15. Then they said to him: “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.” So Baruch read it in their ears.
16. After they had heard all the words, they turned to each other in fear, then said to Baruch: “We will surely report all these words to the king.”
17. They also asked Baruch, saying: “Tell us now, how did you write all these words? At his dictation?”
18. Then Baruch answered them: “He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink into the scroll.”
19. Then the officials said to Baruch: “Go, hide yourself—you and Jeremiah—and let no one know where you are.”
20. Then they went to the king in the courtyard, after they had deposited the megillah in the chamber of the scribe Elishama. They reported all the words in the ears of the king.
21. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the megillah , and he brought it out of the chamber of the scribe Elishama. Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and all the officials who were standing by the king.
22. Since it was the ninth month, the king was residing in the winter house, with a fireplace burning before him.
23. Now as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, he cut it with the scribe’s knife and tossed it into the fire that was in the fireplace, until the whole megillah was consumed in the fire in the fireplace.
24. Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid, nor tore their clothes.
25. Moreover Elnatan, Delaiah and Gemariah entreated the king not to burn the megillah , but he would not listen to them.
26. Then the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, along with Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah—but Adonai hid them.
27. Then the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the megillah with the words that Baruch had written at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying:
28. “Take yet another megillah , and write in it all the original words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned up.
29. About King Jehoiakim of Judah you will say, thus says Adonai: ‘You have burned this megillah , saying, “Why have you written in it, saying the king of Babylon will surely come and destroy this land and will bring an end to both man and beast from it?”’”
30. Therefore thus says Adonai about King Jehoiakim of Judah: “He will have no one to sit on the throne of David. Moreover, his dead body will be tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.