17. “But first, tell us how you got these messages. Did they come directly from Jeremiah?”
18. So Baruch explained, “Jeremiah dictated them, and I wrote them down in ink, word for word, on this scroll.”
19. “You and Jeremiah should both hide,” the officials told Baruch. “Don’t tell anyone where you are!”
20. Then the officials left the scroll for safekeeping in the room of Elishama the secretary and went to tell the king what had happened.
21. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by.
22. It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm.
23. Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up.
24. Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard.
25. Even when Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he wouldn’t listen.
26. Then the king commanded his son Jerahmeel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah. But the lord had hidden them.
27. After the king had burned the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah’s words, the lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said,
28. “Get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned.
29. Then say to the king, ‘This is what the lord says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and empty it of people and animals.
30. Now this is what the lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.
31. I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the disasters I promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.’”