Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 1:2
To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
2. in the days of, etc.] See introductory note.
in the thirteenth year of his reign ] c. b.c. 626. The period included in these two verses is one of 40 years, viz. the latter part of Josiah’s reign = 18 years; that of Jehoahaz = 3 months; that of Jehoiakim = 11 years; that of Jehoiachin = 3 months; that of Zedekiah = 11 years. The omission of the names of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin is probably due to the shortness of their reigns.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Came – literally, was (and in Jer 1:4); the phrase implies that Jeremiah possessed Gods word from that time onward, not fitfully as coming and going, but constantly.
The thirteenth year of his reign – According to the ordinary reckoning, this would be 629 b.c., but if the Ptolemaic canon be right in putting the capture of Jerusalem at 586 b.c., it would be two years later, namely 627 b.c. However, according to the Assyrian chronology, it would be 608 b.c. It was the year after that in which Josiah began his reforms.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The word of the Lord; either that commission from God that did authorize him to his prophetical work, as it may probably be taken, Joh 10:35, was actually given unto him, Jer 1:10; or, command of God, as it is used, 1Ki 12:24; or rather, the materials of which his prophecies were to consist, for the space of forty-one years successively, in Judea, viz. from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, besides the time that he prophesied in Egypt. See Jer 43; Jer 44, as Isa 2:1.
In the days of Josiah, i.e. during his reign and reformed state of religion.
Amon; who corrupted again that religion by those idolatries that his father Manasseh had in the latter part of his reign so well reformed by rooting of them out, 2Ch 33:21-23. In the thirteenth year; by which it appears that Jeremiah prophesied the last eighteen years of Josiahs reign; for he reigned thirty-one years, 2Ki 22:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2, 3. Jehoiakim . . . Josiah . . .ZedekiahJehoahaz and Jehoiachin are omitted for they reignedonly three months each. The first and last of the kings under whomeach prophet prophesied are often thus specified in the generaltitle. See on these kings, and Jeremiah’s life, my Introduction.
thirteenth . . . of hisreign (Jer 25:3).
fifth month (2Ki25:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah,…. This was the beginning of the prophecy of Jeremiah, so that he prophesied long after Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah; for this king was
the son of Amon king of Judah, which Amon was the son of Manasseh; the Septuagint and Arabic versions wrongly call him Amos; and Jeremiah began to prophesy
in the thirteenth year of his reign: in the twenty first of Josiah’s age, for he began to reign when he was eight years old, and he reigned eighteen years after, for he reigned in all thirty one years; and it was five years after this that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the high priest, 2Ki 22:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He begins in the second verse to speak of his calling. (8) It would have, indeed, been to little purpose, had he said that he came forth and brought a message; but he explains, in the second verse, that he brought nothing but what had been delivered to him by God, as though he had said, that he faithfully declared what God had commanded him. For we know that the whole authority belongs entirely to God, with regard to the doctrine of religion, and that it is not in the power of men to blend this or that, and to make the faithful subject to themselves. As God, then, is the only true teacher of the Church, whosoever demands to be heard, must prove that he is God’s minister. This is, then, what Jeremiah is now carefully doing, for he says that the word of Jehovah was given to him.
He had before said, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah; but any one of the people might have objected and said, “Why dost thou intrude thyself, as though any one is to be heard? for God claims this right to himself alone.” Hence Jeremiah, by way of correction, subjoins, that the words were his, but that he was not the author of them, but the minister only. He says, then, that he only executed what God had commanded, for he had been the disciple of God himself, before he undertook the office of a teacher.
(8) The second verse begins with אשר which Calvin renders “ nempeeven,“ and takes it in an exegetic sense: but this is not its meaning. Our version is no doubt correct, “to whom;” though there is no preposition before it, it is yet found before the personal pronoun “to him,“ that comes afterwards. It is an idiom of the language, and the very same exists in Welsh, in which the version is literally the same with the Hebrew a relative pronoun without a preposition followed by a personal pronoun with a preposition profixed to it. It would be literally in English, “whom the word of Jehovah came to him.” The Welsh also retains the peculiarity of the Hebrew, in having prepositions prefixed to pronouns and attached to them, though this is not the case generally with nouns,
(lang. cy) Yr hwn y daeth gair Jehova atto.
The verb too, as in the Hebrew, precedes its nominative; “came” is before “the word of Jehovah.” It is rather singular that the Septuagint have rendered this relative by “ ὡσ — as,” which shews that the Hebrew idiom was not understood by them. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) In the thirteenth year of his reign.If we take the data of 2 Kings 22, Josiah was at that time in his twentieth or twenty-first year, having grown up under the training of Hilkiah. His active work of reformation began five years later. The images of Baal and Asherah (the groves) were thrown down, and the high places desecrated. The near coincidence of the commencement of Jeremiahs work as prophet with that of the king must not be forgotten. As Josiah reigned for thirty-one years, we have to place eighteen years of the prophets ministry as under his rule.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2, 3. To whom the word of the Lord came To whom the spirit of prophecy was imparted.
In the days of Josiah The sixteenth king of Judah after the separation from it of the kingdom of Israel.
Thirteenth year of his reign From “the thirteenth year” of Josiah to the eleventh year of Zedekiah was about forty years; namely, eighteen remaining of Josiah’s reign, eleven of Jehoiakim’s and eleven of Zedekiah’s. The closing years of Jeremiah’s life, spent amid the ruins of his own land and in Egypt, are not here included. Josiah, the great reformer, stands out in his line of kings “faithful among the faithless.” Five years after the commencement of Jeremiah’s official career he led the people in a formal renewal of their covenant with Jehovah, and celebrated the occasion by a passover feast perhaps more remarkable and imposing than any other ever celebrated at Jerusalem. Eight years later, when Pharaoh-Necho was on his way to the memorable battle of Carchemish, Josiah went out against him, and being mortally wounded at Megiddo, (2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:22-24,) died before reaching Jerusalem. For him Jeremiah made public lamentation, “and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day.” 2Ch 35:24-25. Jehoiakim was made king by Pharaoh-Necho, who had deposed his younger brother after a three months’ reign, and carried him in fetters to Riblah. As the Egyptian king was at this time making his expedition against Babylon, he charged his vassal Jehoiakim with the work of collecting a tribute of about $200,000, which he levied on the Jewish people. But Pharaoh met his Waterloo at Carchemish, and the king of Babylon seized upon Palestine as the natural fruit of his victory. He besieged and captured Jerusalem, made the king prisoner, and carried away to Babylon many of the principal inhabitants and some of the sacred vessels of the temple. Among these prisoners were Daniel and his three friends. Jehoiakim, having been subsequently reinstated, remained tributary to the king of Babylon for three years, and then, against the advice and warnings of Jeremiah, rebelled. The Babylonish king being at that time occupied with an Asiatic expedition, sent against the Jews an army composed from several of his allied and tributary peoples, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who cruelly harassed the country. The misery of the land was extreme. Jehoiakim finally came to a violent and ignominious death, and the greatest dishonour was done to his body, for it was dragged away “beyond the gates of Jerusalem,” and buried “with the burial of an ass.” The times of Jehoiakim were characterized by gross and general corruption. The sacred places became altars of lust. The holy city and even the very temple were filled with abomination. See Ezekiel 8. The character of this most corrupt and foolish of all the kings of Judah is concentrated into two inspired phrases, “his abomination which he did,” (2Ch 36:8,) and “he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood.” 2Ki 24:4. As in the time of Josiah the zeal and faith of the prophet were stimulated and developed, so in that of Jehoiakim he must have been burdened and alarmed by the general and outbreaking wickedness of the people. Jehoiachin, who succeeded his father Jehoiakim, having, after a brief reign of three months, been carried away to Babylon with ten thousand other captives Zedekiah, his uncle, was made king, 599 B.C. He was a fitting successor of Jehoiakim, showing the same characteristics of weakness and wickedness. “He humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet from the mouth of the Lord.” 2Ch 36:12. The cup of Judah’s wickedness was now full, and God’s judgments came swiftly and terribly. Jerusalem was taken and pillaged; the temple burned; the sacred vessels, what remained of them, were taken away; the glory of Jerusalem, as a political capital, finally extinguished, and the captivity fully inaugurated.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Having given his name, and family, and place of abode, he now mentions his commission, and the time of receiving it. So that the whole period of the Prophet’s ministry, like the contents of a book, is here marked in the first leaf of his writings. If the Reader will be at the pains of enquiry, he will find, that the whole period of Jeremiah’s ministry was somewhat more than forty years.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Ver. 2. Unto whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah. ] Woe be to the world because of the word! The Lord keepeth count what preachers he sendeth, what pains they take, and how long, to how little purpose they preach unto a people. He saith that it was “The word of the Lord,” for authority sake, and that none might despise his youth, since he was sent by the “Ancient of days.”
In the thirteenth year of his reign.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the word of the LORD came. It is remarkable that, in the four longer prophets, this formula is almost entirely confined to the two who were priests (Jeremiah and Ezekiel). See App-82. Compare Gen 15:1. 1Sa 9:27; 1Sa 15:10. 2Sa 7:4; 2Sa 24:11. 1Ki 12:22. 1Ch 17:3; 1Ch 22:8. 2Ch 11:2; 2Ch 12:7. Eze 1:3; Eze 14:12. Hos 1:1. Joe 1:1, &c.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Josiah. Three kings named here and in Jer 1:3. Two others not named here (Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin), who reigned only three months each (2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:8).
thirteenth year. A year after Josiah began his reformation (2Ch 34:3). (618 B.C. See App-50.) Sixty-six years after Isaiah ended. For the chronology of Jeremiah, see App-77and App-83. From 2Ch 34:22. Jeremiah was probably still at Anathoth.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the word: Jer 1:4, Jer 1:11, 1Ki 13:20, Hos 1:1, Jon 1:1, Mic 1:1
in the days: 2Ki 21:25, 2Ki 21:26, 2Ki 22:1 – 2Ki 23:37, 2Ch 34:1 – 2Ch 35:27
Reciprocal: 2Ch 34:8 – the eighteenth Jer 16:1 – The word Jer 25:3 – thirteenth Jer 28:12 – General Jer 30:1 – General Jer 36:2 – from the day Eze 1:3 – word Joe 1:1 – word Zep 1:1 – in the days Mat 1:10 – Josias Luk 3:2 – the word
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 1:2. The date when Jeremiah began to write by the word of the Lord was the 13th year of Josiab, king of Judah. Josiah began to reign B.C. 639, which would make it B.C. 626 when Jeremiah was inspired by the Lord and began his writing. This was 20 years before the Babylonian captivity began. He continued his writing about the same number of years after it began, We shall see near the close of the book that the date of the termination of his writings is somewhat obscure on account of the difficulties thrown around him by his enemies.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1:2 To whom the {d} word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
(d) This is spoken to confirm his calling and office, as he did not presume of himself to preach and prophecy, but was called to it by God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The word of Jeremiah was the word of the Lord (cf. Jer 1:1). Jeremiah received his first instructions from Yahweh as a prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah of Judah’s reign (640-609 B.C.), namely, 627 B.C. (cf. Jer 25:3). [Note: See A Graeme Auld, "Prophets and Prophecy in Jeremiah and Kings," Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 96:1 (1984):66-82, for a study of the history of the terms "prophet" and "prophecy" in the Old Testament.]