the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the
words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the
roll: and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And
Jehudi read it to the king, and to all the princes which stood beside
the king. Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and
there was a fire in the brasier burning before him. And it came to
pass, when Jehudi had read three or four sections, that the king cut
it with his penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the
brasier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the
brasier. And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither
the king, {308} nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to
the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.
And the king commanded his officers to take Baruch the scribe and
Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned
the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah,
saying, "Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former
words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah
hath burned.

"And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, 'Thus saith
the Lord: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written
therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy
this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

"'Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He
shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body
shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the
frost. And I will punish him and his family and his servants for their
iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have
pronounced against them, and they hearkened not.'"

Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the
son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the
words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the
fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

{309}

IV

JEREMIAH IN PRISON

(Jeremiah continued to rebuke the people for the evil of their lives,
and especially to insist that they could find no hope in an alliance
wit