the popular imagination while
it was swayed by the panic of anticipated invasion. He dictated to his
disciple Baruch the prophecies he had pronounced since the appearance of
the Scythians under Josiah, and on the day of the solemn fast proclaimed
throughout Judah during the winter of the fifth year of the reign, a few
months after the defeat of the Egyptians, he caused the writing to be
read to the assembled people at the entry of the new gate.**

* Jer. xxvi., where the scene takes place at the beginning
of Jehoiakim's reign, i.e. under the Egyptian domination.

** The date given in Jer. xxxvi. 9 makes the year begin in
spring, since the ninth month occurs in winter; this date
belongs, therefore, to the later recensions of the text. It
is nevertheless probably authentic, representing the exact
equivalent of the original date according to the old
calendar.

Micaiah, the son of Gremariah, was among those who listened, and noting
that the audience were moved by the denunciations which revived the
memory of their recent misfortunes, he hastened to inform the ministers
sitting in council within the palace of what was passing. They at once
sent for Baruch, and begged him to repeat to them what he had read.
They were so much alarmed at its recital, that they advised him to hide
himself in company with Jeremiah, while they informed the king of the
matter. Jehoiakim was sitting in a chamber with a brazier burning before
him on account of the severe cold: scarcely had they read three or four
pages before him when his anger broke forth; he seized the roll, slashed
it with the scribe's penknife, and threw the fragments into the
fire. Jeremiah recomposed the text from memory, and inserted in it a
malediction against the king. "Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim,
King of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and
his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night
to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for
their iniquity: and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have
pronounced against them; but they hearkened not."*

* Jer. xxxvi. Attempts have been made to reconstruct the
contents of Jeremiah's roll, and most of the authors who
have dealt with this subject think that the roll contained
the greater part of the fragments whic