Jeremiah 36 - 37 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

36Now it happened that in the ^afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, ²“Take a ^ascroll of a book and write on it all the ^bwords which I have spoken to you concerning ^cIsrael and concerning Judah and concerning all the ^dnations, from the ^eday I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. ³“^aPerhaps the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I devise ¹to bring on them, in order that every man will ^bturn from his evil way; then I will ^cforgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called ^aBaruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a ¹^,^bscroll ²at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh which He had spoken to him. ⁵And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am ¹^,^aconfined; I cannot go into the house of Yahweh. ⁶“So you shall go and ^aread from the scroll, which you have ^bwritten ¹at my dictation, the words of Yahweh ²in the hearing of the people in the house of Yahweh on a ^cfast day. And also you shall read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come from their cities. ⁷“^aPerhaps their supplication will ¹come before Yahweh, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for ^bgreat is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has spoken against this people.” ⁸So Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, ^areading from the book the words of Yahweh in the house of Yahweh.

⁹Now it happened in the ^afifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ^bninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who ^ccame from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem called for a ^dfast before Yahweh. ¹⁰Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh in the ^achamber of ^bGemariah the son of Shaphan the ^cscribe, in the upper court, at the ^dentry of the New Gate of the house of Yahweh, in the hearing of all the people.

¹¹Then ^aMicaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of Yahweh from the book. ¹²And he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were sitting there—^aElishama the scribe, and ^bDelaiah the son of Shemaiah, and ^cElnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³And Micaiah ^adeclared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴Then all the officials sent ^aJehudi the 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.” So Baruch the son of Neriah ^btook the scroll in his hand and went to them. ¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch ^aread it in their hearing. ¹⁶Now it happened that when they heard all the words, they turned in ^adread one to another and said to Baruch, “We will surely ^bdeclare all these words to the king.” ¹⁷And they asked Baruch, saying, “Declare to us, please, ^ahow did you write all these words? Was it ¹at his dictation?” ¹⁸Then Baruch said to them, “He ^adictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book.” ¹⁹Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go, ^ahide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let anyone know where you are.”

The Scroll Is Burned

²⁰So they went to the ^aking in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of ^bElishama the scribe, and they declared all the words in the hearing of the king. ²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi ^aread it in the hearing of the king as well as in the hearing of all the officials who stood beside the king. ²²Now the king was sitting in the ^awinter house in the ^bninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. ²³And it happened that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and ^athrew it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll ¹was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. ²⁴Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were ^anot in dread, nor did they ^btear their garments. ²⁵Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah ^ainterceded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to ^atake Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but ^bYahweh hid them.

The Scroll Is Replaced

²⁷Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king had ^aburned the scroll and the words which ^bBaruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying, ²⁸“^aTake again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were ^bon the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned. ²⁹“And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You have ^aburned this scroll, saying, ‘^bWhy have you written on it ¹that the ^cking of Babylon will certainly come and make this land a ruin and will make man and beast to cease from it?’” ³⁰‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He shall have ^ano one to sit on the throne of David, and his ^bdead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹“And I will also ^apunish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will ^bbring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have spoken about to them—but they did not listen.”’”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he ^awrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many ¹similar words were added to them.

Jeremiah Warns Against Trust in Pharaoh

37Now ^aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had ^bmade king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of ^cConiah the son of Jehoiakim. ²But ^aneither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet ^aKing Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and ^bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “^cPlease pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.” ⁴Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet ^aput him in the prison. ⁵Meanwhile, ^aPharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they ^bwithdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ⁷“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aThus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, ^bthe military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. ⁸“The Chaldeans will also ^areturn and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.”’ ⁹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not ^adeceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. ¹⁰‘For ^aeven if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and ^bburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now it happened when the military force of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of the military force of Pharaoh, ¹²that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to ^aobtain his portion of some property there among the people. ¹³Now it happened that while he was at the ^aGate of Benjamin, the master of the guard whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he ^bseized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are ¹going over to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴But Jeremiah said, “^aA lie! I am not ¹going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵Then the officials were ^aangry at Jeremiah and struck him, and they ^bput him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made that house into the prison. ¹⁶For Jeremiah had come into the ¹^,^apit, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king ^asecretly asked him and said, “Is there a ^bword from Yahweh?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be ^cgiven into the hand of the king of Babylon!” ¹⁸Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “^aIn what way have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹“^aWhere then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The ^bking of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? ²⁰“But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my ^asupplication ¹come before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.” ²¹Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the ^acourt of the guard and gave him a loaf of ^bbread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city had ^ccome to an end. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.