Jeremiah 36

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God.

¹This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

¹During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded. So Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, until he turned and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

²And the Lord sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim in order to destroy Judah, according to the word that the Lord had spoken through His servants the prophets.

²“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.

¹⁰See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

⁶so you are to go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the Lord from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

³“From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

²³And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire.

⁸But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

¹⁹Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,

³Perhaps they will listen and turn—each from his evil way of life—so that I may relent of the disaster I am planning to bring upon them because of the evil of their deeds.

²and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

³Therefore, son of man, pack your bags for exile. In broad daylight, set out from your place and go to another as they watch. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

¹²and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who were signing the purchase agreement and all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at Jeremiah’s dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

⁹Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,

³Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

¹This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:

¹⁷“Tell us now,” they asked Baruch, “how did you write all these words? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?”

¹⁸“It was at his dictation,” Baruch replied. “He recited all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

¹While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time:

²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

²³Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.

²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.

¹⁵The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

⁸So Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. In the house of the Lord he read the words of the Lord from the scroll.

⁹Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the Lord was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.

²saying, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates.

²⁹This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you—

³⁰because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.

²“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

²“This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the house of the Lord and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.

²⁷“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.

²⁸On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.

³Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

¹¹The Lord has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

⁵And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

¹⁷because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched.’

¹³“Go and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words in this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that is written about us.”

¹⁷Get yourself ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them, or I will terrify you before them.

¹⁹Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing.

²⁰I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs.

¹⁰If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, just as I am.

³So Ezra read it aloud from daybreak until noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate, in front of the men and women and those who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

¹⁶Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read,

¹⁷the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.

³Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the Lord. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.

⁵And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

²²Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

¹⁶“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

¹On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads.

⁵“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

⁶And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?

¹¹When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll,

²⁵Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as seven trusted royal advisers. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

¹⁰When the officials of Judah heard these things, they went up from the king’s palace to the house of the Lord and sat there at the entrance of the New Gate.

¹⁷Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was the scribe;

²⁵Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

²⁵Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

¹³“Go and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words in this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that is written about us.”

²⁰and commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

¹⁰From the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, which was in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the house of the Lord, Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the hearing of all the people.

²²Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over the people he had left behind in the land of Judah.

²²Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor along with some other men.

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

²⁵Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

¹In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.

¹⁴So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.

¹In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:

²“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

¹⁰Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

¹⁹because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.

¹⁶Then Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported, “Your servants are doing all that has been placed in their hands.

¹⁷They have paid out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have put it into the hands of the supervisors and workers.”

²⁴that this is what the Lord says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah,

²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.

¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:

¹⁶Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him took the whole remnant of the people from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam: the soldiers, women, children, and court officials he had brought back from Gibeon.

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

¹⁸to escape the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of the Chaldeans because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

⁸they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of the Maacathite—they and their men.

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,

¹¹for this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”

²⁴Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.

²⁵As Paul expounded on righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “You may go for now. When I find the time, I will call for you.”

²⁶At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. So he sent for Paul frequently and talked with him.

¹Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard that Jeremiah had been telling all the people:

²“This is what the Lord says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.

¹⁵So the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. The man answered, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”

²⁶“What did He do to you?” they asked. “How did He open your eyes?”

²⁷He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

¹⁰“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.

²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.

⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him.

⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.

²Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’

³Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

³“Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan.

⁴for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)

²⁰Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.

²¹King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and officials heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah found out about it, he fled in fear and went to Egypt.

¹⁰As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear that they had not found you.

²⁶Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.

¹⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet, who said, “Why have you sought this people’s gods, which could not deliver them from your hand?”

¹²he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

¹⁰Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

⁴They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’

⁵And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

¹⁸Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

²“This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the house of the Lord and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the Lord.

¹⁵“Please sit down,” they said, “and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

¹⁵I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish, and the great houses will come to an end,” declares the Lord.

⁹Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the Lord was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.

¹⁴who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.

¹⁵Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.

²⁰But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.

⁸The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

²⁷and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”

¹³He who despises instruction will pay the penalty, but the one who respects a command will be rewarded.

³⁰There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁹to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹⁶When they had heard all these words, they turned to one another in fear and said to Baruch, “Surely we must report all these words to the king.”

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. An oracle is in my heart regarding the transgression of the wicked man: There is no fear of God before his eyes.

²²Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

⁵They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

¹On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord.

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

¹²he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a short time.

³⁵“Men of Israel,” he said, “consider carefully what you are about to do to these men.

²²“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.

²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.

¹⁵Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.

¹⁴“I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”

¹⁰“I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”

³“Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan.

¹He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

¹Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.

⁵Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?

⁶But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the Lord of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

¹³if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

²⁸Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

¹³“Go and tell Hananiah that this is what the Lord says: ‘You have broken a yoke of wood, but in its place you have fashioned a yoke of iron.’

¹⁴For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even given him control of the beasts of the field.’”

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

¹³But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

¹⁰They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.

⁹How dare you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this house will become like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted!” And all the people assembled against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

³For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the Lord says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

²⁴Distress and anguish terrify him, overwhelming him like a king poised to attack.

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

³⁰This is what the Lord says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”

¹²Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.

¹³As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord.

⁴⁰As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

¹⁸Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’

¹⁹He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

¹A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.

¹⁴If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

¹⁷Therefore this is what the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will bring to Judah and to all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them but they have not obeyed, and I have called to them but they have not answered.’”

¹⁵“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

³⁴As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household.

⁴Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’

⁵But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.

¹⁸“It was at his dictation,” Baruch replied. “He recited all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

¹⁵You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do.

¹⁶He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him.

²⁴then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

²¹If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

²⁸then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.