Jeremiah 36:4
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah and dictated to him all the words of the Lord that had been spoken to him, and Baruch wrote them by dictation with ink upon a roll of a book or scroll of parchment. This was done in obedience to God's command in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah to put in writing all His messages from the days of Josiah to that day against Israel and Judah and all the nations. Jeremiah was shut up as a prisoner and could not go into the house of the Lord himself, so Baruch served as his faithful scribe friend and carefully wrote what was dictated.
The roll contained a solemn reproof for many sins, a warning of the evil purposed against them and the sure result of continual apostasy, and an earnest appeal to renounce all evil and return to God. It was written so that the house of Judah hearing all the evil purposed against them might every man return from his evil way, present supplication before the Lord and turn, because great is the anger and fury pronounced against them, that God might forgive their iniquity and sin. Because Jeremiah could not go himself, Baruch was charged to go and read the roll in the ears of the people in the Lord's house upon the fasting day and in the ears of all Judah coming out of their cities, and Baruch did according to all that Jeremiah commanded.
Baruch read it before all the people of Judah and afterward before the princes, who listened with great interest and promised to tell the king what they had heard. They counseled Baruch to hide himself because they feared the king would reject the testimony and seek to slay those who had prepared and delivered the message, and a search was afterward made for Jeremiah and Baruch. When the scroll was read to the king, the people refused to receive its reproofs, and the king showed no fear but cut the roll with a penknife and burned it.
By God's command the message was written again with all the former words and more added, showing that burning the first scroll did not destroy God's message. Hostility toward the messenger or destruction of the written warning did not prevent God's threatened judgments, for the written message was God's word delivered through a chosen prophet. Those judgments included that Jehoiakim would have none to sit upon the throne of David, his dead body would be cast out to the heat by day and frost by night, and punishment would come upon him and his seed and servants and upon Jerusalem and Judah for not hearkening. Jeremiah's persecution for faithfully obeying God in delivering reproof and warning illustrates the opposition faithful servants may face. The account serves as a warning that similar rejection of God's messages would recur in a later time, for rejecting the written messages repeats Jehoiakim's act of burning and trifles with the Lord, while God repeats the warnings to call to repentance and reform.