Jeremiah 36:1-10

New Century Version

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll

36 The Lord spoke this word to Jeremiah during the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah: ² “Get a scroll. Write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Israel and Judah and all the nations. Write everything from when I first spoke to you, when Josiah was king, until now. ³ Maybe the family of Judah will hear what disasters I am planning to bring on them and will stop doing wicked things. Then I would forgive them for the sins and the evil things they have done.”

⁴ So Jeremiah called for Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah spoke the messages the Lord had given him, and Baruch wrote those messages on the scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I cannot go to the Temple of the Lord. I must stay here. ⁶ So I want you to go to the Temple of the Lord on a day when the people are fasting. Read from the scroll to all the people of Judah who come into Jerusalem from their towns. Read the messages from the Lord, which are the words you wrote on the scroll as I spoke them to you. ⁷ Perhaps they will ask the Lord to help them. Perhaps each one will stop doing wicked things, because the Lord has announced that he is very angry with them.” ⁸ So Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. In the Lord’s Temple he read aloud the scroll that had the Lord’s messages written on it.

⁹ In the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king, a fast was announced. All the people of Jerusalem and everyone who had come into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah were supposed to give up eating to honor the Lord. ¹⁰ At that time Baruch read to all the people there the scroll containing Jeremiah’s words. He read the scroll in the Temple of the Lord in the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan, a royal secretary. That room was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple.