Open English Translation JER Chapter 36

36 In the fourth year of the reign Yehudah’s King Yehoyakim (or Jehoiakim, son of Yoshiyah/Josiah), Yahweh gave this message to Yirmeyah:[ref] 2 Get a scroll for yourself and write all the messages on it that I’ve told you concerning Yisrael and Yehudah, and all the other nations. Do this for everything I have said, back from the time of Yoshiyah until the present time. 3 Perhaps Yehudah’s people will hear about all the disasters that I intend to bring on them and then turn away from their wicked ways, so I can forgive them for their wickedness and their disobedience.

4 Then Yirmeyah called Neriyah’s son Baruk, and Yirmeyah dictated all the messages that Yahweh had given to him, for Baruk to record on a scroll. 5 Then Yirmeyah instructed Baruk saying, “I’m restrained from entering Yahweh’s residence 6 so you must go and read from the scroll that you wrote at my dictation. On the day of the fast, you must read Yahweh’s messages so that all the people in the temple will hear them as well as the people from the rest of Yehudah’s cities. Proclaim these messages to them. 7 Perhaps Yaweh will take notice of their pleas for mercy. Perhaps everyone will turn from their wicked ways, since the anger and fury that Yahweh has proclaimed against this nation is severe. 8 So Neriyah’s son Baruk did everything that the prophet Yirmeyah had told him to—he read Yahweh’s messages aloud at Yahweh’s temple.

9 In the ninth month of the next year, all the people in Yerushalem and the visitors to the city from the rest of Yehudah, announced a fast to honour Yahweh. 10 Again Baruk read Yirmeyah’s messages aloud at Yahweh’s temple, from the room of Gemaryah (son of the scribe Shafan) in the upper courtyard, by the entrance gate to Yahweh’s residence. He did this so that all the people could hear it.

11 When Mikayah (son of Gemaryah son of Shafan) heard all Yahweh’s messages from the scroll, 12 he went down to to the secretary’s room in the palace, and wow, all the officials were sitting there: Elishama the secretary, Shemayah’s son Delayah, Akbor’s son Elnatan, Shafan’s son Gemaryah, and Hananyah’s son Tsidkiyah, along with all the other officials. 13 When Mikayah reported to them all the messages that he’d heard Baruk read aloud for the people to hear, 14 the officials sent Yehudi (son of Netanyah son of Shelemyah son of Kushi) to Baruk. Yehudi ordered Baruk, “Take the scroll in your hand, the scroll from which you were reading in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Neriyah’s son Baruk took the scroll and went to the officials 15 where they told him to sit down and read it to them, so Baruk read out the messages. 16 When they heard it all, they were afraid and decided together that they needed to report it all to the king, 17 and they asked Baruk, “How come you wrote down all these messages from Yirmeyah?”

18 “He dictated them to me,” he replied, “and I just wrote them down on the scroll.”

19 Then the officials told Baruk, “Go and hide, and Yirmeyah as well. Don’t let anyone know where you two are.”

20 Then they left the scroll in the secretary Elishama’s room and went out to the king in the courtyard and told him everything they’d heard. 21 The king sent Yehudi to get the scroll, and he went and got it from the secretary Elishama’s room. Then Yehudi read it aloud for the king and all the officials who were standing beside him to hear. 22 That month, the king was in his winter house and a brazier was burning in front of him. 23 Whenever Yehudi had read a couple of columns, the king would slice it off with a knife and toss it into the fire until the entire scroll was gone, 24 but neither the king or any of his servants were afraid of the messages (and they didn’t tear their clothes to indicate repentance—25 Elnatan, Delayah, and Gemaryah had urged the king not to burn the scroll, but he hadn’t taken any notice of them). 26 Then the king ordered a relative Yerahme’el, Azriel’s son Serayah, and Abdeel’s son Shelemyah to arrest the scribe Baruk and the prophet Yirmeyah, but Yahweh had hidden them.

27 After the king had burnt the scroll with the messages on it that Yirmeyah had dictated to Baruk, Yahweh gave this message to Yirmeyah: 28 Get yourself another scroll and write down all the messages that were on the original scroll that Yehudah’s King Yehoyakim (Jehoiakim) burnt. 29 Then you must tell the king that Yahweh says: You burnt that scroll, asking why it was written that the Babylonian king would come and destroy this land and leave it without people or animals. 30 Now Yahweh says about King Yehoyakim: No descendant of his will ever sit on David’s throne. As for him, his corpse will be thrown out into the heat of the day and the frost at night. 31 I’ll punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their wickedness. The disasters that I’ve threatened them with, but which they ignored, I’ll send onto them and all Yerushalem’s inhabitants, and onto every person in the rest of Yehudah.

32 So Yirmeyah got another scroll and gave it to Baruk, son of Neriyah the scribe. Yirmeyah again dictated all the messages that had been on the scroll burnt by Yehudah’s King Yehoyakim, and Baruk wrote them onto the scroll, along with several other similar messages.