Jeremiah 36:1-32
36 And in the year four of Jehojakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from Jehovah for Jeremiah:
2 * “Take a book-roll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Jerusalem and about Judah and about all the nations from the day I spoke to you, from Josiah’s time to this day;
3 maybe the house of Judah will hear all the harm I am planning to do to them so that they will turn back from their bad courses and I shall forgive their guilt and sin.”
4 And Jeremiah called Baruc the son of Nerijah, and he wrote on a book-roll at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words Jehovah had spoken to him.
5 And Jeremiah gave Baruc the commission “I am debarred, I cannot go into Jehovah’s house;
6 you go in and read Jehovah’s words in Jehovah’s house on a fast day, in the hearing of the people, out of the roll you wrote at my dictation, and read them in the hearing of all Judah that come in out of their cities too.
7 Maybe their appeal will be laid before Jehovah and they will turn back from their bad courses, because great is the anger and displeasure that Jehovah has announced toward this people.”
8 * And Baruc the son of Nerijah did just as the prophet Jeremiah had commissioned him to, and read Jehovah’s words out of the book in Jehovah’s house.
9 * And in the year five of Jehojakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, at the ninth new moon, all the people had proclaimed a fast before Jehovah at Jerusalem, and all the people that came in from the cities of Judah were in Jerusalem,
10 * and Baruc read Jeremiah’s words out of the book in Jehovah’s house, in the office of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the uppermost court, at the new gate of Jehovah’s house, in the hearing of all the people.
11 And Micajah the son of Gemariah the son of Shaphan heard all Jehovah’s words out of the book,
12 and went down to the place, to the secretary’s office, and found all the generals sitting there, Secretary Elishamaʽ and Delaiah the son of Shemaʽiah and Elnathan the son of ʽAcbor and Gemariah the son of Shaphan and Sidkijah the son of Hananiah and all the generals;
13 * and Micajah told them all the things he had heard as Baruc read in the hearing of the people.
14 * And all the generals sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah the son of Shelemiah the son of Cushi to Baruc with the message “Take the roll you have read out of in the hearing of the people and come”; and Baruc the son of Nerijah took the roll and came to them.
15 And they said to him “Sit down and read to us”; and Baruc read to them.
16 And when they heard all the words they looked at each other in alarm and said to Baruc “We shall tell the king all these things.”
17 And they asked Baruc “Tell us how you wrote all these things at his dictation”;
18 and Baruc said to them “He dictated all these things to me by word of mouth, and I wrote them in the book with ink.”
19 And the generals said to Baruc “Go and get under cover, you and Jeremiah, and do not have anybody know where you are.”
20 * And they went in to the king in the palace court; and the roll they had deposited in Secretary Elishamaʽ’s office. And they reported all these things before the king;
21 and the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he fetched it out of Secretary Elishamaʽ’s office. And Jehudi read it before the king and all the generals that were standing by the king.
22 * And the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month, and had the brazier-fire burning before him;
23 and when Jehudi had read three or four columns he would cut it off with his penknife and throw it in the fire in the brazier till the whole roll was gone in the fire in the brazier;
24 and the king and all his officers who heard all these things were not alarmed and did not tear their clothes.
25 And Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah even protested to the king against the burning of the roll, but he did not listen to them.
26 And the king ordered Prince Jerahmeel and Seraiah the son of ʽAzriel and Shelemiah the son of ʽAbdeel to fetch Baruc the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah screened them.
27 And Jehovah’s word came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the roll and the things Baruc had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, “Do it again;
28 take another roll and write in it all the words that originally were in the roll King Jehojakim of Judah burned.
29 And of King Jehojakim of Judah you are to say ‘Says Jehovah, You have burned this roll, as much as to say “Why did you write in it ‘The king of Babylon shall come and ravage this country and make an end of man and beast out of it’?”
30 so Jehovah says of King Jehojakim of Judah, He shall have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his carcass shall be thrown out for drying by day and frost by night;
31 and I will punish him and his issue and his officers for their guilt, and will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the disaster that I predicted to them and they did not listen.’”
32 And Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to the scribe Baruc the son of Nerijah, and he wrote in it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the book King Jehojakim of Judah had burned up; and besides there were added to them many words like them.
Footnotes
^ 36:2 Var. to you about Israel and about Judah
^ 36:8 Var. And Baruc did just as Jeremiah
^ 36:9 Var. year eight of King Jehoiakim, at
^ 36:10 Or Shaphan the secretary
^ 36:13 Var. read out of the book in
^ 36:14 Lit. Take in your hand the
^ 36:20 Lit. without the word palace
^ 36:22 Codd. the brazier burning (with doubtful grammar) Var. the brazier of fire burning
