1. In 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 about Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, until today.
3. Perhaps, if the house of Judah hears all the evil I have in mind to do to them, so that all of them turn from their evil way, then I can forgive their wickedness and their sin.
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.