The Readings of Jeremiah’s Scroll
Jeremiah 36In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, “You are to take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah to this day. Perhaps when the house of Judah hears all the disaster that I intend to bring on them, they may each turn from their evil way; so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all YHWH’s words, which he had spoken to him, on the scroll. Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted. I can’t go into the house of YHWH. So you must go house of YHWH on the fast day and read from the scroll all you have written from my dictation, the words of YHWH to the ears of the people. You are also to read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. It may be they will present their petition before YHWH, and will each return from their evil way. Gor YHWH has pronounced great anger and wrath against this people.”
Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading YHWH’s words from the scroll in the house of YHWH. Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before YHWH. Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the house of YHWH, in the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the house of YHWH, in the ears of all the people.
When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all YHWH’s words, he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s room. All the officials were sitting there, 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 other officials. Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll that you have read in the ears of the people and come.”
So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them. They said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our hearing.”
So Baruch read it in their hearing.
Now when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruch, “We will tell-tell the king of all these words.” They asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words? From his dictation?”
Baruch replied them, “He dictated all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”
Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go hide. Don’t let anyone know where y’all are.”
They went in to the king into the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. Then they told all the words in the hearing of the king.
The Burning of Jeremiah’s Scroll
So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king, and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him.
When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. As the king and his servants heard all these words, they were not afraid and they didn’t tear their garments. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them. The king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but YHWH hid them.
The Rewriting of Jeremiah’s Scroll
Then the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying, “Get another scroll, and write in it all the words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you are to say, ‘YHWH says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written therein, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will come-come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from there man and animal?’”’ Therefore YHWH says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. I will punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the people of Judah, all the disaster that I have warned them about, but they didn’t listen.”’”
Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote what Jeremiah dictated, all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.