As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ¹  of the scroll, the king ²  would cut them off with a penknife ³  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁴ 

“Get another ¹  scroll and write on it everything ²  that was written on the original scroll ³  that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned.

I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ¹  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ²  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ³ 

Then Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on this scroll everything that had been on the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. They also added on this scroll several other messages of the same kind. ¹ 

For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ¹  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ² 

Then King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be committed to the courtyard of the guardhouse. He also ordered that a loaf of bread ¹  be given to him every day from the baker’s street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah was kept ²  in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal ¹  son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur ²  son of Malkijah had heard ³  the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They had heard him say,

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

All the women who are left in the royal palace of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. They will taunt you saying, ¹  ‘Your trusted friends misled you; they have gotten the best of you. Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have turned their backs on you.’ ² 

“All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ¹  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ²  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ³ 

All the officials did indeed come and question Jeremiah. ¹  He told them exactly what the king had instructed him to say. ²  They stopped questioning him any further because no one had actually heard their conversation. ³ 

Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ²  in the Middle Gate. ³ 

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ¹  after Nebuzaradan the captain of the royal guard had set him free at Ramah. ²  He had taken him there in chains ³  along with all the people from Jerusalem ⁴  and Judah who were being carried off to exile to Babylon.

Now some of the officers of the Judean army and their troops had been hiding in the countryside. They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to govern ¹  the country. They also heard that he had been put in charge over the men, women, and children from the poorer classes of the land who had not been carried off into exile in Babylon. ² 

Moreover, all the Judeans who were in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other countries heard what had happened. They heard that the king of Babylon had allowed some people to stay in Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, to govern them.

So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs. ¹ 

Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah there at Mizpah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah before anyone knows about it. Otherwise he will kill you ¹  and all the Judeans who have rallied around you will be scattered. Then what remains of Judah will disappear.”

Ishmael also killed all the Judeans ¹  who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Babylonian ²  soldiers who happened to be there. ³ 

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one ¹  that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel. ²  Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies. ³ 

They said to him, “Please grant our request ¹  and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. ²  For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. ³