FIRST READING
Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28
In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this
word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2Take a scroll and write
on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and
Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of
Josiah until today. 3It may be that when the house of Judah hears of all
the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their
evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. 4Then
Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at
Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the Lord that he had spoken to him.
5And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am prevented from entering
the house of the Lord; 6so you go yourself, and on a fast day in the
hearing of the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the
Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read
them also in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come up from
their towns. 7It may be that their plea will come before the Lord, and that
all of them will turn from their evil ways, for great is the anger and wrath
that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” 8And Baruch son of
Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about reading from
the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.
21Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the
chamber of Elishama the secretary; and Jehudi read it to the king and all
the officials who stood beside the king. 22Now the king was sitting in his
winter apartment (it was the ninth month), and there was a fire burning in
the brazier before him. 23As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king
would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the
brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the
brazier. 27Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words that
Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah: 28Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that
were in the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.
SECOND READING
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a
covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write
it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the
Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no
more.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.
