Jeremiah Dictates a Scroll

36 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah,^(A) king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Take a scroll,^(B) and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until today. ³ Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their iniquity^(C) and their sin.”

⁴ So Jeremiah summoned Baruch^(D) son of Neriah. At Jeremiah’s dictation,^[a] Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah. ⁵ Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted;^(E) I cannot enter the temple of the Lord, ⁶ so you must go and read from the scroll—which you wrote at my dictation^[b]—the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the temple of the Lord on a day of fasting. Read his words in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities. ⁷ Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord,^(F) and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are intense.” ⁸ So Baruch son of Neriah did everything the prophet Jeremiah had commanded him. At the Lord’s temple he read the Lord’s words from the scroll.

Baruch Reads the Scroll

⁹ In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month,^(G) all the people of Jerusalem and all those coming in from Judah’s cities into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.^{(H) 10} Then at the Lord’s temple, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe,^(I) in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate^(J) of the Lord’s temple, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read Jeremiah’s words from the scroll.