1. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
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 time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until today.
3. Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin.”
4. So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. At Jeremiah’s dictation, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah.
5. Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the temple of the Lord,
6. so you must go and read from the scroll — which you wrote at my dictation — the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the temple of the Lord on a day of fasting. You must also read them in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities.