In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, in the fast proclaimed before Jehovah, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah in the book in the house of Jehovah to all the people in Jerusalem and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah. A leader among them, after hearing the word, went down to the king's house and told the princes there what he had heard in that book. Then the princes sent someone to Baruch to ask him to come to them with the scroll in his hand and read it to them. After hearing all the words in it, they turned in fear one to another and told Baruch that they had to report all those words to the king. They asked Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves and to let no one know where they were (vv. 9-19).

The princes went to the king in the court, and the scroll was read to the king and to all the princes who stood by him. As the scroll was being read, the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and the fire of the brazier was burning before him. After listening to three or four columns, the king would cut it with a scribe's knife and throw the pieces into the brazier, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire (vv. 20-23). The king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid and did not rend their garments. Rather, the king commanded his son and others to seize Baruch and Jeremiah, but Jehovah hid them (vv. 24-26).

Then, after the king had burned the scroll, Jehovah told Jeremiah to take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned (vv. 27-28). Concerning Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was commanded to say, "Thus says Jehovah, You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written in it, saying, The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and will cause man and beast to cease from it?" (v. 29). Jeremiah was to tell Jehoiakim that he would have no one to sit on the throne of David and that his corpse would be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night. Jehoiakim was also told that Jehovah would punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity and that He would bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the evil that He had spoken against them. Although He had spoken to them concerning these things, they would not listen (vv. 30-31).

Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and Baruch the scribe wrote on it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim had burned; and many more words like those were added to them (v. 32). From this we see that although Israel was stubborn in sinning against Jehovah, Jeremiah remained firm in his speaking for Him.