17. Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?”
18. “Yes,” Baruch replied, “he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”
19. Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”
20. After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him.
21. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him.
22. It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him.
23. Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
24. The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes.
25. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26. Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.
27. After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
28. “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.