Ah! The young man, then, was a prophet! This was evident to everyone. He was speaking as did the Prophet Uriah, whom the king had put to death, and as spoke the Prophet Jeremiah who, last year, had been pilloried and driven out of Jerusalem!
Murmurs of astonishment and of pity arose from the audience. Men whispered to each other about the brilliant young man's probable arrest, punishment and, perhaps, death. Baruch felt instinctively the drift of the conversations, and smiled. With a well-selected passage he brought the talkers back to attention by the power and forcefulness of his oratory. He was a transformed man, cool, collected, eyes ablaze and peering at the very souls of his hearers. He held them and swayed them and finally moved many to tears and to ask, "Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us?" "What is our iniquity?" "What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?"
Now Baruch told them who he was and whose the addresses were. And in answer to the questions put to him he quoted from Jeremiah:
"Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; and ye have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto me; therefore will I cast you forth out of this land, into the land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers."
It was, indeed, fortunate for Baruch that none of the Temple prophets happened to be in the audience. There was present, however, a young man who was at first amused at Baruch's poetic fancies, then interested, then outraged when he discovered that he was listening to Jeremiah's prophesies. This young man was Micaiah, son of Gemariah, in whose chamber Baruch was speaking.
Now, Micaiah, grandson of the illustrious Shaphan, was growing up to be a different type from his noble ancestor. He was proud of his father's position at court and in the temple. He moved in the choicest royal circles and was a devoted court follower.
When Baruch had finished his answer to the questioners, Macaiah had had enough. Without a word he made his way through the crowd and ran all the way to the palace where, he knew, his father was at the counsel of the princes.
Post-haste and out of breath, he entered the scribe's chamber and repeated, as best he could, the words he had heard Baruch read out of the book to the people.
Here was a very awkward situation. The princes admitted Jeremiah's cleverness and Baruch's courage; but just at this time, when the king was contemplating rebellion from Babylonia, such preaching was treasonable and would prove injurious to the cause.
They held a hurried conference. Some were for the immediate arrest of Baruch; some were for his immediate death; some, who were opposed to rebellion, were for hearing the book read to them. Among the latter was Gemariah. One of their number, therefore, Jehudi by name, was despatched to the Temple with orders to bring Baruch and his scroll to the palace.