4. So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote down on a scroll what Jeremiah said, all the words which the Lord had spoken to him.
5. Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch: “I cannot enter the house of the Lord; I am barred from it.
6. So you yourself must go. On a fast day in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house, read the words of the Lord from the scroll you wrote at my dictation; read them also to all the people of Judah who come up from their cities.
7. Perhaps they will present their supplication before the Lord and will all turn back from their evil way; for great is the anger and wrath with which the Lord has threatened this people.”
8. Baruch, son of Neriah, did everything Jeremiah the prophet commanded; from the scroll he read the Lord’s words in the Lord’s house.
9. In the ninth month, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, all the people of Jerusalem and all those who came from Judah’s cities to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
10. So Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the room of Gemariah, son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court of the Lord’s house, at the entrance of the New Temple Gate, in the hearing of all the people.
11. Now Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord read from the scroll.
12. So he went down to the house of the king, into the scribe’s chamber, where the princes were meeting in session: Elishama, the scribe; Delaiah, son of Shemaiah; Elnathan, son of Achbor; Gemariah, son of Shaphan; Zedekiah, son of Hananiah; and the other princes.
13. Micaiah reported to them all that he had heard Baruch read from his scroll in the hearing of the people.
14. The princes immediately sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with the order: “The scroll you read in the hearing of the people—bring it with you and come.” Scroll in hand, Baruch, son of Neriah, went to them.
15. “Sit down,” they said to him, “and read it in our hearing.” Baruch read it in their hearing,
16. and when they had heard all its words, they turned to each other in alarm and said to Baruch, “We have to tell the king all these things.”
17. Then they asked Baruch: “Tell us, please, how did you come to write down all these words? Was it at his dictation?”
18. “Yes, he would dictate all these words to me,” Baruch answered them, “while I wrote them down with ink in the scroll.”