So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast<n id="1" /> in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the <sc>Lordsc> said, which you wrote in the scroll.<n id="2" />

At that time Baruch went into the temple of the <sc>Lordsc>. He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan who had been the royal secretary.<n id="1" /> That room was in the upper court<n id="2" /> near the entrance of the New Gate.<n id="3" /> There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said.<n id="4" />p>

&#8220;Get another<n id="1" /> scroll and write on it everything<n id="2" /> that was written on the original scroll<n id="3" /> that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned.

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.<n id="1" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">King Zedekiah sent<n id="1" /> Jehucal<n id="2" /> son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah<n id="3" /> son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah. He told them to say, &#8220;Please pray to the <sc>Lordsc> our God on our behalf.&#8221;

For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces<n id="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.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

But he only got as far as the Benjamin Gate.<n id="1" /> There an officer in charge of the guards named Irijah,<n id="2" /> who was the son of Shelemiah and the grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. He seized Jeremiah and said,<n id="3" /> &#8220;You are deserting to the Babylonians!&#8221;<n id="4" />

Then King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be committed to the courtyard of the guardhouse. He also ordered that a loaf of bread<n id="1" /> be given to him every day from the baker&#8217;s street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah was kept<n id="2" /> in the courtyard of the guardhouse.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal<n id="1" /> son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur<n id="2" /> son of Malkijah had heard<n id="3" /> the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They had heard him say,

<t /><p class="bodytext">An Ethiopian, Ebed Melech,<n id="1" /> a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put<n id="2" /> in the cistern. While the king was holding court<n id="3" /> at the Benjamin Gate,

So Ebed Melech took the men with him and went to a room under the treasure room in the palace.<n id="1" /> He got some worn-out clothes and old rags<n id="2" /> from there and let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Some time later<n id="1" /> Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance<n id="2" /> of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, &#8220;I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.&#8221;<n id="3" />

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, &#8220;I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Babylonians.<n id="1" /> The Babylonians might hand me over to them and they will torture me.&#8221;<n id="2" />

But the Babylonian<n id="1" /> army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho<n id="2" /> and captured him.<n id="3" /> They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah<n id="4" /> in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.

sent and had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guardhouse. They turned him over to Gedaliah,<n id="1" /> the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan, to take him home with him.<n id="2" /> But Jeremiah stayed among the people.<n id="3" />p>

&#8220;Go<n id="1" /> and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all says, &#8220;I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it.<n id="2" /> When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it.<n id="3" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">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<n id="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.<n id="2" />

Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety.<n id="1" /> &#8220;Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians.<n id="2" /> Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.

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.

They said to him, &#8220;Are you at all aware<n id="1" /> that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?&#8221; But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them.