Chronological Plan

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²“Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, and all the household of the Rechabites,

⁴and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was next to the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the doorkeeper.

⁵Then I set before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!”

⁶But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

⁷You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed nor plant a vineyard, nor own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you live as strangers.’

⁸And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹nor to build ourselves houses to live in; and we do not have a vineyard, a field, or seed.

¹⁰But we have lived only in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that our father Jonadab commanded us.

¹¹However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let’s go to Jerusalem away from the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans.’ So we have lived in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not accept instruction by listening to My words?” declares the LORD.

¹⁴“The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab have been followed, which he commanded his sons: not to drink wine. And they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not listened to Me.

¹⁵Also I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them again and again, saying: ‘Turn now every person from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not follow other gods to worship them. Then you will live in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have followed the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.’ ” ’

¹⁷Therefore this is what the LORD says, the God of armies, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I spoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.’ ”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands, and done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Jonadab the son of Rechab will not lack a man to stand before Me always.” ’ ”

¹In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

³Perhaps the house of Judah will listen to all the disaster which I plan to carry out against them, so that every person will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him.

⁵Jeremiah then commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted; I cannot go into the house of the LORD.

⁶So you go and read from the scroll, which you have written at my dictation, the words of the LORD to the people at the LORD’S house on a day of fasting. And you shall also read them to all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

⁷Perhaps their pleading will come before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

⁸So Baruch the son of Neriah acted in accordance with all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.

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

¹⁰Then Baruch read to all the people from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper courtyard, at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’S house.

¹¹Now when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the LORD from the book,

¹²he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were sitting there—Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

¹³And Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people.

¹⁴Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, who was the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read to the people and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.

¹⁶When they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one to another. And they said to Baruch, “We will certainly report all these words to the king.”

¹⁷Then they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?”

¹⁸And Baruch said to them, “He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book.”

¹⁹Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let anyone know where you are.”

²⁰So they came to the king in the courtyard, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they reported all the words to the king.

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who were standing beside the king.

²²Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.

²³And when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all of the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁴Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words did not tremble in fear, nor did they tear their garments.

²⁵Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.

²⁷Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying,

²⁸“Take again another scroll and write on it all the previous words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

²⁹And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘This is what the LORD says: “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will make mankind and animals disappear from it?’ ”

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

³¹I will also punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their wrongdoing, and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the people of Judah all the disaster that I have declared to them—but they did not listen.” ’ ”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch the son of Neriah, and he wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

¹Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim.

²But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and the priest Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray to the LORD our God in our behalf.”

⁴Now Jeremiah was still coming and going among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.

⁵Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

⁷“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘This is what you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, is going to return to its own land of Egypt.

⁸Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’

⁹This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will certainly go away from us,” for they will not go.

¹⁰For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’ ”

¹¹Now it happened when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army,

¹²that Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to take possession of some property there among the people.

¹³While he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁴But Jeremiah said, “A lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

¹⁵Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and they beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it into the prison.

¹⁶For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

¹⁷Now King Zedekiah sent men and took him out; and in his palace the king secretly asked him and said, “Is there a word from the LORD?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon!”

¹⁸Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “In what way have I sinned against you, or your servants, or this people, that you have put me in prison?

¹⁹And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’?

²⁰But now, please listen, my lord the king; please let my plea come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so that I will not die there.”

²¹Then King Zedekiah gave a command, and they placed Jeremiah in custody in the courtyard of the guardhouse, and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guardhouse.