1. A message came to me from the Lord. It came in the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah. He was the son of Josiah. The message said,
2. "Get a scroll. Write on it all of the words I have spoken to you. Write down what I have said about Israel, Judah and all of the other nations. Write what I have said to you from the time of King Josiah until now.
3. The people of Judah will hear about all of the trouble I plan to bring on them. Maybe then all of them will turn from their evil ways. If they do, I will forgive their sins and the evil things they have done."
4. So I sent for Baruch, the son of Neriah. I told him to write down all of the words the Lord had spoken to me. And Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
5. Then I said to him, "I'm not allowed to go to the Lord's temple.
6. So you go there. Go on a day when the people are fasting. Read to them from the scroll. Read the words of the Lord you wrote down as I gave them to you. Read them to all of the people of Judah who come in from their towns.
7. They will hear what the Lord will do to them when his burning anger blazes out against them. Then perhaps they will pray to him. And maybe all of them will turn from their evil ways."
8. Baruch, the son of Neriah, did everything I told him to do. He went to the Lord's temple. There he read the words of the Lord from the scroll.
9. It was in the fifth year that Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, was king of Judah. It was the ninth month of that year. A time of fasting at the Lord's temple had been ordered. All of the people in Jerusalem were told to take part in it. So were those who had come in from the towns of Judah.
10. Baruch read to all of the people who were at the Lord's temple. He read my words from the scroll. He was in the room of the secretary Gemariah. It was located in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple. Gemariah was the son of Shaphan.