The King Burns Jeremiah's Scroll

In the days of King Jehoiakim, Yahweh told Jeremiah to take a scroll and write all the words he had spoken against Israel, Judah, and the nations. The warning was given so the people of Judah might turn from their evil ways and be forgiven. Jeremiah called Baruch, and Baruch wrote down Yahweh's words as Jeremiah dictated them.

Jeremiah was restricted and could not go into Yahweh's house, so he told Baruch to go there with the scroll. On a fast day, when people from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah had gathered, Baruch read the words aloud in Yahweh's house, in the room of Gemariah near the new gate. Jeremiah had sent the message in the hope that the people would pray to Yahweh and turn from evil.

A man named Micaiah heard the reading and went to the king's officials to report it. They sent for Baruch and asked him to read the scroll to them as well. When they heard the words, they became afraid and decided the king must be told. They asked how the scroll had been written, and Baruch explained that Jeremiah spoke the words and he wrote them with ink. Then the officials told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide.

The officials told the king about the message, and the scroll was brought in and read before him. The king was sitting in his winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier. Every time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut that part with a knife and threw it into the fire, until the whole scroll was burned.

The king and his servants were not afraid. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged him not to burn it, he would not listen. Then he ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be arrested, but Yahweh hid them.

After the scroll was burned, Yahweh told Jeremiah to take another scroll and write again all the words that had been on the first one. Yahweh also gave a judgement against Jehoiakim because he had burned the scroll and rejected the warning that the king of Babylon would come against the land. So Jeremiah took another scroll, Baruch wrote the words again from Jeremiah's mouth, and many similar words were added. Burning the scroll did not stop Yahweh's word.