1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 "Take for yourself a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, until today.
3 Perhaps the house of Judah will hear of all the evil I am planning to do to them, so that each will turn back from his evil way, and I can forgive their iniquity and their sin."
4 So Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll, from Jeremiah's dictation, all the words of the LORD which he had spoken to him.
5 Jeremiah gave Baruch this command: "I am held back; I cannot go into the house of the LORD.
6 So you go in and read from the scroll that you wrote at my dictation the words of the LORD, in the ears of the people in the house of the LORD on a fast day; read them also in the ears of all Judah who come in from their towns.
7 Perhaps their supplication will fall before the LORD and each will turn back from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath the LORD has spoken against this people."
8 Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the LORD in the house of the LORD.
9 In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, they called a fast before the LORD for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who had come from the towns of Judah into Jerusalem.
10 And Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the room 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 ears of all the people.
11 Micaiah the son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book,
12 and went down to the king's house, into the scribe's room; and there all the officials were seated: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah and all the officials.
13 Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard when Baruch read from the book in the ears of the people.
14 So all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch to say, "The scroll you read from in the ears of the people, take it in your hand and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
15 They said to him, "Sit down and read it in our ears." And Baruch read it in their ears.
16 When they had heard all the words, they looked at one another in fear and said to Baruch, "We must certainly report all these words to the king."
17 And they asked Baruch, "Tell us now, how did you write all these words? From his mouth?"
18 Baruch said to them, "With his mouth he would call out all these words to me, and I wrote them in the book with ink."
19 The officials said to Baruch, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah; let no one know where you are."
20 Then they went in to the king in the court, after putting the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe, and they told all the words in the ears of the king.
21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe; and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the officials standing around the king.
22 The king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month, with the fire in the brazier burning before him.
23 Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, he would cut it off with a scribe's knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was gone in the fire on the brazier.
24 Yet they were not afraid and did not tear their clothes, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words.
25 Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah even urged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them.
26 The king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, Seraiah the son of Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them.
27 After the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
28 "Take another scroll again and write on it all the earlier words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned.
29 And about Jehoiakim king of Judah say, 'Thus says the LORD: You burned this scroll, saying, "Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will surely come and ruin this land and make man and beast cease from it?"
30 So thus says the LORD about Jehoiakim king of Judah: No one of his will sit on the throne of David, and his dead body will be thrown out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
31 I will punish him, his offspring and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah, all the evil I have spoken to them, but they did not listen.'"
32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, who wrote on it at Jeremiah's dictation all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and besides them many words like them were added.