Beginning

35 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

² Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then give them [who are pledged to drink no wine] some wine to drink.

³ So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,

⁴ And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the keeper of the door.

⁵ And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine.

⁶ But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.

⁷ Neither shall you build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard or have them; but you shall dwell all your days in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are temporary residents.

⁸ And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days—we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters—

⁹ And not to build ourselves houses to live in; nor do we have vineyard or field or seed.

¹⁰ But we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our ancestor commanded us.

¹¹ But when ^[a]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians. So we are living in Jerusalem.

¹² Then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah:

¹³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to My words and obey them? says the Lord.

¹⁴ The command which Jonadab son of Rechab gave to his sons not to drink wine, has been carried out and established [as a custom for more than two hundred years]. To this day they drink no wine, but they have obeyed their father’s command. But I, even I, have persistently spoken to you, but you have not listened to and obeyed Me.

¹⁵ I have sent also to you all My servants the prophets earnestly and persistently, saying, Return now every man from his evil way and amend your doings and go not after other gods to serve them; and then you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. But you did not submit and consent to Me or listen to and obey Me.

¹⁶ Since the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have fulfilled and established the command of their father which he commanded them, but these people have not listened to and obeyed Me,

¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

¹⁸ And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and have kept all his precepts and have done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab son of Rechab shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to stand before Me.

36 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

² Take a scroll [of parchment] for a book and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you in the days of [King] Josiah until this day.

³ It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, so that each one may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.^(A)

⁴ Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote upon the scroll of the book all the words which Jeremiah dictated, [words] that the Lord had spoken to him.

⁵ And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am [in hiding, virtually] restrained and shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.

⁶ Therefore you go, and on a day of fasting, in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house, you shall read the words of the Lord which you have written on the scroll at my dictation. Also you shall read them in the hearing of all who come out of the cities of Judah.

⁷ It may be that they will make their supplication [for mercy] before the Lord, and each one will turn back from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.

⁸ And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from [Jeremiah’s] book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

⁹ And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.

¹⁰ Then Baruch read in the hearing of all the people the words of Jeremiah from the scroll of the book in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.

¹¹ When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,

¹² He went down to the king’s house into the scribe’s chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the [other] princes.

¹³ Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people.

¹⁴ Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people and come [to us]. So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

¹⁵ And they said to him, Sit down now and read it in our hearing. So Baruch read it in their hearing.

¹⁶ Now when they had heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear and said to Baruch, We must surely tell the king of all these words.

¹⁷ And they asked Baruch, Tell us now, how did you write all these words? At [Jeremiah’s] dictation?

¹⁸ Then Baruch answered them, He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.

¹⁹ Then the princes said to Baruch, Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.

²⁰ Then they went into the court to the king, but they [first] put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; then they reported all the words to the king.

²¹ So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and of all the princes who stood beside the king.

²² Now it was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and a fire was burning there before him in the brazier.

²³ And [each time] when Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], he [King Jehoiakim] would cut them off with a penknife and cast them into the fire that was in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁴ Yet they were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments—neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.

²⁵ Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah tried to persuade the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

²⁶ And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.

²⁷ Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at the dictation of Jeremiah, [and the Lord] said:

²⁸ Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

²⁹ And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says the Lord: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land and shall cut off man and beast from it?

³⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: ^[b]He shall have no [heir] to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.

³¹ And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them—but they would not hear.

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and besides them many similar words were added.

37 And Zedekiah son of Josiah, whom ^[c]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim.

² But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to and obeyed the words of the Lord which He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.

³ Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah with Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to the Lord our God for us.

⁴ Now Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not [yet] put him in prison.

⁵ And Pharaoh’s army had come forth out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the news about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem and departed.

⁶ Then came the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah:

⁷ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come forth to help you, will return to Egypt, to their own land.

⁸ And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city, and they shall take it and burn it with fire.

⁹ Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely stay away from us—for they will not stay away.

¹⁰ For though you should defeat the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only the wounded and men stricken through among them, every man confined to his tent, yet they would rise up and burn this city with fire.

¹¹ And when the army of the Chaldeans had departed from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s approaching army,

¹² Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin [to slip away during the brief lull in the Chaldean invasion] to receive [the title to] his portion [of land, which the Lord had promised would eventually be valuable] there among the people.

¹³ And when he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a sentry was [on guard] there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are deserting to the Chaldeans.

¹⁴ Then said Jeremiah, It is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans. But the sentry would not listen to him. So Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.

¹⁵ Therefore the princes were enraged with Jeremiah and beat him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe—for they had made that the prison.

¹⁶ When Jeremiah had come into ^[d]the cells in the dungeon and had remained there many days,

¹⁷ Zedekiah the king sent and brought him out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is! And he said also, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

¹⁸ Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, In what have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

¹⁹ Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you or against this land?

²⁰ Therefore hear now, I pray you, O my lord the king. Let my supplication, I pray you, come before you and be acceptable, that you do not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

²¹ Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and a round loaf of bread from the bakers’ street was given to him daily until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained [imprisoned] in the court of the guard.