Jeremiah 36 - Simple English

1In 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 against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations. Write them from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, right up to this day."

3"It may be that the people of Judah will hear about all the trouble I plan to bring on them. Then each one may turn back from his evil way, and I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin."

4So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote down on a scroll all the words of the LORD that the LORD had spoken to him.

5Then Jeremiah gave Baruch this order: "I am shut in. I cannot go into the house of the LORD."

6"So you go, and on a day of fasting read from the scroll you have written as I spoke. Read the words of the LORD to the people in the LORD's house. Read them also to all the people of Judah who come in from their cities."

7"It may be that they will bring their prayer before the LORD, and each one will turn back from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has spoken against this people."

8Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. He read the words of the LORD from the book in the LORD's house.

9In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast before the LORD was announced for all the people in Jerusalem, and for all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.

10Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the book in the house of the LORD. He read them in the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entrance of the new gate of the LORD's house, so that all the people heard.

11Michaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book.

12So he went down to the king's house, into the scribe's room. All the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other princes.

13Michaiah told them all the words he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people.

14So all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch with this message: "Take in your hand the scroll you read to the people, and come." So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

15They said to him, "Sit down now, and read it to us." So Baruch read it to them.

16When they had heard all the words, they were afraid, each one looking at the other, and they said to Baruch, "We must certainly tell the king all these words."

17They asked Baruch, "Tell us now, how did you write all these words? Did he speak them to you?"

18Baruch answered them, "He spoke all these words to me with his own mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."

19Then the princes said to Baruch, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah. Let no one know where you are."

20They put the scroll away in the room of Elishama the scribe, and went in to the king in the court, and told the king all the words.

21So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the princes who stood beside the king.

22Now the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month, and a fire was burning in the firepot in front of him.

23Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire in the firepot. He did this until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire in the firepot.

24Yet they were not afraid, and they did not tear their clothes - not the king, and not any of his servants who heard all these words.

25Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them.

26Instead the king ordered Jerahmeel son of Hammelech, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD hid them.

27After the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch had written as Jeremiah spoke, 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 has burned."

29"And you are to say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, This is what the LORD says: You have burned this scroll, and you said, 'Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and put an end to both man and beast in it?'"

30"Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. His dead body shall be thrown out, to the heat by day and to the frost by night."

31"I will punish him and his children and his servants for their wrongdoing. I will bring on them, and on the people living in Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the trouble I have spoken against them; but they did not listen."

32Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many more words like them were added to them.