And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem, the celebration being ordered by those in authority and proclaimed throughout the country for the specified day, the object probably being to arouse the national consciousness against the Babylonian invasion and oppression by combining the religious features of a fast with a public assembly of this magnitude. Jeremiah very likely had Baruch read the words of Jehovah in order to counteract the plans of the king and his counselors.

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