1In the fourth year that Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, was king of Judah, Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah, saying,
2“Get a scroll and write on it all the messages I have given you against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until now.
3Maybe the people of Judah will hear about all the disaster I plan to bring on them. Then perhaps each of them will turn from their evil ways, and I will forgive their wickedness and sin.”
4So Jeremiah called Baruch, Neriah’s son. Baruch wrote down all the words Yahweh had spoken to Jeremiah on a scroll, just as Jeremiah dictated them.
5Jeremiah instructed Baruch, “I am not allowed to go into Yahweh’s temple.
6So you must go and read Yahweh’s words from the scroll you wrote at my dictation. Read them to the people in Yahweh’s temple on a day of fasting. Also, read them to all the people of Judah who come from their towns.
7Perhaps they will present their plea to Yahweh, and each will turn from their evil ways, for Yahweh has declared great anger and wrath against these people.”
8Baruch, Neriah’s son, did everything Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading Yahweh’s words from the scroll in Yahweh’s temple.
9Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, who was king of Judah, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem announced a fast before Yahweh.
10Then Baruch read Jeremiah’s words from the scroll in Yahweh’s temple. He read them in the room of Gemariah, Shaphan’s son, who was the scribe. This room was in the upper courtyard, at the entrance of the new gate of Yahweh’s temple, and Baruch read them so all the people could hear.
11When Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, who was the son of Shaphan, heard all Yahweh’s words from the scroll,
12he went down to the king’s palace, to the scribe’s room. All the officials were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah, Shemaiah’s son, Elnathan, Achbor’s son, Gemariah, Shaphan’s son, Zedekiah, Hananiah’s son, and all the other officials.
13Then Micaiah told them everything he had heard when Baruch read the scroll to the people.
14So all the officials sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, who was the son of Shelemiah, who was the son of Cushi, to Baruch. They said, “Take the scroll that you read to the people and come here.” So Baruch, Neriah’s son, took the scroll and went to them.
15They said to him, “Please sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.
16When they had heard all the words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must certainly tell the king about all these words.”
17They asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you write all these words? Did he dictate them to you?”
18Then Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me with his own mouth, and I wrote them down with ink in the scroll.”
19Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go into hiding. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”
20They went in to the king in the courtyard, after they had stored the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. They then told the king everything that was said.
21So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it aloud to the king and to all the officials who were standing with the king.
22The king was sitting in his winter palace in the ninth month, with a fire burning in a brazier in front of him.
23After Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut the scroll with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire.
24The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid and did not tear their clothes.
25Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had begged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26The king commanded Jerahmeel, the king's son, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but Yahweh hid them.
27Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s direction. It said,
28“Get another scroll and write on it all the previous words that were on the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah burned.
29Concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, you are to say: ‘This is what Yahweh says: “You burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why did you write in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and wipe out both people and animals from it?’”’
30Therefore, this is what Yahweh says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be left out in the heat of the day and in the frost of the night.
31I will punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their wickedness. I will bring upon them, upon the residents of Jerusalem, and upon the people of Judah all the disaster I announced against them, because they did not listen.”’
32Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah, who wrote on it, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all the words of the book that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire. Many similar words were also added to them.