1   In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2   Take a scroll and write on it every word that I have spoken to you about Jerusalem ^note and Judah and all the nations, from the day that I first spoke to you in the reign of Josiah down to the present day. 3   Perhaps the house of Judah will be warned of the calamity that I am planning to bring on them, and every man will abandon his evil course; then I will forgive their wrong-doing and their sin. 4   So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and he wrote on the scroll at Jeremiah's dictation all the words which the Lord

Events under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah had spoken to him. 5   He gave Baruch this instruction: ‘I am prevented from going to the Lord's house. 6   You must go there in my place on a fast-day and read the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people from the scroll you have written at my dictation. You shall read them in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come in from their cities. 7   Then perhaps they will present a petition to the Lord and every man will abandon his evil course; for the Lord has spoken against this people in great anger and wrath.’ 8   Baruch son of Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah had told him to do, and read the words of the Lord in the Lord's house out of the book.

9   In the ninth month of the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, all the people in Jerusalem and all who came there from the cities of Judah proclaimed a fast before the Lord. 10   Then Baruch read Jeremiah's words in the house of the Lord out of the book in the hearing of all the people; he read them from the room of Gemariah son of the adjutant-general Shaphan in the upper court at the entrance to the new gate of the Lord's house. 11   Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord out of the book and went down to the palace, 12   to the adjutant-general's room where all the officers were gathered—Elishama the adjutant-general, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah and all the other officers. 13   There Micaiah repeated all the words he had heard when Baruch read out of the book in the people's hearing. 14   Then the officers sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with this message: ‘Come here and bring the scroll from which you read in the people's hearing.’ So Baruch son of Neriah brought the scroll to them, 15   and they said, ‘Sit down and ^note read it to us.’ 16   When they heard what he read, they turned to each other trembling and said, ^note ‘We must report this to the king.’ 17    18   They asked Baruch to tell them how he had come to write all this. ^noteHe said to them, ‘Jeremiah dictated every word of it to me, and I wrote it down in ink in the book.’ 19   The officers said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah must go into hiding so that no one may know where you are.’ 20   When they had deposited the scroll in the room of Elishama the adjutant-general, they went to the court and reported everything to the king.

21   The king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. When he had fetched it from the room of Elishama the adjutant-general, he read it to the king and to all the officers in attendance. 22   It was the ninth month of the year, and the king was sitting in his winter apartments with a fire burning in a brazier in front of him. 23   When Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a penknife and threw them into

Events under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah the fire in the brazier. He went on doing so until the whole scroll had been thrown on the fire. 24   Neither the king nor any of his courtiers who heard these words showed any fear or rent their clothes; 25   and though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26   The king then ordered Jerahmeel, a royal prince, ^note Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to fetch the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah; but the Lord had hidden them.

27   After the king had burnt the scroll with all that Baruch had written on it at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28   Now take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah burnt. 29   You shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, These are the words of the Lord: You burnt this scroll and said, Why have you written here that the king of Babylon shall come and destroy this land and exterminate both men and beasts? 30   Therefore these are the words of the Lord about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no one to succeed him on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be exposed to scorching heat by day and frost by night. 31   I will punish him and also his offspring and his courtiers for their wickedness, and I will bring down on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the calamities with which I threatened them, and to which they turned a deaf ear. 32   Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, who wrote on it at Jeremiah's dictation all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burnt; and much else was added to the same effect.

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