Jeremiah Chapter 36

Jeremiah 36 — English translation

Translation: THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. Verse numbers match the Hebrew text below.

1. 1In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from G OD :
2. 2Get a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you—concerning Israel and Judah and all the nations—from the time I first spoke to you in the days of Josiah to this day.
3. 3Perhaps when the House of Judah hear of all the disasters I intend to bring upon them, they will turn back from their wicked ways, and I will pardon their iniquity and their sin.
4. 4So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote down in the scroll, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all the words that G OD had spoken to him.
5. 5Jeremiah instructed Baruch, “I am in hiding; I cannot go to the House of G OD .
6. 6But you go and read aloud G OD ’s words from the scroll that you wrote at my dictation, to all the people in the House of G OD on a fast day; thus you will also be reading them to all the Judeans who come in from the towns.
7. 7Perhaps their entreaty will be accepted by G OD , if they turn back from their wicked ways. For great is the anger and wrath with which G OD has threatened this people.”
8. 8Baruch son of Neriah did just as the prophet Jeremiah had instructed him, about reading G OD ’s words from the scroll in the House of G OD .
9. 9In the ninth month of the fifth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people coming from Judah proclaimed a fast before G OD in Jerusalem.
10. 10It was then that Baruch—in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, near the new gateway of the House of G OD —read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll to all the people in the House of G OD .
11. 11Micaiah son of Gemariah son of Shaphan heard all the words of G OD [read] from the scroll,
12. 12and he went down to the king’s palace, to the chamber of the scribe. There he found all the officials in session: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.
13. 13And Micaiah told them all that he had heard as Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.
14. 14Then all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah son of Shelemiah son of Cushi to say to Baruch, “Take that scroll from which you read to the people, and come along!” And Baruch took the scroll and came to them.
15. 15They said, “Sit down and read it to us.” And Baruch read it to them.
16. 16When they heard all these words, they turned to each other in fear; and they said to Baruch, “We must report all this to the king.”
17. 17And they questioned Baruch further, “Tell us how you wrote down all these words that he spoke.”
18. 18He answered them, “He himself recited all those words to me, and I would write them down in the scroll in ink.”
19. 19The officials said to Baruch, “Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don’t let anyone know where you are!”
20. 20And they went to the king in the court, after leaving the scroll in the chamber of the scribe Elishama. And they reported all these matters to the king.
21. 21The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll and he fetched it from the chamber of the scribe Elishama. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the officials who were in attendance on the king.
22. 22Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in the winter house, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.
23. 23And every time Jehudi read three or four columns, [the king] would cut it up with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier.
24. 24Yet the king and all his courtiers who heard all these words showed no fear and did not tear their garments;
25. 25moreover, Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them.
26. 26The king ordered Jerahmeel, the king’s son, and Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But G OD hid them.
27. 27The word of G OD came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation:
28. 28Get yourself another scroll, and write upon it the same words that were in the first scroll that was burned by King Jehoiakim of Judah.
29. 29And concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah you shall say: Thus said G OD : You burned that scroll, saying, “How dare you write in it that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and cause human and animal to cease from it?”
30. 30Assuredly, thus said G OD concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah: He shall not have any of his line sitting on the throne of David; and his own corpse shall be left exposed to the heat by day and the cold by night.
31. 31And I will punish him and his offspring and his courtiers for their iniquity; I will bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on all the citizenry of Judah all the disasters of which I have warned them—but they would not listen.
32. 32So Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. And at Jeremiah’s dictation, he wrote in it the whole text of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned; and more of the like was added.

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