JEREMIAH, son of Hilkiah, one of the ordinary priests, dwelling in Anathoth of Benjamin (Jer 1:1), not the Hilkiah the high priest who discovered the book of the law (2Ki 22:8); had he been the same, the designation would have been "the priest", or "the high priest". Besides, his residence at Anathoth shows that he belonged to the line of Abiathar, who was deposed from the high priesthood by Solomon (1Ki 2:26-35), after which the office remained in Zadok's line. Mention occurs of Jeremiah in 2Ch 35:25 36:12,21. In 629 B.C. the thirteenth year of King Josiah, while still very young (Jer 1:5), he received his prophetical call in Anathoth (Jer 1:2); and along with Hilkiah the high priest, the prophetess Huldah, and the prophet Zephaniah, he helped forward Josiah's reformation of religion (2Ki 23:1-25). Among the first charges to him was one that he should go and proclaim God's message in Jerusalem (Jer 2:2). He also took an official tour to announce to the cities of Judah the contents of the book of the law, found in the temple (Jer 11:6) five years after his call to prophesy. On his return to Anathoth, his countrymen, offended at his reproofs, conspired against his life. To escape their persecutions (Jer 11:21), as well as those of his own family (Jer 12:6), he left Anathoth and resided at Jerusalem. During the eighteen years of his ministry in Josiah's reign he was unmolested; also during the three months of Jehoahaz or Shallum's reign (Jer 22:10-12). On Jehoiakim's accession it became evident that Josiah's reformation effected nothing more than a forcible repression of idolatry and the establishment of the worship of God outwardly. The priests, prophets, and people then brought Jeremiah before the authorities, urging that he should be put to death for his denunciations of evil against the city (Jer 26:8-11). The princes, however, especially Ahikam, interposed in his behalf (Jer 26:16,24), but he was put under restraint, or at least deemed it prudent not to appear in public. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), he was commanded to write the predictions given orally through him, and to read them to the people. Being "shut up", he could not himself go into the house of the Lord (Jer 36:5); he therefore deputed Baruch, his amanuensis, to read them in public on the fast day. The princes thereupon advised Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves from the king's displeasure. Meanwhile they read the roll to the king, who was so enraged that he cut it with a knife and threw it into the fire; at the same time giving orders for the apprehension of the prophet and Baruch. They escaped Jehoiakim's violence, which had already killed the prophet Urijah (Jer 26:20-23). Baruch rewrote the words, with additional prophecies, on another roll (Jer 36:27-32). In the three months' reign of Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, he prophesied the carrying away of the king and the queen mother (Jer 13:18 22:24-30; compare 2Ki 24:12). In this reign he was imprisoned for a short time by Pashur (Jer 20:1-18), the chief governor of the Lord's house; but at Zedekiah's accession he was free (Jer 37:4), for the king sent to him to "inquire of the Lord" when Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem (Jer 21:1-3, &c. Jer 37:3). The Chaldeans drew off on hearing of the approach of Pharaoh's army (Jer 37:5); but Jeremiah warned the king that the Egyptians would forsake him, and the Chaldeans return and burn up the city (Jer 37:7,8). The princes, irritated at this, made the departure of Jeremiah from the city during the respite a pretext for imprisoning him, on the allegation of his deserting to the Chaldeans (Jer 38:1-5). He would have been left to perish in the dungeon of Malchiah, but for the intercession of Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian (Jer 38:6-13). Zedekiah, though he consulted Jeremiah in secret yet was induced by his princes to leave Jeremiah in prison (Jer 38:14-28) until Jerusalem was taken. Nebuchadnezzar directed his captain, Nebuzar-adan, to give him his freedom, so that he might either go to Babylon or stay with the remnant of his people as he chose. As a true patriot, notwithstanding the forty and a half years during which his country had repaid his services with neglect and persecution, he stayed with Gedaliah, the ruler appointed by Nebuchadnezzar over Judea (Jer 40:6). After the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, Johanan, the recognized ruler of the people, in fear of the Chaldeans avenging the murder of Gedaliah, fled with the people to Egypt, and forced Jeremiah and Baruch to accompany him, in spite of the prophet's warning that the people should perish if they went to Egypt, but be preserved by remaining in their land (Jer 41:1-43:13). At Tahpanhes, a boundary city on the Tanitic or Pelustan branch of the Nile, he prophesied the overthrow of Egypt (Jer 43:8-13). Tradition says he died in Egypt. According to the PSEUDO-EPIPHANIUS, he was stoned at Taphnæ or Tahpanhes. The Jews so venerated him that they believed he would rise from the dead and be the forerunner of Messiah (Mt 16:14).

HAVERNICK observes that the combination of features in Jeremiah's character proves his divine mission; mild, timid, and susceptible of melancholy, yet intrepid in the discharge of his prophetic functions, not sparing the prince any more than the meanest of his subjects--the Spirit of prophecy controlling his natural temper and qualifying him for his hazardous undertaking, without doing violence to his individuality. Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel, and Ezekiel were his contemporaries. The last forms a good contrast to Jeremiah, the Spirit in his case acting on a temperament as strongly marked by firmness as Jeremiah's was by shrinking and delicate sensitiveness. Ezekiel views the nation's sins as opposed to righteousness--Jeremiah, as productive of misery; the former takes the objective, the latter the subjective, view of the evils of the times. Jeremiah's style corresponds to his character: he is peculiarly marked by pathos, and sympathy with the wretched; his Lamentations illustrate this; the whole series of elegies has but one object--to express sorrow for his fallen country; yet the lights and images in which he presents this are so many, that the reader, so far from feeling it monotonous, is charmed with the variety of the plaintive strains throughout. The language is marked by Aramæisms, which probably was the ground of JEROME'S charge that the style is "rustic". LOWTH denies the charge and considers him in portions not inferior to Isaiah. His heaping of phrase on phrase, the repetition of stereotyped forms--and these often three times--are due to his affected feelings and to his desire to intensify the expression of them; he is at times more concise, energetic, and sublime, especially against foreign nations, and in the rhythmical parts.

The principle of the arrangement of his prophecies is hard to ascertain. The order of kings was--Josiah (under whom he prophesied eighteen years), Jehoahaz (three months), Jehoiakim (eleven years), Jeconiah (three months), Zedekiah (eleven years). But his prophecies under Josiah (the first through twentieth chapters) are immediately followed by a portion under Zedekiah (the twenty-first chapter). Again, Jer 24:8-10, as to Zedekiah, comes in the midst of the section as to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fifth chapters, &c.) So the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth chapters as to Jehoiakim, follow the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirty-third, thirty-fourth chapters, as to Zedekiah; and the forty-fifth chapter, dated the fourth year of Jehoiakim, comes after predictions as to the Jews who fled to Egypt after the overthrow of Jerusalem. EWALD thinks the present arrangement substantially Jeremiah's own; the various portions are prefaced by the same formula, "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord" (Jer 7:1 11:1 18:1 Jer 21:1 25:1 30:1 32:1 34:1,8 35:1 40:1 44:1; compare Jer 14:1 46:1 47:1 49:34). Notes of time mark other divisions more or less historical (Jer 26:1 27:1 36:1 37:1). Two other portions are distinct of themselves (Jer 29:1 45:1). The second chapter has the shorter introduction which marks the beginning of a strophe; the third chapter seems imperfect, having as the introduction merely "saying" (Jer 3:1, Hebrew). Thus in the poetical parts, there are twenty-three sections divided into strophes of from seven to nine verses, marked some way thus, "The Lord said also unto me". They form five books: I. The Introduction, first chapter II. Reproofs of the Jews, the second through twenty-fourth chapters, made up of seven sections: (1) the second chapter (2) the third through sixth chapters; (3) the seventh through tenth chapters; (4) the eleventh through thirteenth chapters; (5) the fourteenth through seventeenth chapters; (6) the seventeenth through nineteenth and twentieth chapters; (7) the twenty-first through twenty-fourth chapters. III. Review of all nations in two sections: the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth through forty-ninth chapters, with a historical appendix of three sections, (1) the twenty-sixth chapter; (2) the twenty-seventh chapter; (3) the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters. IV. Two sections picturing the hopes of brighter times, (1) the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; (2) the thirty-second and thirty-third chapters; and an historical appendix in three sections: (1) Jer 34:1-7; (2) Jer 34:8-22; (3) Jer 35:1-19. V. The conclusion, in two sections: (1) Jer 36:2; (2) Jer 45:1-5. Subsequently, in Egypt, he added Jer 46:13-26 to the previous prophecy as to Egypt; also the three sections, the thirty-seventh through thirty-ninth chapters; fortieth through forty-third chapters; and forty-fourth chapter. The fifty-second chapter was probably (see Jer 51:64) an appendix from a later hand, taken from 2Ki 24:18, &c. 2Ki 25:30. The prophecies against the several foreign nations stand in a different order in the Hebrew from that of the Septuagint; also the prophecies against them in the Hebrew (the forty-sixth through fifty-first chapters) are in the Septuagint placed after Jer 25:14, forming the twenty-sixth and thirty-first chapters; the remainder of the twenty-fifth chapter of the Hebrew is the thirty-second chapter of the Septuagint. Some passages in the Hebrew (Jer 27:19-22 33:14-26 39:4-14 Jer 48:45-47) are not found in the Septuagint; the Greek translators must have had a different recension before them; probably an earlier one. The Hebrew is probably the latest and fullest edition from Jeremiah's own hand. See on Jer 25:13. The canonicity of his prophecies is established by quotations of them in the New Testament (see Mt 2:17 16:14 Heb 8:8-12; on Mt 27:9, see on Introduction to Zechariah); also by the testimony of Ecclesiasticus 49:7, which quotes Jer 1:10; of PHILO, who quotes his word as an "oracle"; and of the list of canonical books in MELITO, ORIGEN, JEROME, and the Talmud.

The Written Prophecy of Jeremiah

By H. A. (Buster) Dobbs

I.  Introduction.
    A.  The man.
        1.  A priest of the tribe of Levi.
        2.  Grew up in the priestly village of Anathoth, a short distance 
            from Jerusalem.
        3.  He was a man of education and a child of destiny.
        4.  He appears suddenly on the scene.
        5.  He was not a weak sentimentalist.
    B.  The background.
        1.  Began his work in the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah 
            (627 B.C.)
            a.  Following Hezekiah's reformation, Manasseh, son of 
                Hezekiah, introduced idolatry. He reigned for 55 years.
            b.  Amon (an evil king), son of Manasseh, reigned for 2 years.
            c.  Josiah, a grandson of Manasseh, instituted another reform.
        2.  During the reign of Josiah, Nineveh fell to Babylon.
        3.  Pharaoh-necoh of Egypt killed Josiah and controlled Judah 
            for a short time.
        4.  Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, became king (3 months) but was 
            removed by Pharaoh-necoh.
        5.  Johoiakim (Eliakim), another son of Josiah, became king and 
            ruled 11 years.
        6.  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon vanquished the Egyptian army 
            and took all that "which pertained to Pharaoh-necoh."
        7.  Babylon was now supreme. Jehoiakim became 
            Nebuchadnezzar's vassal.
        8.  After three years, Jehoiakim rebelled and "slept with his 
            fathers.".
        9.  Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, reigned in his place. 
            Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jerusalem and carried Jehoiachin 
            and the notables of the land into captivity.
        10.  Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah, king 
             and changed his name to Zedekiah. He ruled in Jerusalem for 
             11 years, but rebelled against Babylon and provoked a 
             second invasion and the rest of the people were carried 
             captive and scattered from Judah.
        11.  During the reign of Josiah and the turmoil that followed, 
             Jeremiah prophesied.
II.  The Book.
      A.  The call of Jeremiah (1:1-19).
          1.  Appointed to his work before his birth (1:5).
          2.  Two visions (1:11-16).
              a.  Jeremiah saw the rod of an almond tree (1:11-12).
              b.  He then saw a boiling caldron (1:13-16).
          3.  God's promise to be with and empower Jeremiah (1:17-19).
      B.  Prophecies and judgments (2:1 to 24:10).
          1.  Idolatry denounced (2:1-28).
          2.  The nation rebuked because of  ingratitude (2:29-37).
              a.  They killed the prophets.
              b.  They were guilty of adultery.
              c.  They robbed the poor, especially orphans.
              d.  Captivity was soon to come.
          3.  The abomination of idolatry (3:1 to 4:2).
              a.  The faithlessness of Judah.
              b.  The treachery of Israel.
              c.  Jehovah promises Israel acceptance if she will repent.
          4.  A warning and a lamentation (4:3 to 5:3).
          5.  The overthrow of Jerusalem and Judah is inescapable 
              (5:4-31).
              a.  Judah's great guilt.
              b.  Invasion and defeat foretold.
              c.  What will ye do in the end thereof?
          6.  The fall and ruin of Jerusalem (6:1-30).
              a.  They have healed the hurt of my people slightly (6:14).
              b.  Ask for the old paths (6:16).
              c.  Judah had not heard the word of Jehovah nor kept his 
                  law (6:19).
              d.  Destruction from the north (6:22-26).
              e.  Jeremiah's hard task of rebuking the nation (6:27-30).
          7.  Jeremiah preaching in the temple (7:1 to 10:24).
          8.  Sign of a marred girdle (11:1 to 13:27).
              a.  A broken covenant (11:1-13).
              b.  No prayers for Judah; she is past redeeming (11:14-17).
              c.  People of Anathoth conspire to kill Jeremiah (11:18-23).
              d.  Jeremiah complains about the misery of the land 
                  (12:1-4).
              e.  God's replies that things will get worse (12:5-6).
              f.  Sentence against Judah and her neighbors; possibility of 
                  restoration (12:7-17).
              g.  The worthless girdle and jars of wine (13:1-27).
          9.  Condemnation and ruin (14:1 to 17:27).
              a.  A drought and prayer for mercy (14:1-9).
              b.  Jehovah declares that prayer is now useless (14:10-18).
              c.  Jehovah unyielding (14:19 to 15:9).
              d.  Jeremiah's complain and Jehovah's answer (15:10-1).
              e.  Great misery foretold (16:1-13).
              f.  A coming restoration (16:14-21).
              g.  Judah's sin; Jehovah to be trusted; a plea for protection; 
                  the Sabbath to be hallowed (17:1-27).
          10.  The potter's vessel (18:1 to 20:18).
               a.  The vessel marred in the hand of the potter (18:1-17).
               b.  The plot against Jeremiah (18:18).
               c.  Jeremiah calls on Jehovah to punish Israel (18:19-23).
               d.  A potter's earthen bottle (19:1-15).
               e.  Pashhur, a priest, imprisoned Jeremiah because of 
                   Jeremiah's warnings (20:1-6).
               f.  Jeremiah's helpless determination to rebuke Israel 
                   (20:7-13).
               g.  Jeremiah's rues his birth (20:14-18).
          11.  Kings, rulers, and false prophets (21:1 to 24:10).
               a.  King Zedekiah's question (21:1-2).
               b.  Jeremiah's menacing answer (21:3-14).
               c.  Jeremiah warns Judah against injustice (22:1-9).
               d.  Shallum (Jehoahaz) to be punished with death 
                   (22:10-12).
               e.  Jehoiakim and Coniah to die miserably (22:13-30).
               f.  Wicked shepherds of the people (23:1-4).
               g.  Prophecy of a coming messiah (23:5-8).
               h.  Concerning the prophets (23:9-40).
               i.  Two baskets of figs (24:1-10).
      C.  Historical section (25:1 to 29:32).
          1.  Judgment of God against Jerusalem and the nations 
              (25:1-31).
              a.  Jews' disobedience (25:1-7).
              b.  Seventy years of captivity foretold (25:8-11).
              c.  Destruction of the nations by Babylon foretold 
                  (25:12-33).
              d.  Howling of the shepherds (25:34-38). 
          2.  A call to repentance (26:1-24).
              a.  Men of Judah would not listen to the word of God 
                  (26:1-7).
              b.  Jeremiah arrested and threatened (26:7-11).
              c.  Jeremiah's defense (26:12-15).
              d.  Jeremiah delivered (26:16-24).
          3.  Jeremiah counsels the nations to submit to Babylon 
              (27:1-22).
          4.  Jeremiah and Hananiah -- yokes of wood and yokes of iron 
              (28:1-17).
          5.  Jeremiah's letter to the captives in Babylon (29:1-32).
              a.  Jeremiah's letter counsels the people to be quite and 
                  accept their condition in Babylon (29:1-14).
              b.  They were not to listen to the false prophets who were 
                  giving bad advise to the people (29:15-23).
              c.  Shemaiah wrote back asking the authorities in Jerusalem 
                  to put Jeremiah in prison (29:24-32).
      D.  Restoration promised (30:1 to 35:10).
          1.  Israel and Judah to be brought again to the land  (30:1-24).
          2.  The restoration assured (31:1-40).
              a.  The restoration to be a time of joy (31:1-14).
              b.  Rachael's tears  to be dried by the return of the people to 
                  Jerusalem (31:15-17).
              c.  Even Ephraim to be restored; the nation to be redeemed, 
                  after a period of punishment and correction  (31:18-30).
              d.  A new covenant to be given (31:31-34).
              e.  Restoration assured (31:35-40).
          3.  Captivity and restoration (32:1-44).
              a.  Babylon besieges Jerusalem  and Jeremiah is "shut up in 
                  the court of the prison" (32:1-5).
              b.  Jeremiah purchases a field from his cousin in token of a 
                  coming restoration (32:625).
              c.  Captivity confirmed  (32:26-35).
              d.  Restoration again promised (32:36-44).
          4.  God promises a joyful return to Jerusalem one day 
              (33:1-26).
              a.  A glad return and prosperous times (33:1-14).
              b.  The Branch of righteousness to appear (33:15-26).
          5.  Treatment of slaves contrary to God's law; Zedekiah and 
              the people to go into captivity (34:1-22).
          6.  The example of the Rechabites (35:1-19).
      E.  The captivity (36:1 to 45:5).
          1.  The burning and restoration of the roll (36:1-32).
          2.  Babylon, Egypt and Jerusalem (37:1-21).
              a.  Babylonian siege lifted because of the coming of the 
                  Egyptian army (37:1-5).
              b.  Jeremiah prophecies the return of the Babylonians 
                  (37:6-10).
              c.  Jeremiah arrested as he is leaving the city to inspect his 
                  property in Benjamin and put in a dungeon (37:11-15).
              d.  Zedekiah inquires of Jeremiah about a word from 
                  Jehovah (37:16-21).
          3.  Jeremiah advises the people to surrender to the Babylonians 
              and is put in a prison where he sinks down in the mire; 
              Jeremiah is delivered by an Ethiopian; he privately counsels 
              the king to surrender  (38:1-28).
          4.  Jerusalem falls and Zedekiah is blinded and carried to 
              Babylon (39:1-18).
          5.  Jeremiah is released and goes to Gedaliah, who was 
              appointed by the Babylonians to be governor over the land;  
              Ishmael conspires to kill Gedaliah (40:1-16).
          6.  Ishmael kills Gedaliah and attempts to defect to the 
              Ammonites; he is killed by Johanan (41:1-18).
          7.  Johanan begs Jeremiah to bring him word from Jehovah; 
              after ten days, Jeremiah reports that Jehovah will bless and 
              protect Johanan and those with him if they remain in Judah, 
              but warns them not to go into Egypt (42:1-22).
          8.  Johanan and the people go into Egypt, forcing Jeremiah and 
              others to go with them; Jeremiah prophecies the defeat of 
              Egypt by Babylon  (43:1-13).
          9.  The people of Judah continued to practice idolatry in 
              Egypt; Jeremiah prophecies the destruction of Egypt as 
              punishment (44:1-30).
          10.  Jeremiah's secretary, Baruch, is filled with sorrow and 
               grief, and is comforted (45:15).
      F.  Review of the nations (46:1 to 49:39).
          1.  The doom of Egypt foretold and described (46:1-28).
          2.  The destruction of the Philistines (47:1-7).
          3.  Judgment against Moab (48:1-47).
          4.  Judgment of Ammonites, Edom, Damascus, and Elam 
              (49:1-39).
      G.  Fall of Babylon; the stone thrown into the Euphrates river  
          (50:1 to 51:64).
      H.  Jeremiah in Egypt (52:1-34).
          1.  An appendix (52:1-34).
              a.  Zedekiah rebels against Babylon (52:1-3).
              b.  Jerusalem falls to the Babylonian army (52:4-7).
              c.  Zedekiah's sons and the princes are killed before him;  his 
                  eyes are put out; he is bound in chains and carried to 
                  Babylon and put in prison (52:8-11).
              d.  Anything of value was stripped from the temple and from 
                  Jerusalem and carried to Babylon (52:12-23).
              e.  The principal men killed, and the rest carried into 
                  captivity (52:24-30).
              f.  Jehoiachin treated kindly in Babylon (52:31-34).

Jeremiah - raised up or appointed by Jehovah.

One of the "greater prophets" of the Old Testament, son of Hilkiah (q.v.), a priest of Anathoth (Jer. 1:1; 32:6). He was called to the prophetical office when still young (1:6), in the thirteenth year of Josiah (B.C. 628). He left his native place, and went to reside in Jerusalem, where he greatly assisted Josiah in his work of reformation (2 Kings 23:1-25). The death of this pious king was bewailed by the prophet as a national calamity (2 Chr. 35:25).

During the three years of the reign of Jehoahaz we find no reference to Jeremiah, but in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the enmity of the people against him broke out in bitter persecution, and he was placed apparently under restraint (Jer. 36:5). In the fourth year of Jehoiakim he was commanded to write the predictions given to him, and to read them to the people on the fast-day. This was done by Baruch his servant in his stead, and produced much public excitement. The roll was read to the king. In his recklessness he seized the roll, and cut it to pieces, and cast it into the fire, and ordered both Baruch and Jeremiah to be apprehended. Jeremiah procured another roll, and wrote in it the words of the roll the king had destroyed, and "many like words" besides (Jer. 36:32).

He remained in Jerusalem, uttering from time to time his words of warning, but without effect. He was there when Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city (Jer. 37:4, 5), B.C. 589. The rumour of the approach of the Egyptians to aid the Jews in this crisis induced the Chaldeans to withdraw and return to their own land. This, however, was only for a time. The prophet, in answer to his prayer, received a message from God announcing that the Chaldeans would come again and take the city, and burn it with fire (37:7, 8). The princes, in their anger at such a message by Jeremiah, cast him into prison (37:15-38:13). He was still in confinement when the city was taken (B.C. 588). The Chaldeans released him, and showed him great kindness, allowing him to choose the place of his residence. He accordingly went to Mizpah with Gedaliah, who had been made governor of Judea. Johanan succeeded Gedaliah, and refusing to listen to Jeremiah's counsels, went down into Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch with him (Jer. 43:6). There probably the prophet spent the remainder of his life, in vain seeking still to turn the people to the Lord, from whom they had so long revolted (44). He lived till the reign of Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, and must have been about ninety years of age at his death. We have no authentic record of his death. He may have died at Tahpanhes, or, according to a tradition, may have gone to Babylon with the army of Nebuchadnezzar; but of this there is nothing certain.