Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Jeremiah 36
The words written on a scroll
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you in Josiah's time until today. Perhaps the house of Judah will hear of all the disaster I intend to bring on them and turn back, each from their evil way. Then I can forgive their guilt and sin.” Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words the LORD had spoken to him.
Then Jeremiah instructed Baruch: “I am prevented from going to the house of the LORD. So you must go on a day of fasting and read aloud from the scroll the words of the LORD that you wrote at my dictation. Read them in the house of the LORD to the people, including all those who come from Judah's towns. Perhaps their plea for mercy will fall before the LORD, and each will turn back from their evil way. For great are the anger and wrath the LORD has announced against this people.” Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the scroll the words of the LORD in the house of the LORD.
The public reading
In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, all the people in Jerusalem and all who had come from Judah's towns to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the LORD. Baruch read Jeremiah's words from the scroll in the house of the LORD, in the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper courtyard at the entrance to the New Gate of the house of the LORD. All the people could hear. Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD read from the scroll. He went down to the royal palace, to the scribe's room. All the officials 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 officials. Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll to the people.
The officials listen
All the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with this message: “Take the scroll you read to the people and come.” Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them. They said, “Please sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them. When they heard all the words, they looked at one another in fear and told Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” They asked Baruch, “Please tell us how you wrote all these words at his dictation.” Baruch answered, “He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them on the scroll in ink.” The officials told Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah. Do not let anyone know where you are.”
The king burns the scroll
They left the scroll in Elishama the scribe's room and went into the courtyard to the king. They reported all the words to him. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He took it from Elishama the scribe's room and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. It was the ninth month. The king was sitting in his winter quarters, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire in the brazier, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire. Neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words became afraid or tore their clothes. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them. The king ordered Jerahmeel the king's son, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD hid them.
The words written again
After the king had burned the scroll containing the words Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned. And say about Jehoiakim king of Judah: ‘The LORD says: You burned this scroll, saying, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come, devastate this land, and leave it without people or animals?” So the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David's throne. His body will be thrown out, exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. I will call him, his offspring, and his servants to account for their guilt. I will bring on them, on Jerusalem's inhabitants, and on the people of Judah all the disaster I announced to them, because they did not listen.’” Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah the scribe. At Jeremiah's dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. Many more words like them were added.