2. “Jeremiah, get a scroll. Write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Israel and Judah and all the nations. Write everything I have spoken to you since Josiah was king until now.
3. Maybe the family of Judah will hear what disasters I am planning to bring on them. And maybe they will stop doing wicked things. Then I would forgive them for the sins and the evil things they have done.”
4. So Jeremiah called for Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah spoke the messages the Lord had given him. And Baruch wrote those messages on the scroll.
5. Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I cannot go to the Temple of the Lord. I must stay here.
6. So I want you to go to the Temple of the Lord. Go there on a day when the people are giving up eating. Read to all the people of Judah from the scroll. These people come into Jerusalem from the towns where they live. Read the messages from the Lord. Read the words that you wrote on the scroll as I spoke them to you.
7. Perhaps they will ask the Lord to help them. Perhaps each one will stop doing wicked things. The Lord has announced that he is very angry with them.”
8. So Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. He read aloud the scroll that had the Lord’s messages written on it. He read it in the Lord’s Temple.
9. It was the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king. A special time to give up eating was announced. All the people of Jerusalem were supposed to give up eating to honor the Lord. And everyone who had come into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah was supposed to give up eating.
10. At that time Baruch read the scroll that contained Jeremiah’s words. Baruch read the scroll in the Temple of the Lord to all the people there. He was in the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan. Gemariah was a royal assistant. That room was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple.
11. A man named Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the messages from the Lord. Baruch read them from the scroll.
12. Micaiah went down to the royal assistant’s room in the king’s palace. All of the officers were sitting there: Elishama the royal assistant; Delaiah son of Shemaiah; Elnathan son of Acbor; Gemariah son of Shaphan; Zedekiah son of Hananiah; and all the other officers.
13. Micaiah told those officers everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll.
14. Then the officers sent a man named Jehudi son of Nethaniah to Baruch. (Nethaniah was the son of Shelemiah, who was the son of Cushi.) Jehudi said to Baruch, “Bring the scroll that you read to the people and come with me.”So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went with Jehudi to the officers.
15. Then the officers said to Baruch, “Sit down and read the scroll to us.”So Baruch read the scroll to them.
16. When the officers heard all the words, they became afraid. And they looked at one another. They said to Baruch, “We must certainly tell the king about these words.”