruch further, “Tell us how you wrote down all these words that he spoke.” ¹⁸He answered them, “He himself recited all those words to me, and I would write them down in the scroll in ink.”

¹⁹The officials said to Baruch, “Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Let no man know where you are!” ²⁰And they went to the king in the court, after leaving the scroll in the chamber of the scribe Elishama. And they reported all these matters to the king.

²¹The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll and he fetched it from the chamber of the scribe Elishama. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the officials who were in attendance on the king. ²²Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in the winter house, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. ²³And every time Jehudi read three or four columns, [the king] would cut it up with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier. ²⁴Yet the king and all his courtiers who heard all these words showed no fear and did not tear their garments; ²⁵more-over, Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them.

²⁶The king ordered Jerahmeel, the king’s son, and Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But the Lord hid them.

²⁷The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation: ²⁸Get yourself another scroll, and write upon it the same words that were in the first scroll that was burned by King Jehoiakim of Judah. ²⁹And concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah you shall say: Thus said the Lord: You burned that scroll, saying, “How dare you write in it that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and cause man and beast to cease from it?” ³⁰Assuredly, thus said the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah: He shall not have any of his line sitting on the throne of David; and his own corpse shall be left exposed to the heat by day and the cold by night. ³¹And I will punish him and his off spring and his courtiers for their iniquity; I will bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on all the men of Judah all the disasters of which I have warned them—but they would not listen.

³²So Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. And at Jeremiah’s dictation, he wrote in it the whole text of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned; and more of the like was added.