The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 36 The scroll of Jeremiah is read in the temple; the king cuts it up and throws it into the fire.

 

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 36

The scroll of Jeremiah is read in the temple; the king cuts it up and throws it into the fire.

 

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 all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until now.

3 Perhaps the people of Judah will hear about all the evil I intend to do to them, so that each of them may turn from their wicked ways, and I may forgive their wickedness and their sin.

4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote down at Jeremiah’s word all the words the Lord had revealed to him in a scroll.

5 Then Jeremiah gave orders to Baruch, saying, “I am shut in; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.”

6 Then you go in and read from the scroll that you wrote at my command the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people in the house of the Lord on the day of fasting; and you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

7 Perhaps their supplication will fall before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way; for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has manifested against this people.

8 So Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him as he read from the book of the Lord in the house of the Lord.

9 In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem and to all the people who came from the towns of Judah and Jerusalem.

10 So Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entrance of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people.

11 Now when Micah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord in that book,

12 He went down to the king’s house, to the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other princes.

13 Then Micah told them all the words that he had heard, and Baruch read them from the book in the hearing of the people.

14 Then all the princes sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hushai, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch, son of Neriah, took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

15 Then they said to him, “Sit down now and read it aloud to us.” So Baruch read it aloud to them.

16 And it came to pass, when they heard all these words, that they turned fearfully to one another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king all these words.”

17 Then they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now how you wrote all these words from his mouth.”

18 Then Baruch said to them, “He dictated all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them down in the book with ink.”

19 Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourselves, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”

20 Then they went to Jehudi to the king to bring the scroll; and Jehudi took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe and read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who were around the king.

22 (Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and a firepot was burning before him.)

23 And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with a scribe's knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire that was upon the brazier.

24 And neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid or torn their clothes.

25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

26 Then the king gave orders to Jerahmeel son of Hammelech, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord had hidden them.

27 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's rite:

28 Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiachin king of Judah burned.

29 And to Jehoiachin king of Judah you shall say, “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it, ‘The king of Babylon will surely come and destroy this land and make man and beast cease from it’?”’”

30Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiachin king of Judah: He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body shall be cast out to the heat of the day, and to the frost of the night.

31 And I will punish him, and his descendants, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on him, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have spoken to them, but they did not listen.

32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, the scribe, who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s utterance all the words of the book that Jehoiachin king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.