3 Maybe the nation of Judah will hear about all the disasters that I plan to bring on them, and they will turn from their wicked ways. Then I will forgive their wickedness and their sins.”
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah. Jeremiah dictated everything that the Lord had told him, and Baruch wrote it all down on a scroll.
5 Jeremiah told Baruch, “I’m no longer allowed to go to the Lord’s temple.
6 On a day of fasting, you must read from the scroll the Lord’s message that you wrote as I dictated. You must read it to the people in the Lord’s temple. You must also read it to all the people of Judah when they come from their cities.
7 Maybe their prayers will come into the Lord’s presence, and they will turn from their evil ways. The Lord has threatened these people with his terrifying anger and fury.”
8 Baruch, son of Neriah, did as the prophet Jeremiah commanded him. In the Lord’s temple he read from the scroll everything that the Lord had said.
9 In the ninth month of the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah of Judah, a time for fasting was called. It was a time for all the people in Jerusalem and for everyone who was coming from any city in Judah to Jerusalem to fast in the Lord’s presence.