Jeremiah

JEREMIAH

One of the chief prophets of the Old Testament, prophesied under Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, and also after the captivity of the latter. He was born at Anathoth, of the race of the priests, and was destined of God to be a prophet, and consecrated for that object before his birth, Jer 1:1,5 . At an early age he was called to act as a prophet, B. C. 628, in the thirteenth year of King Josiah. This good king no doubt cooperated with him to promote the reformation of the people; but the subsequent life of the prophet was full of afflictions and persecutions. Jehoiakim threw his prophetic roll into the fire, and sought his life. Zedekiah was kindly instructed by him, and warned of the woes impending over his guilty people, and of their seventy years’ captivity, but to no purpose. The fidelity of the prophet often endangered his life, and he was in prison when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. That monarch released him, and offered him a home in Babylon; but he chose to remain with the remnant of the Jews, and was carried by them before long into Egypt, B. C. 586, still faithfully advising and reproving them till he died. For forty-two years he steadfastly maintained the cause of truth and of God against his rebellious people. Though naturally mild, sensitive, and retiring, he shrank from no danger when duty called; threats could not silence him, nor ill usage alienate him. Tenderly compassionate to his infatuated countrymen, he shared with them the woes, which he could not induce them to avert from their own heads.

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah

(Hebrew: possibly, whom Jehovah appoints)

Prophet. He was the son of Helcias (Jeremiah 1), of a priestly race of Anathoth, a little village of the tribe of Benjamin. He was raised In love and respect for Jewish traditions, and studied with care the utterances of previous prophets, in particular the oracles of Isaias and Micheas. By temperament sensitive and timid, Jeremias became otherwise when there was question of carrying God’s message to men; menaces, insults, and torments meant nothing; he became “a fortified city and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass.” It was in the 13th year of the reign of Josias, that the word of God came to Jeremias. Under this king, the activity of Jeremias was moderate, because the piety of Josias held in check the hatred of the enemies of the prophet. Yet the persecutions of his compatriots (II, 21), and of his relatives (12,6), menaced his life, and he fixed his definite abode at Jerusalem . Unfortunately, Josias was followed by three unworthy sons, weakling rulers on the throne of David. During the three months reign of Joachaz, Jeremias reproved the luxury of the royal house (22). King Joakim forgot the God of his fathers and plunged into all sorts of impieties and disorders. It was in such circumstances that Jeremias, yielding to the inspiration of God, placed himself in the court of the Temple, and announced its destruction (26). These words produced a tumult. The priests and false prophets seized him, crying, “Let him be put to death.” Happily, Jeremias was saved through the intervention of Ahicam. With the invasion of Nabuchodonosor, Jeremias pronounced the famous prophecy of the 70 years of captivity (25). Then he received the order to write all that God had revealed to him, since the time of Josias, in a volume, and to have it read on the solemn day by his disciple Baruch. But Joakim, enraged, threw the volume into a fire, and imprisoned Jeremias and Baruch (36). Under Sedecias, Jeremias suffered continual persecutions (38). He tried to return to his native land but was seized, accused of treason, and again imprisoned. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, Nabuchodonosor gave Jeremias the choice of going to Babylon, or remaining at Jerusalem. Jeremias preferred to live in the midst of the Holy City. There, over its ruins, he chanted his immortal Lamentations; but the remnant of the Jews fled to Egypt, dragging Jeremias with them. At Daphne, pious tradition says, he was stoned to death for the prediction of God’s wrath. It was a fit ending to a life of self-sacrifice. His whole life was a living prophecy of the sufferings of Christ. Like Christ, Jeremias continued to intercede for the Jews; truly, “this is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the holy city, Jeremias the prophet of God” (2 Machebees 15). The prophecy or Book of Jeremias, was probably put together by Baruch. There are 52 chapters. The Lamentations or Songs, five in number, after the manner of the Psalms or Proverbs, bewail the sorrows of the Holy City. Some portions of them are sung at the Tenebrae in Holy Week, as they express the sorrows of the Church over Christ’s Passion, the enormity of sin, and the need of penance.

Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary

Jeremiah

(Heb. Yirmeyah’, , often in the paragogic form , Yirmeya’hu, especially in the book of Jeremiah; raised up [i.e. appointed] by Jehovah; Sept. and N.T. ; Jeremias, Mat 16:14; Jeremy, Mat 2:17; Mat 27:9; but in this last passage it probably occurs only by error of copyists; see Zec 11:12-13), the name of eight or nine men.

1. The fifth in rank of the Gadite braves who joined David’s troop in the wilderness (1Ch 12:10). B.C. 1061.

2. The tenth of the same band of adventurers (1Ch 12:13). B.C. 1061.

3. One of the Benjamite bowmen and slingers who repaired to David while at Ziklag (1Ch 12:4). B.C. 1053.

4. A chief of the tribe of Manasseh east, apparently about the time of the deportation by the Assyrians (1Ch 5:24). B.C. 782.

5. A native of Libnah, the father of Hamutal, wife of Josiah, and mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah (2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:18). B.C. ante 632.

6. Son of Habaziniah, and father of Jaazaniah, which last was one of the Rechabites whom the prophet tested with the offer of wine (Jer 35:3). B.C. ante 606.

7. The second of the greater prophets of the O.T., a son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth, in the tribe of Benjamin (Jer 1:1; comp. 32:6). The following brief account of the prophet’s career, which is fully detailed in his own book, is chiefly from Kitto’s Cyclopoedia. I. Relatives of Jeremiah. Many (among ancient writers, Clement. Alex., Jerome; among moderns, Eichhorn, Calovius, Maldonatus, Von Bohlen, etc.) have supposed that his father was the high priest of the same name (2Ki 22:8), who found the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah (Umbreit, Praktischer Commentar ber den Jeremia, p. 10). This, however, seems improbable on several grounds (see Carpzov, Introd. 3, 130; also Keil, Ewald, etc.): first, there is nothing in the writings of Jeremiah to lead us to think that his father was more than an ordinary priest (Hilkiah [one] of the priests, Jer 1:1); again, the name Hilkiah was common among the Jews (see 2Ki 18:13; 1Ch 6:45; 1Ch 26:11; Neh 8:4; Jer 29:3); and, lastly, his residence at Anathoth is evidence that he belonged to the line of Abiathar (1Ki 2:26-35), who was deposed from the high priest’s office by Solomon: after which time the office appears to have remained in the line of Zadok.

II. History. Jeremiah was very young when the word of the Lord first came to him (Jer 1:6). This event took place in the thirteenth year of Josiah (B.C. 628), while the youthful prophet still lived at Anathoth. It would seem that he remained in his native city several years; but at length, in order to escape the persecution of his fellow townsmen (Jer 11:21), and even of his own family (Jer 12:6), as well as to have a wider field for his exertions, he left Anathoth and took up his residence at Jerusalem. The finding of the book of the Law, five years after the commencement of his predictions, must have produced a powerful influence on the mind of Jeremiah, and king Josiah no doubt found him an important ally in carrying into effect the reformation of religious worship (2Ki 23:1-25), B.C. 623. During the reign of this monarch, we may readily believe that Jeremiah would be in no way molested in his work; and that from the time of his quitting Anathoth to the eighteenth year of his ministry, he probably uttered his warnings without interruption, though with little success (see Jeremiah 11). Indeed, the reformation itself was nothing more than the forcible repression of idolatrous and heathen rites, and the reestablishment of the external service of God, by the command of the king. No sooner, therefore, was the influence of the court on behalf of the true religion withdrawn, than it was evident that no real improvement had taken place in the minds of the people. Jeremiah, who hitherto was at least protected by the influence of the pious king Josiah, soon became the object of attack, as he must doubtless have long been the object of dislike to those whose interests were identified with the corruptions of religion. The death of this prince was bewailed by the prophet as the precursor of the divine judgments for the national sins (2Ch 35:25). B.C. 609. SEE LAMENTATIONS.

We hear nothing of the prophet during the three months which constituted the short reign of Jehoahaz; but in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (B.C. 607) the prophet was interrupted in his ministry by the priests and the prophets, who, with the populace, brought him before the civil authorities, urging that capital punishment should be inflicted on him for his threatenings of evil on the city unless the people amended their ways (Jeremiah 26). The princes seem to have been in some degree aware of the results which the general corruption was bringing on the state, and if they did not themselves yield to the exhortations of the prophet, they acknowledged that he spoke in the name of the Lord, and were quite averse from so openly renouncing his authority as to put his messenger to death. It appears, however, that it was rather owing to the personal influence of one or two, especially Ahikam, than to any general feeling favorable to Jeremiah, that his life was preserved; and it would seem that he was then either placed under restraint, or else was in so much danger from the animosity of his adversaries as to make it prudent for him not to appear in public. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.C. 605) he was commanded to write the predictions which had been given through him, and to read them to the people. From the cause, probably, which we have intimated above, he was, as he says, shut up, and could not himself go into the house of the Lord (Jer 36:5). He therefore deputed Baruch to write the predictions after him, and to read them publicly on the fast day. These threatenings being thus anew made public, Baruch was summoned before the princes to give an account of the manner in which the roll containing them had come into his possession.

The princes, who, without strength of principle to oppose the wickedness of the king, had sufficient respect for religion, as well as sagacity enough to discern the importance of listening to the voice of God’s prophet, advised both Baruch and Jeremiah to conceal themselves, while they endeavored to influence the mind of the king by reading the roll to him. The result showed that their precautions were not needless. In his bold self will and reckless daring the monarch refused to listen to any advice, even though coming with the professed sanction of the Most High. Having read three or four leaves, he cut the roll with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed, and gave immediate orders for the apprehension of Jeremiah and Baruch, who, however, were both preserved from the vindictive monarch. At the command of God the prophet procured another roll, in which he wrote all that was in the roll destroyed by the king, and added besides unto them many like words (Jer 36:32). SEE BARUCH.

Near the close of the reign of Jehoiakim (B.C. 599), and during the short reign of his successor Jehoiachin or Jeconiah (B.C. 598), we find him still uttering his voice of warning (see Jer 13:18; comp. 2Ki 24:12, and Jer 22:24-30), though without effect; and, after witnessing the downfall of the monarchs which he had himself predicted, he sent a letter of condolence and hope to those who shared the captivity of the royal family (Jeremiah 29-31). It was not till the latter part of the reign of Zedekiah that he was put in confinement, as we find that they had not put him into prison when the army of Nebuchadnezzar commenced the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 37:4-5) (B.C. 589). On the investment of the city, the prophet had sent a message to the king declaring what would be the fatal issue, but this had so little effect that the slaves who had been liberated were again reduced to bondage by their fellow citizens (Jeremiah 34). Jeremiah himself was incarcerated in the court of the prison adjoining the palace, where he predicted the certain return from the impending captivity (Jer 32:33). The Chaldaeans drew off their army for a time on the report of help coming from Egypt to the besieged city, and now, feeling the danger to be imminent, and yet a ray of hope brightening their prospects, the king entreated Jeremiah to pray to the Lord for them. The hopes of the king were not responded to in the message which Jeremiah received from God. He was assured that the Egyptian army would return to their own land, that the Chaldaeans would come again, and that they would take the city and burn it with fire (Jer 37:7-8).

The princes, apparently irritated by a message so contrary to their wishes, made the departure of Jeremiah from the city (for he appears to have been at this time released from confinement), during the short respite, the pretext for accusing him of deserting to the Chaldaeans, and he was forthwith cast into prison, where he might have perished but for the humanity of one of the royal eunuchs (Jer 37:12 to Jer 38:13). The king seems to have been throughout inclined to favor the prophet, and sought to know from him the word of the Lord; but he was wholly under the influence of the princes, and dared not communicate with him except in secret (Jer 38:14-28), much less could he follow advice so obnoxious to their views as that which the prophet gave. Jeremiah, therefore, more from the hostility of the princes than the inclination of the king, was still in confinement when the city was taken, B.C. 588. Nebuchadnezzar formed a more just estimate of his character and of the value of his counsels and gave a special charge to his captain, Nebuzar- adan, not only to provide for him, but to follow his advice (Jer 39:12). He was accordingly taken from the prison and allowed free choice either to go to Babylon, where doubtless he would have been held in honor in the royal court, or to remain with his own people (B.C. 587). With characteristic patriotism he went to Mizpah with Gedaliah, whom the Babylonian monarch had appointed governor of Judea, and, after his murder, sought to persuade Johanan, who was then the recognized leader of the people, to remain in the land, assuring him and the people, by a message from God in answer to their inquiries, that, if they did so, the Lord would build them up, but if they went to Egypt, the evils which they sought to escape should come upon them there (Jeremiah 42). The people refused to attend to the divine message, and, under the command of Johanan, went into Egypt. taking Jeremiah and Baruch along with them (Jer 43:6). In Egypt the prophet still sought to turn the people to the Lord, from whom they had so long and so deeply revolted (Jeremiah 44), but his writings give us no subsequent information respecting his personal history. Ancient traditions assert that he spent the remainder of his life in Egypt. According to the pseudo-Epiphanius, he was stoned by the people at Taphnae ( ), the same as Tahpanhes, where the Jews were settled (De Vitis Prophet. 2, 239, quoted by Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus V.T. 1, 1110). It is said that his bones were removed by Alexander the Great to Alexandria (Carpzov, Introd. pt. 3, p. 138, where other traditions respecting him may be found).

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Jeremiah

raised up or appointed by Jehovah. (1.) A Gadite who joined David in the wilderness (1 Chr. 12:10).

(2.) A Gadite warrior (1 Chr. 12:13).

(3.) A Benjamite slinger who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chr. 12:4).

(4.) One of the chiefs of the tribe of Manasseh on the east of Jordan (1 Chr. 5:24).

(5.) The father of Hamutal (2 Kings 23:31), the wife of Josiah.

(6.) 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 See king 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.

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah

(“exalted of Jehovah”) (Jerome); (“appointed of Jehovah”) (Gesenius); (“Jehovah throws”) (Hengstenberg); compare Jer 1:10.

1. Son of Hilkiah, a priest in Anathoth of Benjamin; not the high priest Hilkiah who discovered the book of the law in Josiah’s reign (2Ki 22:8), for Jeremiah’s father is not designated as “the priest” or “the high priest.” Moreover, the Anathoth priests were of the line of Abiathar, who was deposed by Solomon (1Ki 2:26-35). Thenceforward the high priesthood was in Eleazar’s and Zadok’s line. The independent history (2Ch 35:25; 2Ch 36:12; 2Ch 36:21) mentions his “lamentation for Josiah,” Zedekiah’s “not humbling himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah,” and the Babylonian captivity “to fulfill Jehovah’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years” (Jer 27:7; Jer 25:9-12; Jer 26:6-7; Jer 29:10).

In 629 B.C., the 13th of Josiah’s reign, while a mere youth at Anathoth, three miles from Jerusalem (Jer 1:2), “the word of Jehovah came to him” just as manhood was opening out to him, calling him to lay aside his natural sensitiveness and timid self distrust, and as Jehovah’s minister, by the might of Jehovah’s efficacious word, to “root out … throw down, build and plant.” “Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” To his pleas of childlike inability to speak (as Moses, Exo 3:11-12; Exo 4:10-12; and Isaiah, Isa 6:5-8), Jehovah opposes His mission and His command: “thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” To his fear of men’s faces Jehovah declares “I am with thee to deliver thee.” Touching Jeremiah’s mouth (as Isaiah’s; compare Jesus’ touch, Mat 9:21-29), Jehovah put His words in the prophet’s mouth, so that the prophetic word became divinely efficient to produce its own fulfillment; even as the Word was the efficient cause of creation.

Jeremiah must have at first exercised his office in contemplation rather than action, for he is not mentioned in connection with Josiah’s reforms, or the great Passover held in the 18th year of his reign, five years subsequent to Jeremiah’s call. It is from the prophetess Huldah, not from him, that the godly king sought counsel. Yet he must have warmly sympathized with this great revival. Indications of affinity or friendship with some of the actors in it occur in the sameness of names: Jeremiah’s father bearing the name of Hilkiah, Josiah’s high priest; his uncle that of Shallum, Huldah’s husband (Jer 32:7; compare 2Ki 22:14); Ahikam, Jeremiah’s protector (Jer 26:24), was also the fellow worker with Huldah in the revival; moreover Maaseiah, governor of Jerusalem, sent by Josiah as ally of Hilkiah in repairing the temple (2Ch 34:8), was father of Neriah, the father of both Baruch and Seraiah, Jeremiah’s disciples (Jer 36:4; Jer 51:59).

The finding of the book of the law, the original temple copy (See HILKIAH) exercised a palpable effect on his later writings. (Compare Jer 11:3-5 with Deu 7:12; Deu 4:20; Deu 27:26; Jer 34:14 with Deu 15:12; Deu 32:18 with Exo 20:6; Exo 32:21 with Exo 6:6). He saw that the reformation was but a surface one, and would not ensure the permanent peace which many anticipated from it (Jer 7:4), for while “the temple” was restored the spirit of apostasy still prevailed, so that even Israel seemed just in comparison with what Judah had become (Jer 3:11), a seeker of the truth was scarcely to be found, and self seeking was the real aim, while “the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests hear rule by their means, and God’s people (!) love to have it so” (Jer 5:1; Jer 5:31).

Five years after his call to prophesy the book of the law was found in the temple by Hilkiah (2Ki 22:8; 2Ki 23:25); then Jeremiah in Jehovah’s name proclaimed, “Hear ye this covenant, and speak (it in your turn to others, namely,) unto the men of Judah and Jerusalem.” Next Jehovah commanded Jeremiah to take a prophetic tour, proclaiming the covenant through the cities of Judah, as well as in Jerusalem (Jer 11:1-2; Jer 11:6). Apparently, he lived at first in Anathoth, repairing thence from time to time to prophesy in Jerusalem (Jer 2:2), until the enmity of his townsmen and even his brethren, because of his godly faithfulness (Jer 11:18-21; Jer 12:6), drove him to Jerusalem. He knew not of their plotting against his life until Jehovah revealed it. His personal experiences were providentially ordered to qualify him to be the type in his own person, as well as the prophet, of Messiah (compare Isa 53:7).

So His brethren, and the Nazarenes His townsmen, treated Christ (Luk 4:24-29; Joh 1:11; Joh 7:5; Psa 69:8). By Jehovah’s direction Jeremiah was to have neither wife or children (Jer 16:2), in order to symbolize the coming of calamities on Judea so severe that the single state (contrary to the natural order) would be preferable to the married (1Co 7:8; 1Co 7:26; 1Co 7:29; Mat 24:19; Luk 23:29). Eighteen years after his first call king Josiah died. During this period, when others thought evil distant, the vision of the almond tree, the emblem of wakefulness, showed Jeremiah that evil was hastening, and the seething pot that it should come from the N., namely, the Babylonians entering into the Holy Land from the N. by way of Hamath (Jer 1:11-15). (See ALMOND.)

Jeremiah, like Isaiah (Isa 30:1-7), foresaw that the tendency of many to desire an alliance with Egypt, upon the dissolution of the Assyrian empire whose vassal Manasseh was, would end in sorrow (Jer 2:18): “what hast thou to do in the way of (with going down to) Egypt? to drink the waters of Sihor (to seek hosts as allies from the Nile land)?” Josiah so far molded his policy according to Jeremiah’s counsel; but he forgot that it was equally against God’s will for His people to lean upon Assyrian or Babylonian “confidences” as upon Egyptian (Jeremiah 36 – 37); so taking the field as ally of Assyria and Babylon against the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho he fell (2Ki 23:29). Josiah’s death was one of his bitterest sorrows (Jer 22:10; Jer 22:15-16), the remembrance of his righteous reign intensified the pain of witnessing the present injustice of his successors.

Jeremiah composed the funeral dirge which “the singing men and women in their lamentations” used at the anniversary kept subsequently as an ordinance in Israel (2Ch 35:20-25). Jeremiah had also inward conflicts. Like Asaph (Psalm 73) he felt perplexed at the prosperity of the wicked (Jer 12:1-4) plotters at Anathoth against his life (Jer 11:19-21), to which Jehovah replies that even worse is before him at Jerusalem: “if thou hast run with the footmen (the Anathoth men), and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses (the men of Jerusalem)? And if (it is only) in a land of peace thou trustest (so the Hebrew is), then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Or else, if in the plain country alone thou art secure, how wilt thou do “in the pride (the wooded banks, the lair of beasts: Zec 11:3; 2Ki 6:2 compare Pro 24:10) of Jordan?”

Jeremiah sensitively shrank from strifes, yet the Holy Spirit enabled him to deliver his message at the certain cost of rousing enmity and having his sensitiveness wounded (Jer 15:10). His nature said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name; but (the Spirit made him feel) His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing” (Jer 20:9). In Jer 22:11-12 Jeremiah foretold that Josiah’s son, Shallum or Jehoahaz who reigned but three months and was carried to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho, should never return. (See JEHOAHAZ.) On Jehoiakim’s accession idolatry returned, combined with the worship of Jehovah; and priests, prophets, and people soon brought Jeremiah before the authorities, urging that he should be put to death for denouncing evil against the temple and the city (Jer 26:7-11).

This he had done in Jer 7:12-14; Jer 7:8-9. and more summarily in Jer 26:1-2; Jer 26:6, at the feast of tabernacles, when the law was commanded to be read, or at either of the other two great feasts, before the people of “all the cities of Judah,” assembled for worship “in the court of Jehovah’s house”; he “diminished not a word” through fear of offending. The “princes,” including doubtless some of Josiah’s counselors or their sons, interposed in his behalf (Jer 26:16), appealing to Micah’s case, who had uttered a like prophecy in Hezekiah’s reign with impunity; adding the implication which they durst not express, that though Urijah who prophesied similarly was brought back from his flight into Egypt, and slain by Jehoiakim, yet that the notorious prostration of the state showed that evil, not good, is the result of such persecutions.

So Ahikam his friend, the former officer of good Josiah (2Ki 22:12; 2Ki 22:14), saved him from death; however Jeremiah deemed it prudent not to appear in public then. (See AHIKAM.) In Jehoakim’s (and see BARUCH; JEHUDI.) fifth year Jeremiah escaped his violence by the Lord’s hiding him and Baruch (Jer 36:27-32), after the king had destroyed the prophetic roll of prophecies for the 23 years past of Jeremiah’s ministry, which Jeremiah was commanded to write in Jehoiakim’s fourth year, and which in the fifth Baruch, having first written them, read to the people assembled on the fast. (See JEHOIAKIM.) Jeremiah had shown his prophetic prescience by opposing as delusive what as a patriot he would have desired, the hopes cherished of his country’s independence of Babylon (Jer 27:1; Jer 27:6-8): “thus saith Jehovah of hosts, I have made the earth … and now have I given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar … My servant … and all nations shall serve him, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come.”

So in Jehoiakim’s fourth year Judah’s hopes from Egypt were crushed by Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish (Jer 46:2, a prophecy uttered shortly before the event). Jeremiah had in this year foretold that not Judah alone, but all nations should be subject to Babylon for 70 years, having to drink God’s wine cup of fury, and then Babylon itself should be made “perpetual desolations” (Jer 25:8-38). Hence, the Rechabites (See JEHONADAB) were constrained at this time to take refuge within Jerusalem through fear of the Chaldees. Jeremiah’s own ascetic spirit was instinctively attracted to them, famed as they were for their abstemious, pilgrim, devout, and idolatry abhorring walk. The occurrence of the name Jeremiah among them, and their ready admission into the temple, mark previous association with Jeremiah and the priests.

Jeremiah made their filial obedience to their earthly father a condemnation of Judah’s disobedience to their heavenly Father (Jeremiah 35). (In Jeremiah 45, concerning an individual, subjoined to his prophecies concerning nations, though belonging to the time just after (Jeremiah 36) the close of Jehoiakim’s reign, Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 18-19 (probably in Jeconiah’s reign), by the symbols of the remaking by the potter of the marred vessel, and of the breaking of the bottle in the valley of Hinnom, sets forth God’s absolute power over His creatures to give reprobates to destruction, and to raise others instead of the people who prove unfaithful to His election (Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8; Rom 9:20-21). (See BARUCH.) The potter’s field significantly was the purchase with the price of reprobate Judas’ treachery (Mat 27:9-10, which quotes Zec 11:12-13 as Jeremiah’s because Zechariah rests on Jeremiah; compare Psa 2:8-9; Rev 2:27).

Pashur, chief governor in the Lord’s house, in consequence smote and put him in the stocks (Jer 20:2); when liberated, he renewed his prophecy against the city, denouncing Pashur as about to become Magor Missabib, “terror round about.” Then he gave way to complaints of God, but to God, as if God had deceived him; but God had promised (Jer 1:19), not that he should escape suffering, but that God would deliver him out of it; he even, like Job (Job 3:3-11), in impatience cursed his day of birth, but better feelings prevailed soon, and he records his deep depression (Jer 1:14-18) after his believing thanksgiving only to show how great was his deliverance (Jer 1:11-13). In the three months’ reign of Jehoiachin, Jeconiah, or Coriah (the omission of the Jah marking his severance from Jehovah), Jeremiah prophesied the carrying away of the king and the queen mother Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan (Jer 13:18; Jer 22:24-30; 2Ki 24:6; 2Ki 24:8; 2Ki 24:12; 2Ki 24:15).

In this reign Jeremiah gave the symbolical prophecy of the girdle on his loins taken to the Euphrates, and hidden in a hole of the rock (Jer 13:1-7). Some symbolical acts of prophets, being scarcely possible, probable, or decorous, existed only in spiritual vision; when possible and proper, they were often materialized by outward performance. The act, even when only internal, vivified the naked statement of prophetic truth. A journey twice of 200 miles to the Euphrates may have been taken only in the spiritual world wherein the seer moved (compare Jer 19:1; Jer 19:10; Jer 27:2-3; Isa 20:2). Nebuchadnezzar was evidently acquainted with him, but whether it was by an actual journey of Jeremiah to Babylon is uncertain (Jer 39:11). In spite of the warning given in Jeconiah’s case, Zedekiah set at naught Jeremiah’s words and revolted.

So in his ninth year, tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 39:1). Zedekiah in the tenth year, through Jehucal and Zephaniah, begged Jeremiah, “pray for us,” as the issue between Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) was at that time as yet undecided. In consequence of fear the Jews obeyed the law by temporarily emancipating their bondservants at, the end of seven years, but on the remission of the siege again enslaved them (Jeremiah 34). Jeremiah therefore foretold that Zedekiah and his princes should be given up to their enemies (Jer 32:2-5). Yet he foretold the sure repossession of Judaea by the Jews, by redeeming his uncle Hanameel’s field in due form; just as at Rome the ground whereon Hannibal was encamped was put up for sale and found a purchaser. Pharaoh’s advance caused the Chaldeans to withdraw temporarily from besieging Jerusalem (Jer 37:1-5).

Jeremiah warned the king that the Chaldeans would return and burn the city with fire. Therefore Zedekiah shut him up in the court of the prison. Jeremiah himself tried to escape to his native place, Anathoth of Benjamin; but Irijah arrested him at the gate of Benjamin on the charge of desertion to the Chaldeans. Then the princes smote and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the scribe. It was a pit (dungeon) with vaulted cells (“cabins”) round the sides. After many days in the dungeon Zedekiah the king took him out, and inquired secretly (compare Joh 3:2; Joh 5:44; Joh 12:43; Joh 19:38), “is there any word from Jehovah?” Jeremiah without regard to his earthly interests (contrast Jer 6:14; Isa 30:10; Eze 13:10) foretold Zedekiah’s being delivered up to Nebuchadnezzar, and begged not to be left to “die” in Jonathan’s house.

His natural shrinking from death (Jer 37:20) makes his spiritual firmness the more remarkable; ready to die rather than swerve from duty. Zedekiah committed him to the court of the prison (the open space occupied by the guard, Jer 32:2, where his friends had access to him: Jer 32:12; Jer 37:12-21), and commanded bread to be supplied to him until all in the city was spent (Psa 37:19; Isa 33:16). Honest reproof sometimes gains more favor than flattery (Pro 28:23). Zedekiah again sent Pashur and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to inquire of him, and received the reply that submission to the Chaldees is the only way of life (Jer 21:1-9; Jer 38:2 ff); and then the princes accused Jeremiah of weakening the hands of the warriors by such words, and the weak prince left. Jeremiah in their hand, saying “the king cannot do anything against you.”

So they cast him into Malchiah’s dungeon, or cistern emptied of its water during the siege, the mire alone remaining (compare Zec 9:11 and the Antitype, Psa 69:2; Psa 69:14). An Ethiopian stranger, the eunuch Ebedmelech, saved the prophet whom his own countrymen tried to destroy. (See EBEDMELECH.) “Old cast clouts and rags” were used to raise him up (compare spiritually 1Co 1:27-29). Zedekiah again secretly consulted Jeremiah, taking him to the third or N. entry of the outer or inner temple court. Fear of the mocking of the Jewish deserters deterred him from following the prophet’s counsel, that he should go forth to the Chaldees; by refusing he brought on himself, as Jeremiah foretold, the mocking not only of the deserters but even of his own concubines. Jeremiah stayed in the court of the prison until Jerusalem was taken. Nebuchadnezzar directed Nebuzaradan, and he gave him liberty to stay with the remnant or go to Babylon, and added “victuals and a reward.”

Notwithstanding the wrongs he had received from his countrymen for 40 years, as a true patriot he stayed with the Jews under Gedaliah, the son of his friend Ahikam (Jeremiah 39-40). After Gedaliah’s murder by Ishmael, Johanan first consulted Jeremiah as to going to Egypt with a foregone conclusion, then carried Jeremiah, in spite of the prophet’s warning, to Egypt (Jeremiah 41-43). (See GEDALIAH; ISHMAEL; JOHANAN.) At Tahpanhes he foretold Egypt’s overthrow (Jer 43:8-13), and tradition says he was stoned there (Pseudo Epiphanius; compare Heb 11:37). The Jews expected his reappearing as the forerunner of Messiah (Mat 16:14), “that prophet” (Joh 1:21). He in a true sense did forerun Messiah, foreseeing to his own “sweet” comfort (Jer 31:26) not only His conception by a “virgin,” but His kingdom, first spiritual, whereby He is “the Lord our righteousness” (Jer 23:5-6), making the “new covenant,” “remembering our sin no more,” and “writing His law in our hearts” (Jer 31:22; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-12; Heb 10:16-17), then visible in Jerusalem, Judah, and Israel, in the last days (Jer 33:6-26; Jer 3:16-18).

Jeremiah wrote too an epistle to the exiles at Babylon, carried away with Jeconiah (Jeremiah 29), similar in form and style to the New Testament epistles, advising them to settle quietly in Babylon and pray for its peace, for the captivity must last 70 years. The portion of the nation remaining in Judah Jeremiah saw by the Spirit was the worst (Jeremiah 24), and would fare the worst. Early in Jehoiakim’s reign (Jer 27:1) he had by symbolic yokes foretold Nebuchadnezzar’s subjugation of Judah, etc. But the Syriac and Arabic versions make it likely “Zedekiah” ought to be read; so Jer 27:3; Jer 27:12; Jer 27:28:1. The false prophet Hananiah broke the yokes of wood; but Jehovah declared yokes of iron should be substituted, and that Hananiah should die; he accordingly died the seventh month of the same year. Jeremiah took advantage of the embassy sent by Zedekiah to send his letter to the captives (Jeremiah 29).

Even among the captives at Babylon were false prophets, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah (the writer to Zephaniah at Jerusalem that he should imprison Jeremiah as “mad”), who held out delusive hopes of a speedy return. Therefore, Jeremiah announces their doom. Six whole years before Jerusalem’s fall Jeremiah wrote the prophecy of Babylon’s own doom, for Seraiah to take to Babylon when he went there on behalf of Zedekiah (margin, Jer 51:59-64), and therewith to console the captives. The Jews say, “the spirit of Jeremiah dwelt afterward in Zechariah”; Matthew (Jer 27:9) therefore quotes the words of Zechariah as Jeremiah’s. His protests against the priests and prophets answer to our Lord’s against the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23); his lamentations over his doomed country correspond to the Saviour’s tears over Jerusalem.

The picture of his sufferings in Lam 1:12 is antitypically realized in Messiah alone. The subjective and the elegiac elements preponderate in him. His Hebrew is tinged, as was to be expected, with Chaldaism. Sheshach (which, on the Kabalistic system of making the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet express the first, would be Babel) is supposed to prove his using that mystic system (Jer 25:26); but in Jer 51:41 there can be no design of concealment, for he mentions expressly Babylon; the word is rather from Shech the Babylonian goddess, during whose feast Cyrus took the city. Pathos and sympathy with the suffering are his characteristics. As Ezekiel views the nation’s sins as opposed to righteousness, so Jeremiah as productive of misery. Ezekiel is as marked by firmness as Jeremiah is by delicate sensitiveness. His heaping of phrase on phrase, and repeating of stereotyped forms, are due to his affected feelings; but in the rhythmical parts, and against foreign nations, he is concise, sublime, and energetic. Division.-The various parts are prefaced by the formula, “The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah.” Notes of time mark other divisions more or less historical. In the poetical parts there are 23 sections, divided into strophes of seven or nine verses, market by “Jehovah said also unto me. “The five books thus are:

I. Introduction: Jeremiah 1.

II. Reproofs of the Jews, seven sections, Jeremiah 2-24:

(1) Jeremiah 2;

(2) Jeremiah 3-4;

(3) Jeremiah 7-10,

(4) Jeremiah 11-13,

(5) Jeremiah 14-17,

(6) Jeremiah 18-20,

(7) Jeremiah 21-24.

III. Review of all nations, in two sections:

(1) Jeremiah 46-49.

(2) Jeremiah 25.

IV. Historical appendix, in three sections:

(1) Jer 34:1-7,

(2) Jer 34:8-22,

(3) Jeremiah 35.

V. Conclusion, in two sections:

(1) Jer 36:2, etc.,

(2) Jeremiah 45.

Subsequently in Egypt he added Jer 46:13-26 to his previous prophecy as to Egypt; also the three sections Jeremiah 37-39; Jeremiah 40-44. A later hand (see Jer 51:64) probably appended Jeremiah 52 from 2Ki 24:18 ff; Jer 25:30. Our Hebrew text seems the latest and fullest edition from Jeremiah’s own hand. The Septuagint has a different order of the prophecies against foreign nations, Jeremiah 46-51 being placed after Jer 25:13-14. Probably these prophecies were repeated more than once; in the original smaller collection (for Septuagint omit much that is in the Hebrew) they stood early, in the fuller and later one they stood in their present position, and Jeremiah inserted then the clause of Jer 25:13, which implies that they existed in some other part of the book, “all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.”

It was in this very year (compare Jer 25:1 with Jer 36:1) that Jeremiah was directed to write in a regular book all he had prophesied from the first against Judah and foreign, nations. We saw above that Jeremiah 21; Jeremiah 35-36, are out of chronological order. The whole may be divided into (1) Jeremiah 1-45, concerning Israel; (2) Jeremiah 46-51, concerning the nations. Jeremiah 1-23, are prophetic as to Israel; Jeremiah 24-45. combine prophecy and history; Jeremiah 24-29, set forth Nebuchadnezzar as God’s instrument of chastising Israel and the nations, irresistible for the time, submission the wisest policy, the exiles better in position than the people at home; Jeremiah 30-33, the most Messianic portion, sets forth Israel restored under Messiah reigning upon David’s throne; Jeremiah 34-45, mainly historical, illustrating from the people’s unbelief the need of God’s judgments. The New Testament by quotations stamps Jeremiah’s canonicity (Mat 2:17; Mat 16:14; Heb 8:8-12). Philo quotes Jeremiah as an “oracle.” Melito, Origen, Jerome, and the Talmud similarly include it in the canon.

2. 2Ki 23:31.

3. 1Ch 12:4; 1Ch 12:10; 1Ch 12:13.

4. 1Ch 5:24.

5. Neh 10:2-8; Neh 12:1; Neh 12:34.

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

JEREMIAH

Among the Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah is the one who reveals more personal details than anyone else. Like all the prophets he declared his opposition to false religious practices, wrong social behaviour and foolish government policies, but above all his writings display the unhappiness that was a feature of much of his life. This unhappiness resulted partly from his unpopularity with the community in general, but his greatest distress came from a feeling that God had been unfair to him.

We can understand Jeremiahs problems only as we see them against the background of conditions in Judah as set out in his book. Since the messages and events detailed in the book are not in chronological order, the following outline of events may help towards an understanding of the man and his work.

Forty years of preaching

Jeremiah began his prophetic work in 627 BC, the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah (Jer 1:1-2). Josiah had carried out sweeping reforms, firstly to remove all the idolatrous and immoral practices that had become deeply rooted in Judah over the previous generations, then to re-establish the true worship of Yahweh (2 Kings 22; 2Ki 23:1-25). Jeremiah saw that in spite of the kings good work, little had changed in peoples hearts. Judah was heading for terrible judgment. (Jeremiah Chapters 1-6, and possible parts of Chapters 7-20, seem to belong to the early period of Jeremiahs preaching.)

Meanwhile to the north, Babylon was growing in power, and with its conquest of Assyria in 612 BC, it established itself as the leading nation in the region. When Egypt, the leading nation to Judahs south, decided to challenge Babylon, Josiah tried to stop the Egyptians from passing through Palestine and was killed in battle (609 BC; 2Ki 23:28-30). Considering itself now the master of Judah, Egypt removed Jehoahaz, the new Judean king, and made his older brother Jehoiakim king instead (2Ki 23:31-37).

Jehoiakim was a cruel and ungodly ruler. He opposed Jeremiah because of his condemnation of Judahs sins and his forecasts of its destruction (Jer 22:13-19; Jer 26:1-6; Jer 26:20-24; Jeremiah 36). (Much of Jeremiah Chapters 7-20, along with Chapters 22, 23, 25, 26, 35, 36 and 45, belong to the time of Jehoiakim.)

When Babylon conquered Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC (Jer 46:2), it thereby gained control of Judah and took selected Jerusalemites captive to Babylon (Dan 1:1-6). When Jehoiakim later tried to become independent of Babylon, the Babylonian army, under Nebuchadnezzar, besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died during the siege, and three months later his son and successor Jehoiachin surrendered. Jehoiachin and most of the useful people were then taken captive to Babylon. The Babylonians appointed Zedekiah, another brother of Jehoiakim, as the new king (597 BC; 2Ki 24:8-17).

Jeremiah and Zedekiah were constantly in conflict. Jeremiah assured Zedekiah that Babylons overlordship was Gods judgment on Judah for its sin. Judah should therefore accept its punishment and submit to Babylon. To resist would only bring invasion, siege, starvation, bloodshed and captivity (2Ki 24:18-20; Jer 21:1-10; Jeremiah 24; Jer 27:12-22; Jer 28:12-14).

The opponents of Jeremiah assured Zedekiah that with the help of Egypt he could overthrow Babylonian rule. Foolishly, Zedekiah followed their advice instead of Jeremiahs, and brought upon Judah a long and devastating siege. In the end Babylon destroyed the city and its temple, and took the king, along with all remaining useful citizens, into foreign captivity (587 BC; 2Ki 25:1-21; Jer 32:1-5; Jer 32:28-29; Jer 33:1-5; Jer 37:16-17; Jer 38:17-18; Jer 39:1-10). (The parts of Jeremiah that deal largely with the reign of Zedekiah are Chapters 21, 24, 27-34, 37-39 and 52.)

On more than one occasion during this long crisis Jeremiah was imprisoned (Jer 32:2; Jer 37:15; Jer 37:20-21; Jer 38:1-6; Jer 38:13; Jer 38:28). Upon conquering the city, the victorious Babylonians released him and gave him full freedom to decide where he would like to live, Babylon or Judah. Jeremiah decided to stay in Judah. The Babylonians placed him under the protection of Gedaliah, the Jewish governor whom they had appointed over the Judeans left in the land (2Ki 25:22; Jer 39:13-14; Jer 40:4-6).

Sadly, Gedaliah was murdered by some Judeans who were still opposed to Babylon (2Ki 25:25; Jer 40:13-16; Jeremiah 41). The remaining Judeans then fled for safety to Egypt, taking an unwilling Jeremiah with them (2Ki 25:26; Jeremiah 42; Jer 43:1-7). Jeremiah warned that they would not escape Gods punishment by fleeing to Egypt, but, as always, the people refused to heed the message (Jer 43:8-13; Jeremiah 44). The Bible records nothing further of Jeremiahs life, though one tradition says that the Judeans in Egypt later stoned him to death. (The period of Gedaliahs governorship and the Judeans flight to Egypt is dealt with in Jeremiah Chapters 40-44.)

Jeremiahs personal life

From the book of Jeremiah we learn much about the prophets personal life. It appears that he was only about twenty years of age when he began his prophetic preaching (1:6). Apparently he never married (16:2) and for much of his life he had few friends (20:7). His family opposed him (12:6) and the people of his home town plotted to kill him (11:19,21). The common people of Jerusalem cursed him (15:10), false prophets ridiculed him (28:10-11; 29:24-28), priests stopped him from entering the temple (36:5) and the civil authorities plotted evil against him (36:26; 38:4-6).

In addition to being imprisoned, Jeremiah was at times flogged (20:2; 37:15) and often threatened with death (11:21; 26:7-9; 38:15). On occasions, however, certain people in positions of influence gained protection for him against his persecutors (26:24; 38:7-13; 40:5-6).

There can be no doubt that Jeremiah loved his people and his country (8:18-22; 9:1-2; 14:19-22). It almost broke his heart to have to announce his countrys overthrow and urge his countrymen to submit to the enemy (4:19-22; 10:17-21; 14:17-18; 17:16-17). He was deeply hurt when people accused him of being a traitor (37:13; 38:1-6), for his great longing was that the people heed his warnings and so avoid the threatened destruction (7:5-7; 13:15-17; 26:16-19; 36:1-3).

Jeremiah wished for peace, but he knew there could be no peace as long as the people continued in their sin. The false prophets, on the other hand, assured the people of peace, knowing that messages that pleased the hearers brought good financial rewards (6:13; 8:11). Jeremiah knew that the peoples hopes would be disappointed, but this gave him no satisfaction, only greater distress (7:1-15; 14:13-18; 23:9).

Although it hurt Jeremiah to have to announce judgments on his own people, he did it faithfully as Gods messenger (20:8-10). When the people responded with hatred and violence (11:19; 18:18), Jeremiah complained to God bitterly. He accused God of being unfair in giving him a cruel reward for his devoted loyalty (12:1-4; 15:10-12,17-18; 20:14-18). God rebuked Jeremiah for his self-pity, though he also strengthened him to meet further troubles. As long as Judah remained faithless, Jeremiah could expect opposition (12:5-6).

These experiences emphasized to Jeremiah the importance of an individuals personal relationship with God. Those who sincerely sought God found him; those who had no personal fellowship with God did not know him, no matter how outwardly religious they might have been (23:21-22). Jeremiah looked beyond the captivity to a day when there would be a new covenant between God and his people. This would be a covenant characterized not by a communitys conformity to religious laws, but by an individuals personal relationship with God (31:31-34).

Outline of the book

The first six chapters of the book deal with the main features of Jeremiahs early ministry: his call to be a prophet (1:1-19); his denunciation of Judah for its unfaithfulness, idolatry and immorality (2:1-3:5); his demand for true, inward repentance (3:6-4:4); and his warning of the coming destruction of Jerusalem (4:5-6:30).

Chapters 7-20 record incidents and messages which, in general, demonstrate the sinful condition of Judah and, in particular, Jerusalem. Three topics are prominent in this section. The first concerns Judahs widespread sin and its certain punishment (7:1-8:17; 11:1-23; 16:1-17:13). The second concerns the approaching judgment on the capital city, Jerusalem (8:18-10:25; 13:1-15:9; 18:1-20:6). The third concerns Jeremiahs inner conflicts and his complaints to God (12:1-17; 15:10-21; 17:14-27; 20:7-18).

After this come five chapters of warnings. There are warnings to rulers, such as Zedekiah (21:1-10; 24:1-10), kings in general (21:11-22:9), Jehoahaz (Shallum), Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin (Coniah) (22:10-30). There are additional warnings to lying prophets (23:9-40), and messages concerning Gods control over the destinies of nations (23:1-8; 25:1-38).

Prophecies of captivity and return (Chapters 26-36) include a warning to the Jerusalemites to submit to Babylon or be destroyed (26:1-28:17); an assurance to those already in exile that there is no hope for an immediate return to Jerusalem (29:1-32); the promise of a new age after the nations restoration (30:1-33:26); and guarantees that though treachery and rebellion will be punished, fidelity will be rewarded (34:1-36:32).

A unit of eight chapters then traces events in chronological sequence from the final siege of Jerusalem to the settlement of the Jews in Egypt: Jeremiahs imprisonment and rescue (37:1-38:28); the fall of Jerusalem (39:1-18); the appointment of Gedaliah and his brutal assassination (40:1-41:18); the migration to Egypt (42:1-43:7); and Jeremiahs message to the Jews in Egypt (43:8-44:30). An earlier message for Jeremiahs secretary, Baruch, is also recorded (45:1-5).

Finally there is a collection of messages for foreign nations: Egypt (46:1-28), Philistia (47:1-7), Moab and Ammon (48:1-49:6), Edom (49:7-22), Damascus, Kedar, Hazor and Elam (49:23-39), and Babylon (50:1-51:64). An historical appendix details matters relating to the fall of Jerusalem (52:1-34).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah

JEREMIAH.1. A warrior of the tribe of Gad, fifth in reputation (1Ch 12:10). 2. The tenth in reputation (1Ch 12:13) of the same Gadite band. 3. A bowman and slinger of the tribe of Benjamin (1Ch 12:4). 4. The head of a family in E.Manasseh (1Ch 5:24). 5. A Jew of Libnah, whose daughter, Hamutal or Hamital, was one of the wives of Josiah, and mother of Jehoahaz (2Ki 23:31) and Zedekiah (2Ki 24:18, Jer 52:1). 6. The son of Habazziniah and father of Jaazaniah, the head of the Rechabites (Jer 35:3) in the time of the prophet Jer 7:1-34. A priest who returned with Zerubbabel (Neh 12:1). His name was given to one of the twenty-two courses of priests (Ezr 2:38-39, Neh 7:39-42; Neh 12:13). 8. A priest who sealed the covenant (Neh 10:2) and took part in the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:34). 9. The prophet. See next article.

JEREMIAH

1. The times.Jeremiah the prophet was born towards the close of Manassehs long and evil reign (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 696641), the influence of which overshadowed his life (Jer 15:4, 2Ki 23:26). He prophesied under Josiah and his sons from the year 626 to the fall of Jerusalem in b.c. 586 (2Ki 1:2 f.), and for some short time after this until he vanishes from sight amongst the fugitive Jews in Egypt (chs. 4044).

Through Josiahs minority (see Josiah) the ethnicizing rgime of Manasseh continued; Jeremiahs earliest preaching (chs. 26), and the prophecies of his contemporary Zephaniah (wh. see), reveal a medley of heathen worships in Jerusalem, gross oppression and profligacy, insolence and insensibility characterizing both court and people. Meanwhile an international crisis is approaching. The giant power of Asshur, which for a century had dominated Israels world, is in rapid decline, and is threatened by the new Median State on its eastern border; Nahum (wh. see) had already celebrated Ninevehs downfall in his splendid verses. The Assyrian capital was saved for the time by the irruption of the Scythian nomads (Ezekiels Gog and Magog), who were swarming southwards from the Oxus plains and over the Caucasus passes. These hordes of wild horsemen overran Western Asia for a generation, leaving a lasting horror behind them. Nineveh avoided capture by the Medes in 625 only at the expense of seeing her lands wasted and her dependencies stripped from her. The war-cloud of the Scythian invasion overhangs the sky of Zephaniah, and of Jeremiah at the outset of his ministry. The territory of Judah seems, after all, to have escaped the Scythian deluge, which swept to the borders of Egypt. The nomad cavalry would reach with difficulty the Judan highlands; and if Josiah, coming of age about this time, showed a bold front against them and saved his country from their ravages, we can account for the prestige that he enjoyed and used to such good purpose. At the same date, or even earlier, the Assyrian over-lordship had been renounced; for we find Josiah exercising independent sovereignty. It was not as the vassal of Nineveh, but in the assertion of his hereditary rights and as guardian of the old territory of Israel, that he challenged Pharaoh-necho, who was attempting to seize the lost western provinces of Assyria, to the fatal encounter of Megiddo in the year 608 (2Ki 22:2; 2Ki 23:15-20, 2Ch 35:20). The Pharaoh pointedly calls him thou king of Judah, as if bidding him keep within his bounds (2Ch 35:21). Jeremiah praises Josiah, in contrast to his son, as an upright and prosperous king, good to the poor and commending his religion by his rule (Jer 22:15-17).

The great event of Josiahs reign was the reformation effected by him in its eighteenth year (b.c. 621), upon the discovery of the book of the law in the Temple (2Ki 22:8 to 2Ki 23:25; see Deuteronomy). So far as concerned outward religion, this was a drastic and enduring revolution. Not merely the later idolatries imported from the East under the Assyrian supremacy, but also the indigenous rites of Molech and the Baalim were abolished. Above all, an end was put to the immemorial cultus of the local high places, at which the service of Jehovah had been corrupted by mixture with that of the Canaanite divinities. Worship was centralized at the royal Temple of Jerusalem; and the covenant with Jehovah made by king and people there in the terms of Deuteronomy, followed by the memorable Passover feast, was designed to inaugurate a new order of things in the life of the people; this proved, in fact, a turning-point in Israels history. However disappointing in its immediate spiritual effects, the work of Josiah and his band of reformers gave the people a written law-book and a definitely organized religious system, which they carried with them into the Exile to form the nucleus of the OT Scriptures and the basis of the later Judaism.

The fall of Josiah in battle concluded the interval of freedom and prosperity enjoyed by Judah under his vigorous rule. For three years the country was subject to the victorious Pharaoh, who deposed and deported Shalum-Jehoahaz, the national choice, replacing him on the throne of Judah by his brother Eliakim-Jehoiakim. The great battle of Carchemish (605), on the Euphrates, decided the fate of Syria and Palestine; the empire of Western Asia, quickly snatched from Egypt, passed into the strong hands of the Chaldan king Nebuchadrezzar, the destined destroyer of Jerusalem. From this time Babylon stands for the tyrannous and corrupting powers of the world; she becomes, for Scripture and the Church, the metropolis of the kingdom of Satan, as Jerusalem of the kingdom of the saints. The Chaldan empire was a revival of the Assyrian,less brutal and destructive, more advanced in civilization, but just as sensual and sordid, and exploiting the subject races as thoroughly as its predecessor. The prophecies of Habakkuk (chs. 1 and 2) reveal the intense hatred and fear excited by the approach of the Chaldans; the ferocity of Nebuchadrezzars troops was probably aggravated by the incorporation with them of Scythian cavalry, large bodies of which still roamed south of the Caspian. The repeated and desperate revolts made by the Judans are accounted for by the harshness of Nebuchadrezzars yoke, to escape which Tyre endured successfully a thirteen years siege. His enormous works of building (see Hab 2:12-13) must have involved crushing exactions from the tributaries.

Jehoiakim, after Carchemish, transferred his allegiance to Babylon. For three years he kept faith with Nebuchadrezzar, and thenapparently without allies or reasonable hope of supportrebelled (2Ki 24:1). Jehoiakim was a typical Eastern despot, self-willed, luxurious, unprincipled, oppressive towards his own people, treacherous and incompetent in foreign policy. Jeremiah denounces him vehemently; the wonder is that he did not fall a victim to the kings anger, like his disciple Uriah (Jer 26:20-24; Jer 36:26-30; Jer 22:13-19). The revived national faith in Jehovah, which had rested on Josiahs political success, was shaken by his fall; the character of the new king, and the events of his reign, furthered the reaction. A popular Jehovist party existed; but this was the most dangerous factor in the situation. Its leadersthe prophet Hananiah amongst them (Jer 28:1-17)preached out of season Isaiahs old doctrine of the inviolability of Zion; even after the capture of Jerusalem in 597 and the first exile, the prophets promised in Jehovahs name a speedy re-instatement. The possession of the Temple and the observance of the Law, they held, bound Jehovah to His peoples defence. The fanaticism thus excited, of which the Jewish race has given so many subsequent examples, brought about the second, and fatal, rupture with Babylon.

Nebuchadrezzar showed a certain forbearance towards Judah. On Jehoiakims first revolt, in 601, he let loose bands of raiders on the Judan territory (2Ki 24:2; cf. Jer 12:9; Jer 12:14); four years later be marched on the capital. Jehoiakim died just before this; his youthful son Jehoiachin (called also Jeconiah and Coniah) surrendered the city, and was carried captive, with the queen-mother and the lite of the nobles and people, to Babylon, where he lived for many years, to be released upon Nebuchadrezzars death in 561 (2Ki 24:6-17; 2Ki 25:27-30, Jer 22:24-30).

The reign of Mattaniah-Zedekiah, raised to the throne by Nebuchadrezzar, was in effect a repetition of that of his elder brother. Zedekiah failed through weakness more than through wickedness; he sought Jeremiahs advice, but lacked decision to follow it. Early in his reign a conspiracy was on foot in Palestine against the Chaldans, which he was tempted to join (Jer 27:1-11; see RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] on Jer 27:1). The Judans, instead of being cowed by the recent punishment, were eager for a rising; public opinion expressed itself in Hananiahs contradiction to Jeremiahs warnings (ch. 28). The same false hopes were exciting the exiles in Babylon (ch. 29). Nebuchadrezzar, aware of these movements, summoned Zedekiah to Babylon (Jer 51:59); the latter was able, however, to clear himself of complicity, and returned to Jerusalem. At last Zedekiah yielded to the tide; he broke his oaths of allegiance to Nebuchadrezzarconduct sternly condemned by Ezekiel (Eze 17:11-21) as well as by Jeremiahand the Jewish people were launched on a struggle almost as mad as that which it undertook with Rome 650 years later. The siege of Jerusalem was stubbornly prolonged for two years (588586). The Egyptians under the new and ambitious Pharaohhophra (Apries, 588569), effected a diversion of the Chaldan troops (Jer 37:5-10, Eze 17:15); but, as often before, Pharaoh proved a broken reed to those who trusted in him. Reduced by famine, Jerusalem was stormed, Zedekiah being captured in his attempt to escape, and meeting a pitiable death (2Ki 25:1-7). This time Nebuchadrezzar made an end of the rebels. Jerusalem was razed to the ground; the survivors of the siege, and of the executions that followed, were carried into exile. A remnant, of no political importance, was left to till the ground; the bulk of these, after the tragic incidents related in Jer 39:1-18; Jer 40:1-16; Jer 41:1-18; Jer 42:1-22; Jer 43:1-13, fled to Egypt. Jeremiah, who had in vain resisted this migration, was carried with the runaways; he had the distress of seeing his companions relapse into open idolatry, protesting that they had fared better when worshipping the queen of heaven than under the national Jehovah. Jewish tradition relates that he died at the hands of his incensed fellow-exiles. The prophets prediction that the sword of Nebuchadrezzar would follow the fugitives, was fulfilled by the Chaldan invasion of Lower Egypt in the year 569, if not earlier than this. The Babylonian empire lasted from b.c. 605 to 538,a little short of the 70 years assigned to it, in round numbers, by Jeremiah (Jer 25:11; Jer 29:10).

2. The man.The Book of Jeremiah is largely autobiographical. The author became, unconsciously, the hero of his work. This prophets temperament and experience have coloured his deliverances in a manner peculiar amongst OT writers. His teaching, moreover, marks an evolution in the Israelite religion, which acquires a more personal stamp as its national framework is broken up. In Jeremiahs life we watch the spirit of revelation being driven inwards, taking refuge from the shipwreck of the State in the soul of the individual. Jeremiah is the prophet of that church within the nation, traceable in its beginnings to Isaiahs time, to which the future of revealed religion is henceforth committed. This inner community of heart-believers survived the Exile; it gave birth to the Bible and the synagogue.

Jeremiah was a native of Anathoth, a little town some 31/2 miles N. E.from Jerusalem, perched high on the mountain-ridge and commanding an extensive view over the hills of Ephraim and the Jordan valley, towards which his memory often turned (Jer 4:15; Jer 7:14-15; Jer 12:5; Jer 31:4-5; Jer 31:18; Jer 49:19). Jeremiah had no mere Judan outlook; the larger Israel was constantly in his thoughts. His father was Hilkiah [not the Hilkiah of 2Ki 22:4], of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin (2Ki 1:1); but he does not show, like the contemporary priest-prophet Ezekiel, the sacerdotal mind. Anathoth had been the settlement of Abiathar, the last high priest of Elis house, who was banished thither by Solomon (1Ki 2:26); Jeremiah may have been a scion of this deposed line. His mission brought him, probably at an early period, into conflict with the men of Anathoth, who sought his life (1Ki 11:18-23). His attempt to visit Anathoth during the last siege of Jerusalem, and the transaction between himself and his cousin over the field at Anathoth (Jer 32:6 ff., Jer 37:11-14), go to show that he was not entirely cut off from friendly relations with his kindred and native place.

Jeremiahs call (ch. 1) in b.c. 626 found him a diffident and reluctant young man,not wanting in devotion, but shrinking from publicity, and with no natural drawing towards the prophetic career; yet he is set over the nations, to pluck up and to break down, and to build and to plant! Already there begins the struggle between the implanted word of Jehovah and the nature of the man, on which turns Jeremiahs inner history and the development of his heroic character,all things considered, the noblest in the OT. His ministry was to be a long martyrdom. He must stand as a fenced city and an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land,a solitary and impregnable fortress for Jehovah. The manner of his call imports an intimacy with God, an identification of the man with his mission, more close and complete than in the case of any previous prophet (see Jer 1:5; Jer 1:9). No intermediarynot even the spirit of Jehovah,no special vehicle or means of prophetical incitement, is ever intimated in his case: simply the word of Jehovah came to him. He conceives the true prophet as standing in Jehovahs council, to perceive and hear his word (Jer 23:18; cf. Isa 50:4). So that he may be in person, as well as in word, a prophet of the coming tribulation, marriage is forbidden him and all participation in domestic life (Jer 16:1-13),a sentence peculiarly bitter to his tender and affectionate nature. Jeremiahs imagination was haunted by his lost home happiness (Jer 7:34; Jer 16:9; Jer 25:10; Jer 33:11). Endowed with the finest sensibilities, in so evil a time he was bound to be a man of sorrows.

Behind the contest waged by Jeremiah with kings and people there lay an interior struggle, lasting more than twenty years. So long it took this great prophet to accept with full acquiescence the burden laid upon him. We may trace through a number of self-revealing passages, the general drift of which is plain notwithstanding the obscurity of some sentences and the chronological uncertainty, Jeremiahs progress from youthful consecration and ardour, through moods of doubt and passionate repugnance, to a complete self-conquest and settled trust (see, besides chs. 1, 11, 16 already cited, Jer 8:18 to Jer 9:2; Jer 15:10-11 and Jer 15:15-21; Jer 17:14-18; Jer 18:18-23; Jer 20:1-18; Jer 26:1-24; Jer 30:1-24; Jer 31:1-40; Jer 32:1-44). The discipline of Jeremiah may be divided into four stages, following on his supernatural call:(a) the youthful period of fierce denunciation, b.c. 626621; (b) the time of disillusion and silence, subsequent to Josiahs reforms, 621608; (c) the critical epoch, 608604, opened by the fall of Josiah at Megiddo and closing in the fourth year of Jehoiakim after the battle of Carchemish and the advent of Nebuchadrezzar, when the paroxysm of the prophets soul was past and his vision of the future grew clear; (d) the stage of full illumination, attained during the calamities of the last days of Jerusalem.

To (a) belongs the teaching recorded in chs. 26, subject to the modifications involved in condensing from memory discourses uttered 20 years before. Here Jeremiah is on the same ground as Zephaniah. He strongly recalls Hosea, whose love for Ephraim he shares, and whose similitude of the marriage-union between Jehovah and Israel supplies the basis of his appeals. Judah, he insists, has proved a more faithless bride than her northern sister; a divorce is inevitable. Ch. 5 reflects the shocking impression made by Jeremiahs first acquaintance with Jerusalem; in ch. 6 Jehovahs scourgein the first instance the Scythiansis held over the city. With rebukes mingle calls to repentance and, more rarely, hopes of a relenting on the peoples part (Jer 3:21-25; in other hopeful passages critics detect interpolation). Jeremiahs powerful and pathetic preaching helped to prepare the reformation of 621. But as the danger from the northern hordes passed and Josiahs rule brought new prosperity, the prophets vaticinations were discounted; his pessimism became an object of ridicule.

(b) Jeremiahs attitude towards Josiahs reformation is the enigma of his history. The collection of his prophecies made in 604 (see chs. 112), apart from the doubtful allusion in Jer 11:1-8, ignores the subject; Josiahs name is but once mentioned, by way of contrast to Jehoiakim, in Jer 22:13-19. From this silence we must not infer condemnation; and such passages as Jer 7:22-23 and Jer 8:8 do not signify that Jeremiah was radically opposed to the sacrificial system and to the use of a written law. We may fairly gather from Jer 11:1-8, if not from Jer 17:19-27 (the authenticity of which is contested), that Jeremiah commended the Deuteronomic code. His writings in many passages show a Deuteronomic stamp. But, from this point of view, the reformation soon showed itself a failure. It came from the will of the king, not from the conscience of the people. It effected no circumcision of the heart, no inward turning to Jehovah, no such breaking up of the fallow ground as Jeremiah had called for; the good seed of the Deuteronomic teaching was sown among thorns (Jer 4:3-4), which sprang up and choked it. The cant of religion was in the mouths of ungodly men; apostasy had given place, in the popular temper, to hypocrisy. Convinced of this, Jeremiah appears to have early withdrawn, and stood aloof for the rest of Josiahs reign. Hence the years 621608 are a blank in the record of his ministry. For the time the prophet was nonplussed; the evil he had foretold had not come; the good which had come was a doubtful good in his eyes. He could not support, he would not oppose, the work of the earnest and sanguine king. Those twelve years demonstrated the emptiness of a political religion. They burnt into the prophets soul the lesson of the worthlessness of everything without the law written on the heart.

(c) Josiahs death at Megiddo pricked the bubble of the national religiousness; this calamity recalled Jeremiah to his work. Soon afterwards he delivered the great discourse of Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3, which nearly cost him his life (see ch. 26). He denounces the false reliance on the Temple that replaced the idolatrous superstitions of 20 years before, thereby making the priests and the prophets, to whose ears the threat of Shilohs fate for Zion was rank treason, from this time his implacable enemies. The post-reformation conflict now opening was more deadly than the pre-reformation conflict shared with Zephaniah. A false Jehovism had entrenched itself within the forms of the Covenant, armed with the weapons of fanatical self-righteousness. To this phase of the struggle belong chs. 710 (subtracting the great interpolation of Jer 9:23 to Jer 10:16, of which Jer 10:1-16 is surely post-Jeremianic); so, probably, most of the matter of chs. 1420, identified with the many like words that were added to the volume of Jeremiah burnt by Jehoiakim in the winter of 604 (Jer 36:27-32).

The personal passages of chs. 15, 17, 18, 20 belong to this decisive epoch (608605, between Megiddo and Carchemish). The climax of Jeremiahs inward agony was brought about by the outrage inflicted on him by Pashhur, the Temple overseer (ch. 20), when, to stop his mouth, the prophet was scourged and put in the stocks. He breaks out, O Jehovah, thou hast befooled me, and I have been befooled! and ends by cursing the day of his birth (Jer 20:7-18). Jehovah has used His almighty power to play with a weak, simple man, and to make him a laughing-stock! Jehovahs word is a fire in his bones; he is compelled to speak it, only to meet ridicule and insult! His warnings remain unfulfilled, and God leaves him in the lurch! He desires nothing but the peoples good; yet they count him a traitor, and put down his terrifying visions to malignity! This last reproach cut Jeremiah to the heart; again and again he had repelled it (Jer 15:10; Jer 17:16; Jer 18:20). The scene of ch. 20 was Jeremiahs Gethsemane. It took place not long before the crisis of the fourth year of Jehoiakim,the occasion when the roll of doom was prepared (ch. 36) which was read to the people and the king, and when, after the battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadrezzar was hailed as Jehovahs servant and executioner (ch. 25). At this juncture the conclusive breach with Jehoiakim came about, when the faithless king, by running his knife through Jeremiahs book, severed the ties which had bound prophecy to the secular throne of David since Samuels day. Recalling at this date his misgivings and inward fightings against God, the prophet virtually tells us that they are past. From the years 6054 he marches with firm step to the goal; he sees the end of Gods kingdom, and the way. Jeremiah is at last equal to his office, ready to pluck up and to break down the nations, and to build and to plant. Master of himself, he is master of the world.

(d) Chs. 3033 (Jer 33:14-26 are wanting in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] ; the remainder of 33, along with Jer 32:16-44, lies under grave critical suspicion) contain a distinct word of Jehovah, committed to a separate book. This is the Book of the Future of Israel and Judah (Duhm), and the crown of Jeremiahs life-work. Like the Christian prophet who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jeremiah fled to the ideal and eternal from the horrors of the national downfall; as the earthly Zion sinks, the image of Gods true city rises on his soul. The long foreseen catastrophe has arrived; Jeremiah meets it bravely, for days are coming, Jehovah tells him, when I will restore the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land of their fathers (Jer 30:3 ff.). The prophet adds deeds to words: he takes the opportunity of buying, before witnesses, a field at Anathoth offered during the siege by his cousin Hanameel, in token that houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land (Jer 32:15). But the restoration means something far better than recovery of the land; it will be a spiritual renovation, a change of heart going deeper than Josiahs renewal of the old covenant. They shall be my people, Jehovah promises, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will put my fear in their hearts (Jer 32:38-39; Jer 32:31-44 of this disputed chapter are full of Jeremianic traits). The announcement of the new covenant in ch. Jer 31:31-34 is the kernel of the Book of the Future; this is Jeremiahs greatest contribution to the progress of the Kingdom of God. This passage touches the high-water mark of OT prophecy; it was appropriated by the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper, and supplied the basis of the NT doctrine of salvation (see Heb 10:14-18). To deprive Jeremiah of the New-Covenant oracle (as B. Duhm, e.g., would do) is to remove the top-stone of his lifes edifice; it is to make his rle one of plucking up and breaking down, with no commensurate building and planting (Jer 1:10) upon the desolated site. Jeremiah had read first in his own heart the secret thus conveyed to Israel. The mission which he had borne for long as a painful yoke, he learnt to rest in with entire contentment. He is able to say, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart; and he prophesies that, under the new covenant, every man shall say this.

Jeremiahs style and powers as a writer have been underestimated; better justice is done to them by recent scholars. The gloom overshadowing many of his pages has been repellent; and the mistaken attachment of his name to Lamentations has brought on him the disparaging epithet of the weeping prophet. Much of the book comes to us from other pens; in its narrative parts we recognize the hand of Baruch; and allowance should be made for editorial glosses and additions, here and there interrupting the flow and impairing the force of the original. Jeremiahs language is touched with occasional Aramaisms, and shows some falling off from the perfection of the classical Hebrew of the 8th century. Jeremiah has neither the sublimity and sustained oratorical power of Isaiah, nor the pungency of Amos, nor the poignancy of Hosea, nor the fire and verve of Nahum, nor the subtlety of Habakkuk; but in richness of imagery, in fulness of human interest, in lucidity and naturalness, in his command of the various resources of poetry, eloquence, pathos, and practical appeal, by virtue of the combination of excellences he presents and the value of his total output, Jeremiah is the greatest of the writing prophets.

3. The Book.We owe the Book of Jeremiah to his collaborator Baruch (ch. 36). In fairness, this should be entitled The Book of Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the scribe. With Baruchs help Jeremiah issued in 604 a roll of a book, containing the sum of his public teaching up to that date. This volume was not too large to be read to the assembled people, and read aloud twice more in the course of the same day. In size and contents it corresponded to chs. 212 of the existing book (the two fragments of Jer 9:23-26 seem to be a later Jeremianic, and Jer 10:1-16 a post-Jeremianic insertion; some would also refer Jer 12:7-17 to a subsequent date). The destruction of the first roll by Jehoiakim called for a new edition, containing many like words, which added to the bulk of the first publication: chs. 1 and 1420, with (possibly) 25, may be taken to contain the supplementary matter referred to in Jer 36:32, extending and illustrating chs. 212 (ch. 13 is out of place, since it bears in the allusion of Jer 36:18-19 manifest reference to the captivity of 597). With the exceptions named, and some others of less moment, chs. 120 may be read as the re-written roll of Jer 36:32, which dated from the winter of b.c. 604.

In chs. Jer 21:11 to Jer 23:40 we find a distinct collection of oracles, relating to the kings (down to Jehoiachin) and prophets, associated under the designation of shepherds; it is prefaced by a story (in 3rd person: Jer 21:1-10) about king Zedekiah, germane to the later collection of chs. 3739. Chs. 13 and 24 and 2729 are reminiscences of Jeremiah relative to the early years of Zedekiahs reign, subsequent to the First Captivity (597)surely ch. 35, the story of the Rechabites (in 1st person), relating to Jehoiakims closing years, should come in here. This added matter may have gone to make up a third edition of Jeremiah-Baruchs work, published about this date, extending over chs. 129, with the deductions and addition previously noted (ch. 26 is mentioned below).

Chs. 3033 form a totally distinct work from the Book of Doom thus far analyzed; this is Jeremiahs book of promise or consolation, recording the revelation of his peoples future given to him during the last slege of Jerusalem. Chs. 3739, to which Jer 21:1-10 should be attached, and 4044, are two distinct memoirs, bearing on Jeremiahs history (a) in the final siege, and (b) after the capture of Jerusalem; the authorship of his secretary is indicated by the fact that the short oracle concerning Baruch (ch. 45) is set at the end of these narratives, though the event related took place earlier, in 604. It is to be noted that the data of Jer 1:1-3 do not cover the matter of chs. 4044. It looks as though that superscription was drawn up when the book extended only from ch. 139, and as though we ought to recognize a fourth stage in the growth of Jeremiahs booka redaction made soon after the fall of Jerusalem, which was supplemented afterwards when Baruch added chs. 4045, making the fifth (enlarged) edition. To (a) is prefixed the supremely important Baruch story (ch. 36), of the same date as the above-mentioned (ch. 45) which concludes (b). Ch. 26 is a detached narrative piece, out of place where it stands; this appears to be Baruchs account of the crisis in Jeremiahs work to which Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3 relates (b.c. 608). Altogether, we may credit to Baruchs memoirs of Jeremiah chs. 26, 36, 3739 and 4045; to some extent he probably worked over and edited the matter received by dictation from his master.

This leaves remaining only the collection of Foreign Oracles, which have been separately placed at the end of Jeremiahs works, in chs. 4651; and the Historical Appendix, ch. 52, borrowed by his editors from the Book of Kings (or by the compilers of Kings from this place). The great doom of the Chaldans and Babylon in chs. Jer 50:1 to Jer 51:58, judged by internal evidence, was certainly a postscript to Jeremiahs work and a product of the Exile; critical doubts, of less gravity, attach to other parts of the Foreign Oracles. In Jer 38:28 b39:10 we find already inserted, in shorter form, the first part of the narrative incorporated in ch. 52. Ch. Jer 52:28-30 supplies a valuable bit of tradition about the Captivity wanting in Kings, missing also in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] text of Jeremiah. The final redaction of the canonical Jeremiah (the sixth edition?) dates considerably posterior to the Exile; for Jer 50:2 to Jer 51:58, if written by an exilic prophet, could hardly have been ascribed to Jeremiah until a late age. On the other hand, chs. 5052 are found in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , which dated c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 200, and must therefore have been incorporated in the book before this time.

The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] departs from the Massoretic text in two main respects: (1) in arrangement,the Foreign Oracles (chs. 4651) being let in between vv.13 and 14 of ch. 25, and running in a different order. It is not unlikely that the Dooms of the Nations were originally associated with ch. 25; but their Greek position cannot possibly be sustained. (2) Again, the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] text differs from the MT [Note: Massoretic Text.] in quantity, being shorter by some 2700 words, or one-eighth of the whole. The subtracted matter consists partly of omissions of paragraphs and sentencesamongst the chief of these being Jer 11:7-8, Jer 17:1-4, Jer 29:16-20, Jer 33:14-26, Jer 48:45-47, Jer 51:45-48, Jer 52:2-3; Jer 52:28-30; partly of abbreviations,titles shortened, proper names dispensed with, synonyms dropped and descriptions curtailed. The former phenomena point, in a number of instances, to accretions gathered by the MT [Note: Massoretic Text.] subsequently to the date of translation; the abbreviations betray in the translator a studied attempt at conciseness. It has been supposed that the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] rested on an older and purer recension of the Hebrew text, preserved in Egypt; but this theory is abandoned. Both texts of Jeremiah have the same archetype; but this archetype underwent a gradual process of expansion, and the process is represented at an earlier stage in the MS or MSS underlying the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , and at a more advanced stage in those at the basis of the MT [Note: Massoretic Text.] . Speaking generally, the MT [Note: Massoretic Text.] is qualitatively greatly superior to the Greek; but, on the other hand, quantitatively, the Greek is nearer the original text. This judgment is general, admitting many exceptions,that is, cases where the quality of the Greek text is better, and its readings more original than the Hebrew; and also cases where, in regard to quantity, the Hebrew is to be preferred, the omissions in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] being due to faults in the translators MS, to his own oversight, or to his tendency to scamp and abridge (A. B. Davidson).

Synopsis of the Book

I.The great Book of Doom, dictated by Jeremiah in b.c. 604: chs. 120, 25, with parts (probably) of 4651, corresponding to the original volume read by Baruch (Jer 36:2; Jer 36:10) and the many like words added on re-writing (Jer 36:32).

(a)The book burnt by Jehoiakim: chs. 212 (minus Jer 9:23 to Jer 10:16 etc.). This included

1.The Judgment upon Judahs treachery towards Jehovah: chs. 26, embodying Jeremiahs pre-reformation teaching [Jer 3:6-18 has slipped out of its place; this oracle should come either before (Cornill), or after (Bruston), the rest of chs. 2, 3].

2.The Judgment upon Judahs hypocrisy. chs. 712 (? Jer 12:7-17; minus Jer 9:23 to Jer 10:15); belonging to the post-reformation preaching of 608 and onwards.

(b)The many like words, illustrating (a): chs. Jer 1:14-19, and probably 25, etc.; consisting of scenes and reminiscences from Jeremiahs earlier ministry, up to b.c. 604 [ch. 13 was later; it has been displaced; see V.].

II.The Judgment on the Shepherds (kings, priests, and prophets): chs. 2123 [Jer 21:1-10 has been transferred from V.: the remainder of this section need not have been later than c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 597].

III.Later memoranda of Jeremiah, extending from c [Note: circa, about.] . 600 to 593: chs. Jer 12:7-17 (?) 13, 24, 2729 and 35. II. and III. may have been added to I. to form a third (enlarged) edition of the great Book of Doom, issued in the middle of Zedekiahs reign and before the final struggle with Nebuchadrezzar.

IV.The little Book of Consolation: chs. 3033, dating from the second siege.

V.Baruchs Memoirs of Jeremiah:

(a)Before the Fall of Jerusalem (covered by the title in Jer 1:1-3): chs. 26, 36, 34, 3739, with Jer 21:1-10.

(b)After the Fall of Jerusalem: chs. 4044.

(c)Baruchs personal note: ch. 45.

Whether the above memoirs were introduced by Barocbor extracted later by other editors from a separate work of his, cannot be determined with certainty. The position of ch. 45 speaks for his editing up to this point; but if so, some later hand has disturbed his arrangement of the matter. In some instances the displacements we have noted may be due to accidents of transcription.

VI.The Collection of Foreign Oracles: chs. 4649 [Jer 50:2 to Jer 51:58] Jer 51:59-64against Egypt (2), Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and Hazor, Elam [Babylon]. In the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] the Dooms are differently arranged, attached to Jer 25:13, and slightly shorter. The Babylon Doom admittedly betrays the hand of a late compiler; additions to Jeremiahs work are suspected in other parts of the section, particularly in the Dooms of Egypt and Moab.

VII.The Historical Appendix: ch. 52, nearly identical, by general admission, with 2Ki 24:18 to 2Ki 25:30.

The above must be taken as a general outline and sketch of the growth of the work. There are a number of detached fragments, such as Jer 9:23-26, the true connexion of which is lost. And post-Jeremianic interpolations and annotations, relatively numerous, must be recognized; the most conspicuous of these, besides the last three chapters, are Jer 10:1-16 and Jer 33:14-26.

G. G. Findlay.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Jeremiah

The mournful prophet so called. A man famous in his day and generation as the Lord’s servant, and his memory ever blessed in the church through all ages. His name, it should seem, is a compound-from Ram, exaltation; and Jah, the Lord. The pronoun prefixed makes it, my exalted in the Lord. And exalted indeed he was in the Lord’s strength, though continually buffeted and ill-treated by men. It is blessed to read his prophecy, and under the Holy Ghost’s teachings to enter into the spirit of this man’s writings.

I beg the reader to behold, with suited attention, the account given of him in the first chapter. We find him ordained to the ministry before his birth. And who that reads this account of the servant, but must be struck with full conviction of what is said of his Master, called from the womb of eternity, and set up from everlasting to be JEHOVAH’S servant, to bring Jacob again to him. (See Isa 49:1-26 throughout, and Pro 8:12-36) What a decided proof and conviction by the way doth this afford, that if Jeremiah was ordained a prophet to the church before he was formed in the belly, surely the glorious Head of that church, and that church in him, was set up, and Christ in all his offices and characters ordained the Lord God of the prophets before all worlds. (Col 1:15-18) It should seem from the date of the prophet’s commission, when the word of the Lord first came to him, namely, in the thirtieth year of Josiah’s reign, that Jeremiah could not be above fourteen years of age when he preached his first sermon. And what a sermon it is! (See Jer 2:1-37; Jer 3:1-25; Jer 4:1-31 etc.) But what may not a child preach when God the Holy Ghost hath ordained him? Oh, that more of that blessed voice was heard in this our day, which was heard by the church in Paul’s day! (See Act 13:1-4) It was the lot of Jeremiah to live in an age when the nation was given up to daring impiety, and rebellion against God. Faithfulness at such a time, could not fail of bringing upon the poor preacher the hatred and indignation of all of a contrary way of thinking to himself. We have the relation of the persecution frequently raised against him, in several parts of his writings. The opposition made to him by the false prophet Hananiah, and the sequel of that awful event is recorded at large, Jer 28:1-17. (See Hananiah.) Blessed is the memory of Jeremiah, and will be in the churches to the latest generation. The Lord ordain many such, if it be his holy will, from the womb! There are several of this name in Scripture. (See 2Ki 24:18. See also 1Ch 5:24. Two of the name of Jeremiah in David’s army. 1Ch 12:4; 1Ch 12:10; 1Ch 12:13)

Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures

Jeremiah (1)

jer-e-ma ((a) , yirmeyahu, or (b) shorter form, , yirmeyah, both differently explained as Yah establishes (so Giesebrext), whom Yahweh casts, i.e. possibly, as Gesenius suggests, appoints (A. B. Davidson in HDB, II, 569a), and Yahweh looseneth (the womb); see BDB): The form (b) is used of Jeremiah the prophet only in Jer 27:1; Jer 28:5, Jer 28:6, Jer 28:10, Jer 28:11, Jer 28:12, Jer 28:15; Jer 29:1; Ezr 1:1; Dan 9:2, while the other is found 116 times in Jeremiah alone. In 1 Esdras 1:28, 32, 47, 57; 2 Esdras 2:18, English Versions of the Bible has Jeremy, so the King James Version in 2 Macc 2:1, 5, 7; Mat 2:17; Mat 27:9; in Mat 16:14, the King James Version has Jeremias, but the Revised Version (British and American) in 2 Maccabees and Matthew has Jeremiah.

(1) The prophet. See special article. Of the following, (2), (3) and (4) have form (a) above; the others the form (b).

(2) Father of Hamutal (Hamital), the mother of King Jehoahaz and King Jehoiakim (2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:18 parallel Jer 52:1).

(3) A Rechabite (Jer 35:3).

(4) In 1Ch 12:13 (Hebrew 14), a Gadite.

(5) In 1Ch 12:10 (Hebrew 11), a Gadite.

(6) In 1Ch 12:4 (Hebrew 5), a Benjamithe?) or Judean. (4), (5) and (6) all joined David at Ziklag.

(7) Head of a Manassite family (1Ch 5:24).

(8) A priest who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Neh 10:2), probably the same as he of Neh 12:34 who took part in the procession at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem.

(9) A priest who went to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel from exile and became head of a priestly family of that name (Neh 12:1).

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Jeremiah (2)

jer-e-ma:

1.Name and Person

2.Life of Jeremiah

3.The Personal Character of Jeremiah

4.The Prophecies of Jeremiah

5.The Book of Jeremiah

6.Authenticity and Integrity of the Book

7.Relation to the Septuagint (Septuagint)

Literature

1. Name and Person

The name of one of the greatest prophets of Israel. The Hebrew , yirmeyahu, abbreviated to , yirmeyah, signifies either Yahweh hurls or Yahweh founds. Septuagint reads , Iermas, and the Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) Jeremias. As this name also occurs not infrequently, the prophet is called the son of Hilkiah (Jer 1:1), who is, however, not the high priest mentioned in 2 Ki 22 and 23, as it is merely stated that he was of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin In Anathoth, now Anata, a small village 3 miles Northeast of Jerusalem, lived a class of priests who belonged to a side line, not to the line of Zadok (compare 1Ki 2:26).

2. Life of Jeremiah

Jeremiah was called by the Lord to the office of a prophet while still a youth (Jer 1:6) about 20 years of age, in the 13th year of King Josiah (Jer 1:2; Jer 25:3), in the year 627 bc, and was active in this capacity from this time on to the destruction of Jerusalem, 586 bc, under kings Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Even after the fall of the capital city he prophesied in Egypt at least for several years, so that his work extended over a period of about 50 years in all. At first he probably lived in Anathoth, and put in his appearance publicly in Jerusalem only on the occasion of the great festivals; later he lived in Jerusalem, and was there during the terrible times of the siege and the destruction of the city.

Although King Josiah was God-fearing and willing to serve Yahweh, and soon inaugurated his reformation according to the law of Yahweh (in the 18th year of his reign), yet Jeremiah, at the time when he was called to the prophetic office, was not left in doubt of the fact that the catastrophe of the judgment of God over the city would soon come (Jer 1:11); and when, after a few years, the Book of the Law was found in the temple (2 Ki 22 and 23), Jeremiah preached the words of this covenant to the people in the town and throughout the land (Jer 11:1-8; Jer 17:19-27), and exhorted to obedience to the Divine command; but in doing this then and afterward he became the object of much hostility, especially in his native city, Anathoth. Even his own brethren or near relatives entered into a conspiracy against him by declaring that he was a dangerous fanatic (Jer 12:6). However, the condition of Jeremiah under this pious king was the most happy in his career, and he lamented the latter’s untimely death in sad lyrics, which the author of Chronicles was able to use (2Ch 35:25), but which have not come down to our times.

Much more unfavorable was the prophet’s condition after the death of Josiah. Jehoahaz-Shallum, who ruled only 3 months, received the announcement of his sentence from Jeremiah (Jer 22:10). Jehoiakim (609-598 bc) in turn favored the heathen worship, and oppressed the people through his love of luxury and by the erection of grand structures (Jer 22:13). In addition, his politics were treacherous. He conspired with Egypt against his superior, Nebuchadnezzar. Epoch- making was the 4th year of Jehoiakim , in which, in the battle of Carchemish, the Chaldeans gained the upper hand in Hither Asia, as Jeremiah had predicted (Jer 46:1-12). Under Jehoiakim Jeremiah delivered his great temple discourse (Jer 7 through 9; Jer 10:17-25). The priests for this reason determined to have the prophet put to death (Jer 26). However, influential elders interceded for him, and the princes yet showed some justice. He was, however, abused by the authorities at the appeal of the priests (Jer 20). According to Jer 36:1, he was no longer permitted to enter the place of the temple. For this reason the Lord commanded him to collect his prophecies in a bookroll, and to have them read to the people by his faithful pupil Baruch (Jer 36; compare Jer 45:1-5). The book fell into the hands of the king, who burned it. However, Jeremiah dictated the book a second time to Baruch, together with new additions.

Jehoiachin or Coniah (Jer 22:24), the son of Jehoiakim, after a reign of 3 months, was taken into captivity to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, together with a large number of his nobles and the best part of the people (Jer 24:1; Jer 29:2), as the prophet had predicted (Jer 22:20-30). But conditions did not improve under Zedekiah (597-586 bc). This king was indeed not as hostile to Jeremiah as Jehoiakim had been; but all the more hostile were the princes and the generals, who were now in command after the better class of these had been deported to Babylon. They continually planned rebellion against Babylon, while Jeremiah was compelled to oppose and put to naught every patriotic agitation of this kind. Finally, the Babylonian army came in order to punish the faithles s vassal who had again entered into an alliance with Egypt. Jeremiah earnestly advised submission, but the king was too weak and too cowardly as against his nobles. A long siege resulted, which caused the direst sufferings in the life of Jeremiah. The commanders threw him into a vile prison, charging him with being a traitor (Jer 37:11). The king, who consulted him secretly, released him from prison, and put him into the court of the guard (Jer 37:17), where he could move around freely, and could agai n prophesy. Now that the judgment had come, he could again speak of the hopeful future (Jer 32; 33). Also Jer 30 and 31, probably, were spoken about this time. But as he continued to preach submission to the people, those in authority cast him into a slimy cistern, from which the pity of a courtier, Ebed-melech, delivered him (Jer 39:15-18). He again returned to the court of the guard, where he remained until Jerusalem was taken.

After the capture of the city, Jeremiah was treated with great consideration by the Babylonians, who knew that he had spoken in favor of their government (Jer 39:11; Jer 40:1). They gave him the choice of going to Babylon or of remaining in his native lan d. He decided for the latter, and went to the governor Gedaliah, at Mizpah, a man worthy of all confidence. But when this man, after a short time, was murdered by conscienceless opponents, the Jews who had been left in Palestine, becoming alarmed and fearing the vengeance of the Chaldeans, determined to emigrate to Egypt. Jeremiah advised against this most earnestly, and threatened the vengeance of Yahweh, if the people should insist upon their undertaking (Jer 42:1). But they insisted and even compelled the aged prophet to go with them (Jer 43:1). Their first goal was Tahpanhes (Daphne), a town in Lower Egypt. At this place he still continued to preach the word of God to his fellow-Israelites; compare the latest of his preserved discourses in Jer 43:8-13, as also the sermon in Jer 44, delivered at a somewhat later time but yet before 570 bc. At that time Jeremiah must have been from 70 to 80 years old. He probably died soon after this in Egypt. The church Fathers report that he was stoned to death at Daphne by the Jews (Jerome, Adv. Jovin, ii, 37; Tertullian, Contra Gnost., viii; Pseudepiphan. De Proph., chapter viii; Dorotheus, 146; Isidorus, Ort. et Obit. Patr., chapter xxxviii). However, this report is not well founded. The same is the case with the rabbinical tradition, according to which he, in company with Baruch, was taken from Egypt to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, and died there (Sedher Olam Rabba’ 26).

3. The Personal Character of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah gives us not only a fuller account of the life and career of its author than do the books of the other prophets, but we also learn more about his own inner and personal life and feelings than we do of Isaiah or any other prophet. From this source we learn that he was, by nature, gentle and tender in his feelings, and sympathetic. A decided contrast to this is found in the hard and unmerciful judgment which it was his mission to announce. God made him strong and firm and immovable like iron for his mission (Jer 1:18; Jer 15:20). This contrast between his naturally warm personal feelings and his strict Divine mission not rarely appears in the heart-utterances found in his prophecies. At first he rejoiced when God spoke to him (Jer 15:16); but soon these words of God were to his heart a source of pain and of suffering (Jer 15:17). He would have preferred not to utter them; and then they burned in his breast as a fire (Jer 20:7; Jer 23:9). He personally stood in need of love, and yet was not permitted to marry (Jer 16:1 f). He was compelled to forego the pleasures of youth (Jer 15:17). He loved his people as nobody else, and yet was always compelled to prophesy evil for it, and seemed to be the enemy of his nation. This often caused him to despair. The enmity to which he fell a victim, on account of his declaration of nothing but the truth, he deeply felt; see his complaints (Jer 9:1; Jer 12:5 f; Jer 15:10; Jer 17:14-18; Jer 18:23, and often). In this sad antagonism between his heart and the commands of the Lord, he would perhaps wish that God had not spoken to him; he even cursed the day of his birth (Jer 15:10; Jer 20:14-18; compare Job 3:1). Such complaints are to be carefully distinguished from that which the Lord through His Spirit communicated to the prophet. God rebukes him for these complaints, and demands of him to repent and to trust and obey Him (Jer 15:19). This discipline makes him all the more unconquerable. Even his bitter denunciations of his enemies (Jer 11:20; Jer 15:15; Jer 17:18; Jer 18:21-23) originated in part in his passionate and deep nature, and show how great is the difference between him and that perfect Sufferer, who prayed even for His deadly enemies. But Jeremiah was nevertheless a type of that Suffering Saviour, more than any of the Old Testament saints. He, as a priest, prayed for his people, until God forbade him to do so (Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14; Jer 14:11; Jer 18:20). He was compelled more than all the others to suffer through the anger of God, which was to afflict his people. The people themselves also felt that he meant well to them. A proof of this is seen in the fact that the rebellious people, who always did the contrary of what he had commanded them, forced him, the unwelcome prophet of God, to go along with them, to Egypt, because they felt that he was their good genius.

4. The Prophecies of Jeremiah

What Jeremiah was to preach was the judgment upon Judah. As the reason for this judgment Jeremiah everywhere mentioned the apostasy from Yahweh, the idolatry, which was practiced on bamoth, or the high places by Judah, as this had been done by Israel. Many heathenish abuses had found their way into the life of the people. Outspoken heathenism had been introduced by such men as King Manasseh, even the sacrifice of children to the honor of Baal-Molech in the valley of Hinnom (Jer 7:31; Jer 19:5; Jer 32:35), and the worship of the queen of heaven (Jer 7:18; Jer 44:19). It is true that the reformation of Josiah swept away the worst of these abominations. But an inner return to Yahweh did not result from this reformation. For the reason that the improvement had been more on the surface and outward, and was done to please the king, Jeremiah charges up to his people all their previous sins, and the guilt of the present generation was yet added to this (Jer 16:11 f). Together with religious insincerity went the moral corruption of the people, such as dishonesty, injustice, oppression of the helpless, slander, and the like. Compare the accusations found in Jer 5:1,Jer 5:7 f,26ff; Jer 6:7, Jer 6:13; Jer 7:5 f,9; Jer 9:2, Jer 9:6, Jer 9:8; Jer 17:9; Jer 21:12; Jer 22:13; Jer 23:10; Jer 29:23, etc. Especially to the spiritual leaders, the priests and prophets, are these things charged up.

The judgment which is to come in the near future, as a punishment for the sins of the people, is from the outset declared to be the conquest of the country through an enemy from abroad. In this way the heated caldron with the face from the North, in the vision containing the call of the prophet (Jer 1:13), is to be understood. This power in the North is not named until the 4th year of Jehoiakim (Jer 25), where Nebuchadnezzar is definitely designated as the conqueror. It is often thought, that, in the earlier years of his career, Jeremiah had in mind the Scythians when he spoke of the enemies from the North, especially in Jer 4 through 6. The Scythians (according to Herodotus i.103ff) had, probably a few years before Jeremiah’s call to the prophetic office, taken possession of Media, then marched through Asia Minor, and even forced their way as far as Egypt. They crossed through Canaan, passing by on their march from East to West, near Beth-shean (Scythopolis). The ravages of this fierce people probably influenced the language used by Jeremiah in his prophecies (compare Jer 4:11; Jer 5:15; Jer 6:3,Jer 6:22). But it is unthinkable that Jeremiah expected nothing more than a plundering and a booty-seeking expedition of the Scythian nomad hordes. Chariots, such as are described in Jer 4:13, the Scythians did not possess. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that Jeremiah from the outset speaks of a deportation of his people to this foreign land (Jer 3:18; Jer 5:19), while an exile of Israel in the country of the Scythians was out of the question. At all events from the 4th year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah regards the Chaldeans as the enemy who, according to his former announcement, would come from the North It is possible that it was only in the course of time that he reached a clear conviction as to what nation was meant by the revelation from God. But, upon further reflection, he must have felt almost certain on this subject, especially as Isaiah (Isa 39:6), Micah (Mic 4:10), and, soon after these, Habakkuk had named Babylon as the power that was to carry out the judgment upon Israel. Other prophets, too, regard the Babylonians as belonging to the northern group of nations (compare Zec 6:8), because they always came from the North, and because they were the legal successors of the Assyrians.

In contrast to optimistic prophets, who had hoped to remedy matters in Israel (Jer 6:14), Jeremiah from the beginning predicted the destruction of the city and of the sanctuary, as also the end of the Jewish nation and the exile of the people through these enemies from abroad. According to Jer 25:11; Jer 29:10, the Babylonian supremacy (not exactly the exile) was to continue for 70 years; and after this, deliverance should come. Promises to this effect are found only now and then in the earlier years of the prophet (Jer 3:14; Jer 12:14; Jer 16:14 f). However, during the time of the siege and afterward, such predictions are more frequent (compare Jer 23:1; Jer 24:6 f; Jer 47:2-7; and in the Book of Comfort, chapters 30 through 33).

What characterizes this prophet is the spiritual inwardness of his religion; the external theocracy he delivers up to destruction, because its forms were not animated by God-fearing sentiments. External circumcision is of no value without inner purity of heart. The external temple will be destroyed, because it has become the hiding-place of sinners. External sacrifices have no value, because those who offer them are lacking in spirituality, and this is displeasing to God. The law is abused and misinterpreted (Jer 8:8); the words of the prophets as a rule do not come from God. Even the Ark of the Covenant is eventually to make way for a glorious presence of the Lord. The law is to be written in the hearts of men (Jer 31:31). The glories of the Messianic times the prophet does not describe in detail but their spiritual character he repeatedly describes in the words Yahweh our righteousness (Jer 23:6; Jer 33:16). However, we must not over-estimate the idealism of Jeremiah. He believed in a realistic restoration of theocracy to a form, just as the other prophets (compare Jer 31 through 32, 38 through 40).

As far as the form of his prophetic utterances is concerned, Jeremiah is of a poetical nature; but he was not only a poet. He often speaks in the meter of an elegy; but he is not bound by this, and readily passes over into other forms of rhythms and also at times into prosaic speech, when the contents of his discourses require it. The somewhat monotonous and elegiac tone, which is in harmony with his sad message to the people, gives way to more lively and varied forms of expression, when the prophet speaks of other and foreign nations. In doing this he often makes use of the utterances of earlier prophets.

5. The Book of Jeremiah

The first composition of the book is reported in Jer 36:1. In the 4th year of Jehoiakim, at the command of Yahweh, he dictated all of the prophecies he had spoken down to this time to his pupil Baruch, who wrote them on a roll. After the destruction of this book-roll by the king, he would not be stopped from reproducing the contents again and making additions to it (Jer 36:32). In this we have the origin of the present Book of Jeremiah. This book, however, not only received further additions, but has also been modified. While the discourses may originally have been arranged chronologically, and these reached only down to the 4th year of King Jehoiakim, we find in the book, as it is now, as early as Jer 21:1; Jer 23:1; Jer 26:1, discourses from the times of Zedekiah. However, the 2nd edition (Jer 36:28) contained, no doubt, Jer 25, with those addresses directed against the heathen nations extant at that time. The lack of order, from a chronological point of view, in the present book, is attributable also to the fact that historical accounts or appendices concerning the career of Jeremiah were added to the book in later times, e.g. Jer 26; 35; 36 and others; and in these additions are also found older discourses of the prophet. Beginning with Jer 37, the story of the prophet during the siege of Jerusalem and after the destruction of the city is reported, and in connection with this are his words and discourses belonging to this period.

It is a question whether these pieces, which are more narrative in character, and which are the product of a contemporary, probably Baruch, at one time constituted a book by themselves, out of which they were later taken and incorporated in the book of the prophet, or whether they were inserted by Baruch. In favor of the first view, it may be urged that they are not always found at their proper places chronologically; e.g. Jer 26 is a part of the temple discourse in Jer 7 through 9. However, this Book of Baruch, which is claimed by some critics to have existed as a separate book beside that of Jeremiah, would not furnish a connected biography, and does not seem to have been written for biographical purposes. It contains introductions to certain words and speeches of the prophet and statements of what the consequences of these had been. Thus it is more probable that Baruch, at a later time, made supplementary additions to the original book, which the prophet had dictated without any personal data. But in this work the prophet himself may have coperated. At places, perhaps, the dictation of the prophet ends in a narrative of Baruch (Jer 19:14 through 20:6), or vice versa. Baruch seems to have written a historical introduction, and then Jeremiah dictated the prophecy (Jer 27:1; Jer 18:1; Jer 32:1, and others). Of course, the portions of the book which came from the pen of Baruch are to be regarded as an authentic account.

6. Authenticity and Integrity of the Book

However, critics have denied to Jeremiah and his pupil certain sections of the present book, and they claim that these belong to a later date. Among these is 10:1-16, containing a warning to those in the exile against idolatry (and related to Isa 40ff) which, it is claimed, could not possibly in this form and fullness be the work of Jeremiah. Also Jer 17:19-27 is without reason denied to Jeremiah, upon the ground that he could not have thought of emphasizing the Sabbath law. He was, however, no modern idealist, but respected also the Divine ordinances (compare Jer 11:1-8). Then Jer 25 is rejected by some, while others attack especially Jer 25:12-14 and Jer 25:27-38; but in both cases without reason. On the other hand, we admit that Jer 25:25 and also Jer 25:13 f are later additions. The words, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations, are probably a superscription, which has found its way into the text. In Jer 25:26 the words, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them, are likewise considered spurious. Sheshach is rightly regarded here, as in Jer 51:41, as a cipher for Babel, but the use of ‘At-bash (a cipher in which the order of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet is reversed, taw (, t) for ‘aleph (, ‘), shin (, sh) for beth (, b), etc., hence, SHeSHaKH = BaBHeL, see the commentaries) does not prove spuriousness. The sentence is not found in the Septuagint. The attacks made on Jer 30 and 31 are of little moment. Jer 33:14-26 is not found in the Septuagint, and its contents, too, belong to the passages in Jeremiah that are most vigorously attacked. Critics regard Jeremiah as too spiritual to have perpetuated the Levitical priesthood. In Jer 39:1, Jer 39:2, Jer 39:4-10 are evidently additions that do not belong to this place. The remaining portion can stand. Among the discourses against the nations, Jer 46 through 51, those in Jer 46:1-12, spoken immediately preceding the battle of Carchemish, cannot be shown to be unauthentic; even 46:13-28 are also genuine. The fact, however, is that the text has suffered very much. Nor are there any satisfactory reasons against the prophecy in Jer 47 through 49, if we assume that Jeremiah reasserted some of his utterances against the heathen nations that did not seem to have been entirely fulfilled. Jer 50 and 51, the discourses against Babylon, have the distinct impress of Jeremiah. This impression is stronger than the doubts, which, however, are not without weight. The events in Jer 51:59, which are not to be called into question, presuppose longer addresses of Jeremiah against Babylon. The possibility, however, remains that the editing of these utterances as found in the present book dates from the time after 586 bc. That any influence of Deutero-Isaiah or later authors can be traced in Jeremiah cannot be shown with any certainty. Jer 52 was written neither by Jeremiah nor for his book, but is taken from the Books of Kings, and is found there almost verbatim (2 Ki 24; 25).

7. Relation to the LXX (Septuagint)

A special problem is furnished by the relation of the text of Jeremiah to the Alexandrian version of the Seventy (Septuagint). Not only does the Hebrew form of the book differ from the Greek materially, much more than this is the case in other books of the Old Testament, but the arrangement, too, is a different one. The oracle concerning the heathen nations (Jer 46 through 51) is in the Septuagint found in the middle of Jer 25, and that, too, in an altogether different order (namely, Jer 49:35,46; 50; 51; Jer 47:1-7; 49:7-22; Jer 49:1-5, Jer 49:28-33, Jer 49:13-27; 48). In addition, the readings throughout the book in many cases are divergent, the text in the Septuagint being in general shorter and more compact. The Greek text has about 2,700 Hebrew words less than the authentic Hebrew text, and is thus about one-eighth shorter.

As far as the insertion of the addresses against the heathen nations in Jer 29 is concerned, the Greek order is certainly not more original than is the Hebrew. It rather tears apart, awkwardly, what is united in Jer 25, and has probably been caused by a misunderstanding. The words of Jer 25:13 were regarded as a hint that here the discourses against the heathen were to follow. Then, too, the order of these discourses in the Greek text is less natural than the one in Hebrew. In regard to the readings of the text, it has been thought that the text of the Septuagint deserves the preference on account of its brevity, and that the Hebrew text had been increased by additions. However, in general, the Greek version is very free, and often is done without an understanding of the subject; and there are reasons to believe that the translator shortened the text, when he thought the style of Jeremiah too heavy. Then, too, where he met with repetitions, he probably would omit; or did so when he found trouble with the matter or the language. This does not deny that his translation in many places may be correct, and that additions may have been made to the Hebrew text.

Literature

Calvin, Praelectiones in Librum Prophetiae Jer et Thren, Geneva, 1653; Sebastian Schmidt, Commentarii in libr. prophet. Jeremiah, Argent, 1685. Modern commentary by Hitzig, Ewald, Graf, Ngelsbach, Keil; also Cheyne (Pulpit Comm.), Peake, Duhm, and von Orelli.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Jeremiah

Jeremiah (raised up or appointed by God), was the son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin [ANATHOTH]. Jeremiah was very young when the word of the Lord first came to him (Jer 1:6). This event took place in the thirteenth year of Josiah (B.C. 629), while the youthful prophet still lived at Anathoth. It would seem that he remained in his native city several years, but at length, in order to escape the persecution of his fellow townsmen (Jer 11:21), and even of his own family (Jer 12:6), as well as to have a wider field for his exertions, he left Anathoth and took up his residence at Jerusalem. The finding of the book of the law five years after the commencement of his predictions, must have produced a powerful influence on the mind of Jeremiah, and king Josiah no doubt found him a powerful ally in carrying into effect the reformation of religious worship (2Ki 23:1-25). During the reign of this monarch we may readily believe that Jeremiah would be in no way molested in his work; and that from the time of his quitting Anathoth to the eighteenth year of his ministry, he probably uttered his warnings without interruption, though with little success (see Jeremiah 11). Indeed, the reformation itself was nothing more than the forcible repression of idolatrous and heathen rites, and the re-establishment of the external service of God, by the command of the king. No sooner, therefore, was the influence of the court on behalf of the true religion withdrawn, than it was evident that no real improvement had taken place in the minds of the people. Jeremiah, who hitherto was at least protected by the influence of the pious king Josiah, soon became the object of attack, as he must doubtless have long been the object of dislike to those whose interests were identified with the corruptions of religion. We hear nothing of the prophet during the three months which constituted the short reign of Jehoahaz; but ‘in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim’ the prophet was interrupted in his ministry by ‘the priests and the prophets,’ who with the populace brought him before the civil authorities, urging that capital punishment should be inflicted on him for his threatenings of evil on the city unless the people amended their ways (Jeremiah 26). The princes seem to have been in some degree aware of the results which the general corruption was bringing on the state, and if they did not themselves yield to the exhortations of the prophet, they acknowledged that he spoke in the name of the Lord, and were quite averse from so openly renouncing His authority as to put His messenger to death. It appears, however, that it was rather owing to the personal influence of one or two, especially Ahikam, than to any general feeling favorable to Jeremiah, that his life was preserved. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.C. 606) he was commanded to write the predictions which had been given through him, and to read them to the people. As he was at that time ‘shut up,’ and could not himself go into the house of the Lord (Jer 36:5), he deputed Baruch to write the predictions after him, and to read them publicly on the fast-day. These threatenings being thus anew made public, Baruch was summoned before the princes to give an account of the manner in which the roll containing them had come into his possession. The princes, who, without strength of principle to oppose the wickedness of the king, had sufficient respect for religion, as well as sagacity enough to discern the importance of listening to the voice of God’s prophet, advised both Baruch and Jeremiah to conceal themselves, while they endeavored to influence the mind of the king by reading the roll to him. The result showed that their precautions were not needless. The bold self-will and reckless daring of the monarch refused to listen to any advice, even though coming with the professed sanction of the Most High. Having read three or four leaves, ‘he cut the roll with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed,’ and gave immediate orders for the apprehension of Jeremiah and Baruch, who, however, were both preserved from the vindictive monarch. Of the history of Jeremiah during the eight or nine remaining years of the reign of Jehoiakim we have no certain account. At the command of God he procured another roll, in which he wrote all that was in the roll destroyed by the king, ‘and added besides unto them many like words’ (Jer 36:32). In the short reign of his successor Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, we find him still uttering his voice of warning (see Jer 13:18; comp. 2Ki 24:12, and Jer 23:24-30), though without effect. It was probably either during this reign, or at the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, that he was put in confinement by Pashur, the ‘chief governor of the house of the Lord.’ He seems, however, soon to have been liberated, as we find that ‘they had not put him into prison’ when the army of Nebuchadnezzar commenced the siege of Jerusalem. The Chaldeans drew off their army for a time, on the report of help coming from Egypt to the besieged city; and now feeling the danger to be imminent, and yet a ray of hope brightening their prospects, the king entreated Jeremiah to pray to the Lord for them. The hopes of the king were not responded to in the message which Jeremiah received from God. He was assured that the Egyptian army should return to their own land, that the Chaldeans should come again, and that they should take the city and burn it with fire (Jer 36:7-8). The princes, apparently irritated by a message so contrary to their wishes, made the departure of Jeremiah from the city, during the short respite, the pretext for accusing him of deserting to the Chaldeans, and he was forthwith cast into prison. The king seems to have been throughout inclined to favor the prophet, and sought to know from him the word of the Lord; but he was wholly under the influence of the princes, and dared not communicate with him except in secret (Jer 38:14; Jer 38:28); much less could he follow advice so obnoxious to their views as that which the prophet gave. Jeremiah, therefore, more from the hostility of the princes than the inclination of the king, was still in confinement when the city was taken. Nebuchadnezzar formed a more just estimate of his character and of the value of his counsels, and gave a special charge to his captain Nebuzaradan, not only to provide for him but to follow his advice (Jer 39:12). He was accordingly taken from the prison and allowed free choice either to go to Babylon, where doubtless he would have been held in honor in the royal court, or to remain with his own people. We need scarcely be told that he who had devoted more than forty years of unrequited service to the welfare of his falling country should choose to remain with the remnant of his people rather than seek the precarious fame which might await him at the court of the king of Babylon. Accordingly he went to Mizpah with Gedaliah, whom the Babylonian monarch had appointed governor of Judea; and after his murder sought to persuade Johanan, who was then the recognized leader of the people, to remain in the land, assuring him and the people, by a message from God in answer to their inquiries, that if they did so the Lord would build them up, but if they went to Egypt the evils which they sought to escape should come upon them there (Jeremiah 42). The people refused to attend to the divine message, and under the command of Johanan went into Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch along with them (Jer 43:6). In Egypt the prophet still sought to turn the people to the Lord, from whom they had so long and so deeply revolted (Jeremiah 44); but his writings give us no subsequent information respecting his personal history. Ancient traditions assert that he spent the remainder of his life in Egypt. According to the pseudo-Epiphanius he was stoned by the people at Taphnae, the same as Tahpanhes, where the Jews were settled. It is said that his bones were removed by Alexander the Great to Alexandria.

Jeremiah was contemporary with Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Daniel. None of these, however, are in any remarkable way connected with him, except Ezekiel. The writings and character of these two eminent prophets furnish many very interesting points both of comparison and contrast. Both, during a long series of years, were laboring at the same time and for the same object. The representations of both, far separated as they were from each other, are in substance singularly accordant; yet there is at the same time a marked difference in their modes of statement, and a still more striking diversity in the character and natural disposition of the two. No one who compares them can fail to perceive that the mind of Jeremiah was of a softer and more delicate texture than that of his illustrious contemporary. His whole history convinces us that he was by nature mild and retiring, highly susceptible and sensitive, especially to sorrowful emotions, and rather inclined, as we should imagine, to shrink from danger than to brave it. Yet, with this acute perception of injury, and natural repugnance from being ‘a man of strife,’ he never in the least degree shrinks from publicity; nor is he at all intimidated by reproach or insult, or even by actual punishment and threatened death, when he has the message of God to deliver. He is, in truth, as remarkable an instance, though in a different way, of the overpowering influence of the divine energy, as Ezekiel. The one presents the spectacle of the power of divine inspiration acting on a mind naturally of the firmest texture, and at once subduing to itself every element of the soul; while the other furnishes an example, not less memorable, of moral courage sustained by the same divine inspiration against the constantly opposing influence of a love of retirement and strong susceptibility to impressions of outward evil.

The style of Jeremiah corresponds with this view of the character of his mind; though not deficient in power, it is peculiarly marked by pathos. He delights in the expression of the tender emotions, and employs all the resources of his imagination to excite corresponding feelings in his readers. He has an irresistible sympathy with the miserable, which finds utterance in the most touching descriptions of their condition. He seizes with wonderful tact those circumstances which point out the objects of his pity as the objects of sympathy, and founds his expostulations on the miseries which are thus exhibited. His book of Lamentations is an astonishing exhibition of his power to accumulate images of sorrow. The whole series of elegies has but one objectthe expression of sorrow for the forlorn condition of his country; and yet he presents this to us in so many lights, alludes to it by so many figures, that not only are his mournful strains not felt to be tedious reiterations, but the reader is captivated by the plaintive melancholy which pervades the whole.

The genuineness and canonicity of the writings of Jeremiah in general are established both by the testimony of ancient writers, and by quotations and references which occur in the New Testament.

The principal predictions relating to the Messiah are found in Jer 23:1-8; Jer 31:31-40; Jer 33:14-26.

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

Jeremiah

[Jeremi’ah]

1. Man of Libnah, whose daughter Hamutal was the wife of Josiah. 2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:18; Jer 52:1.

2. Head of a family in the tribe of Manasseh. 1Ch 5:24.

3. One who resorted to David at Ziklag. 1Ch 12:4.

4, 5. Two of the Gadites who resorted to David at Ziklag. 1Ch 12:10; 1Ch 12:13.

6. Son of Hilkiah, priest of Anathoth: the writer of the Book of Jeremiah. His history is contained in his prophecy. He was carried to Egypt by the rebellious Jews and his end is not recorded. 2Ch 35:25; 2Ch 36:12; 2Ch 36:21-22; Ezr 1:1; Jer. 1 – Jer. 51.

7. Priest who sealed the covenant. Neh 10:2; Neh 12:1; Neh 12:12; Neh 12:34.

8. Father of Jaazaniah a Rechabite. Jer 35:3.

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah

H3414

1. Of Libnah, grandfather of Jehoahaz

2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:18; Jer 52:1

2. A chief of Manasseh

1Ch 5:24

3. An Israelite who joined David at Ziklag

1Ch 12:4

4. Two Gadites who joined David at Ziklag

1Ch 12:10; 1Ch 12:13

5. The prophet:

– A Rechabite

Jer 35:3

– A priest

Jer 1:1

– Call of

Jer 1:4-19

– Time of his prophecies

Jer 3:6; Jer 21:1; Jer 24:1; Jer 25:1-3; Jer 26:1; Jer 28:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:1; Jer 45:1; Jer 49:34

– Letter to the captives in Babylon

Jer 29

– Sorrow of, under persecution

Jer 15:10; Jer 15:15; Jer 17:15-18

– Conspiracy against

Jer 11:21-23; Jer 18:18-23

– Foretells the desolation of Jerusalem

Jer 19:1-15

– Pashur, the governor of the temple, scourges and casts him into prison

Jer 20:1-3

– Denounces Pashur

Jer 20:3-6

– His melancholy and murmuring against God, in consequence of persecution

Jer 20:7-18

– Imprisoned by Zedekiah

Jer 32; Jer 33:1; Jer 37:15-21; Jer 38:6-13; Jer 39:15-18; Lam 3:53-55

– Nebuchadnezzar directs the release of

Jer 39:11-14; Jer 40:1-4

– Has a friend in Ahikam

Jer 26:24

– Ebed-Melech, the Egyptian, intercedes with the king for him, and secures his release

Jer 38:7-13

– Prophecies of, written by Baruch

Jer 36:1-7; Jer 36:32; Jer 45:1

– Prophecies of, destroyed by Jehoiakim

Jer 36:8-32

Book of the prophecies of, delivered to Seraiah, with a charge from Jeremiah

Jer 51:59-64

– Zedekiah seeks counsel from God by

Jer 21:1-2; Jer 37:3; Jer 38:14

– His intercession asked:

b By Johanan and all the people

Jer 42:1-6

b By Zedekiah

Jer 37:3

– Johanan carries Jeremiah into Egypt

Jer 43:1-7

– Foretells the conquest of Egypt by Babylon

Jer 43:8-12

– Prophecies of, studied by Daniel

Dan 9:2

– Celibacy of

Jer 16:2

– Purchases a field

Jer 32:7-10

– Lamentations of:

b Over Josiah

2Ch 35:25

b Over the prosperity of the wicked

Jer 12:1-6

b Over the desolation of God’s heritage

Jer 12:7-13

b Over Jerusalem

Jer 4:14-18; Jer 8:18-21; Jer 9:1; Jer 10:19-22

b Reference book of Lamentations

Lam 1

– Dwells at Mizpah

Jer 40:6

– Prayers of

Jer 14:7-9; Jer 32:17-25

– Zeal of

Jer 15:16

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Jeremiah

Jeremiah (jr-e-m’ah), whom Jehovah setteth up or appointeth. 1. The distinguished prophet, son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth. Jer 1:1-6. He was called to assume the prophetic office when a youth, and on that account declined it: but God promised him grace and strength sufficient for his work. He prophesied under Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah; and for some time during the exile. During the course of his predictions, Jerusalem was in a distracted and deplorable condition, and the prophet was calumniated, imprisoned, and often in danger of death. Jeremiah expressly foretold that the captivity would endure for 70 years; he also predicted the return of the people to their own country. He appears to have stood high in the estimation of Nebuchadnezzar. Jer 39:11-14. Towards the close of his life he was carried into Egypt against his will, by the Jews who remained in Judea after the murder of Gedaliah, where he probably died. Jeremiah is called “Jeremy,” Mat 2:17 A. V., and “Jeremias,” Mat 16:14 A. V. The name Jeremy, in Mat 27:9-10, is probably an error of the transcribers for Zechariah. The ft. V. reads Jeremiah in all these places. Canon Cook says of Jeremiah: “His character is most interesting. We find him sensitive to a most painful degree, timid, shy, hopeless, desponding, constantly complaining, and dissatisfied with the course of events, but never flinching from duty…. Timid in resolve, he was unflinching in execution; as fearless when he had to face the whole world as he was dispirited and prone to murmuring when alone with God. Judged by his own estimate of himself, he was feeble, and his mission a failure; really, in the hour of action and when duty called him, he was in very truth ‘a defenced city and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land.’ Jer 1:18. He was a noble example of the triumph of the moral over the physical nature.” There are eight persons of this name mentioned in the Scriptures.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Jeremiah

Jeremiah, Book of. This prophecy embraces a period of upwards of 40 years, between b.c. 628 and b.c. 586. It relates to the judgments that were to come upon the people for their gross idolatry and corruption; to the restoration which awaited them, whenever they would repent of and forsake their sins; and to the glory which would arise on the church in future times. Melancholy, tender sensibility, and a tone of grief, are the distinguishing characteristics of Jeremiah’s style. The several prophecies may be arranged thus: I. The introduction, chap. 1. II. Reproofs of the sins of the Jews, consisting of seven sectionsa, Jer 2:1-37, b. 3-6, c. 7-10, d. 11-13, e. Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:18, f. Jer 17:19-20, g. 21-24. III. A general review of the heathen nations, and also of the people of Israel, consisting of two sectionsa. 46-49, which may have been transposed, b. 25, and an historical appendix in three sectionsa. 26, b. 27, c. 28, 29. IV. Two sections picturing the hopes of brighter timesa. 30, 31, b. 32, 33, to which is added an historical appendix in three sectionsa. Jer 34:1-7, b. Jer 34:8-22, c. 35. V. The conclusion, in two sectionsa. 36, b. 45. Added some time afterwardsa. 37-39, b. 40-43, c. Jer 46:13-26. The fifty-second chapter of Jeremiah is nearly the same with 2Ki 24:18 to 2Ki 25:30. Both were mainly drawn from the same sources. The order of the prophecies of Jeremiah, from chap. 21:15 to the end of the book, is different in the Septuagint version from that of the Hebrew text; for those prophecies which, in the Hebrew, occupy the last place46-51are found in the Greek translation after chap. 2Ki 25:14, and in a different order. In some editions of the Septuagint the chapters are as in the Hebrew.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Jeremiah

Jeremi’ah. (whom Jehovah has appointed). Jeremiah was “the son of Hilkiah of the priests, that were in Anathoth.” Jer 1:1.

I. History. — He was called very young, (B.C. 626), to the prophetic office, and prophesied forty-two years; but we have hardly any mention of him during the eighteen years between his call and Josiah’s death, or during the short reign of Jehoahaz.

During the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, B.C. 607-598, he opposed the Egyptian party, then dominant in Jerusalem, and maintained that the only way of safety lay in accepting the supremacy of the Chaldeans. He was accordingly accused of treachery, and men claiming to be prophets had the “word of Jehovah” to set against his. Jer 14:13; Jer 23:7.

As the danger from the Chaldeans became more threatening, the persecution against Jeremiah grew hotter. Jeremiah 18. The people sought his life; then follows the scene in Jer 19:10-13 he was set, however, “as a fenced brazen wall,” Jer 15:20, and went on with his work, reproving king and nobles and people.

The danger which Jeremiah had so long foretold, at last came near. First Jehoiakim, and afterwards, his successor, Jehoiachin, were carried into exile, 2 Kings 24; but Zedekiah, B.C. 597-586, who was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was more friendly to the prophet, though powerless to help him.

The approach of an Egyptian army, and the consequent departure of the Chaldeans, made the position of Jeremiah full of danger, and he sought to effect his escape from the city; but he was seized and finally thrown into a prison-pit to die, but was rescued.

On the return of the Chaldean army, he showed his faith in God’s promises, and sought to encourage the people by purchasing the field at Anathoth, which his kinsman Hanameel wished to get rid of. Jer 32:6-9 At last, the blow came. The city was taken, the Temple burnt. The king and his princes shared the fate of Jehoiachin. The prophet gave utterance to his sorrow in the Lamentations.

After the capture of Jerusalem, B.C. 586, by the Chaldeans, we find Jeremiah receiving better treatment; but after the death of Gedaliah, the people, disregarding his warnings, took refuge in Egypt, carrying the prophet with them. In captivity, his words were sharper and stronger than ever. He did not shrink, even there, from speaking of the Chaldean king, once more as “the servant of Jehovah.” Jer 43:10. After this, all is uncertain, but he probably died in Egypt.

II. Character. — Canon Cook says of Jeremiah, “His character is most interesting. We find him sensitive to a most painful degree, timid, shy, hopeless, desponding, constantly complaining and dissatisfied with the course of events, but never flinching from duty. Timid in resolve, he was unflinching in execution; as fearless when he had to face the whole world as he was dispirited and prone to murmuring when alone with God. Judged by his own estimate of himself, he was feeble, and his mission a failure; really, in the hour of action and when duty called him, he was in very truth ‘a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land.’ Jer 1:18. He was a noble example of the triumph of the moral over the physical nature.”

(It is not strange that he was desponding, when we consider his circumstances. He saw the nation going straight to irremediable ruin, and turning a deaf ear to all warnings. “A reign of terror had commenced (in the preceding reign), during which not only the prophets but all who were distinguished for religion and virtue were cruelly murdered.” “The nation tried to extirpate the religion of Jehovah;” “Idolatry was openly established,” “and such was the universal dishonesty that no man trusted another, and society was utterly disorganized.” How could one who saw the nation about to reap the awful harvest they had been sowing, and yet had a vision of what they might have been and might yet be, help indulging in “Lamentations”? — Editor).

Seven other persons bearing the same name as the prophet are mentioned in the Old Testament: —

1. Jeremiah of Libnah, father of Hamutal, wife of Josiah. 2Ki 23:31. (B.C. before 632).

2, 3, 4. Three warriors — two of the tribe of Gad — in David’s army. 1Ch 12:4; 1Ch 12:10; 1Ch 12:13. (B.C. 1061-53).

5. One of the “mighty men of valor,” of the TransJordanic half-tribe of Manasseh. 1Ch 5:24. (B.C. 782).

6. A priest of high rank, head of the second or third of the twenty-one courses, which are apparently enumerated in Neh 10:2-8; Neh 12:1; Neh 12:12. (B.C. 446-410).

7. The father of Jazaniah, the Rechabite. Jer 35:3. (B.C. before 606).

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

JEREMIAH

son of Hilkiah, one of the greater prophets

Jer 1:1; Jer 3:6; Jer 20:2; Jer 21:3; Jer 24:3; Jer 25:2; Jer 28:5; Jer 36:4; Jer 36:27; Jer 37:13; Jer 37:21

Jer 38:6; Jer 38:13; Jer 38:27; Jer 39:15; Jer 40:1; Jer 42:7; Jer 43:8; Jer 44:1; Jer 45:1; Jer 46:1; Jer 47:1; Jer 49:34; Jer 51:60

Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible

Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah was of the sacerdotal race, being, as he records himself, one of the priests that dwelt at Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, a city appropriated out of that tribe to the use of the priests, the sons of Aaron, Jos 21:18, and situate, as we learn from St. Jerom, about three miles north of Jerusalem. Some have supposed his father to have been that Hilkah, the high priest, by whom the book of the law was found in the temple in the reign of Josiah: but for this there is no better ground than his having borne the same name, which was no uncommon one among the Jews; whereas, had he been in reality the high priest, he would doubtless have been mentioned by that distinguishing title, and not put upon a level with priests of an ordinary and inferior class. Jeremiah appears to have been very young when he was called to the exercise of the prophetical office, from which he modestly endeavoured to excuse himself by pleading his youth and incapacity; but being overruled by the divine authority, he set himself to discharge the duties of his function with unremitted diligence and fidelity during a period of at least forty-two years, reckoning from the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign. In the course of his ministry he met with great difficulties and opposition from his countrymen of all degrees, whose persecution and ill usage sometimes wrought so far upon his mind, as to draw from him expressions, in the bitterness of his soul, which many have thought hard to reconcile with his religious principles; but which, when duly considered, may be found to demand our pity for his unremitted sufferings, rather than our censure for any want of piety and reverence toward God. He was, in truth, a man of unblemished piety and conscientious integrity; a warm lover of his country, whose misery he pathetically deplores; and so affectionately attached to his countrymen, notwithstanding their injurious treatment of him, that he chose rather to abide with them, and undergo all hardships in their company, than separately to enjoy a state of ease and plenty, which the favour of the king of Babylon would have secured to him. At length, after the destruction of Jerusalem, being carried with the remnant of the Jews into Egypt, whither they had resolved to retire, though contrary to his advice, upon the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Chaldeans had left governor in Judea, he there continued warmly to remonstrate against their idolatrous practices, foretelling the consequences that would inevitably follow. But his freedom and zeal are said to have cost him his life; for the Jews at Tahpanhes, according to tradition, took such offence at him that they stoned him to death. This account of the manner of his end, though not absolutely certain, is at least very probable, considering the temper and disposition of the parties concerned. Their wickedness, however, did not long pass without its reward; for, in a few years after, they were miserably destroyed, by the Babylonian armies which invaded Egypt according to the prophet’s prediction, Jer 44:27-28.

The idolatrous apostasy, and other criminal enormities of the people of Judah, and the severe judgments which God was prepared to inflict upon them, but not without a distant prospect of future restoration and deliverance, are the principal subject matters of the prophecies of Jeremiah; excepting only the forty-fifth chapter, which relates personally to Baruch, and the six succeeding chapters, which respect the fortunes of some particular Heathen nations. It is observable, however, that though many of these prophecies have their particular dates annexed to them, and other dates may be tolerably well conjectured from certain internal marks and circumstances, there appears much disorder in the arrangement, not easy to be accounted for on any principle of regular design, but probably the result of some accident or other, which has disturbed the original order. The best arrangement of the chapters appears to be according to the list which will be subjoined; the different reigns in which the prophecies were delivered were most probably as follows: The first twelve chapters seem to contain all the prophecies delivered in the reign of the good King Josiah. During the short reign of Shallum, or Jehoahaz, his second son, who succeeded him, Jeremiah does not appear to have had any revelation. Jehoiakim, the eldest son of Josiah, succeeded. The prophecies of this reign are continued on from the thirteenth to the twentieth chapter inclusively; to which we must add the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth chapters, together with the forty-fifth, forty- sixth, forty-seventh, and most probably the forty-eighth, and as far as the thirty-fourth verse of the forty-ninth chapter. Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, succeeded. We read of no prophecy that Jeremiah actually delivered in this king’s reign; but the fate of Jeconiah, his being carried into captivity, and continuing an exile till the time of his death, were foretold early in his father’s reign, as may be particularly seen in the twenty-second chapter. The last king of Judah was Zedekiah, the youngest son of Josiah. The prophecies delivered in his reign are contained in the twenty-first and twenty-fourth chapters, the twenty-seventh to the thirty-fourth, and the thirty-seventh to the thirty-ninth inclusively, together with the last six verses of the forty-ninth chapter, and the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters concerning the fall of Babylon. The siege of Jerusalem, in the reign of Zedekiah, and the capture of the city, are circumstantially related in the fifty-second chapter; and a particular account of the subsequent transactions is given in the fortieth to the forty-fourth inclusively. The arrangement of the chapters, alluded to above, is here subjoined: 1-20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 35, 36, 45, 24, 29-31, 27, 28, 21, 34, 37, 32, 33, 38, 39, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth verse, 39, from the first to the fourteenth verse, 40-44, 46, and so on.

The prophecies of Jeremiah, of which the circumstantial accomplishment is often specified in the Old and New Testament, are of a very distinguished and illustrious character. He foretold the fate of Zedekiah, Jer 34:2-5; 2Ch 36:11-21; 2Ki 25:5; Jer 52:11; the Babylonish captivity, the precise time of its duration, and the return of the Jews. He describes the destruction of Babylon, and the downfall of many nations, Jer 25:12; Jer 9:26; Jer 25:19-25; Jer 42:10-18; Jeremiah 46, and the following chapters, in predictions, of which the gradual and successive completion kept up the confidence of the Jews for the accomplishment of those prophecies, which he delivered relative to the Messiah and his period, Jer 23:5-6; Jer 30:9; Jer 31:15; Jer 32:14-18; Jer 33:9-26. He foreshowed the miraculous conception of Christ, Jer 31:22, the virtue of his atonement, the spiritual character of his covenant, and the inward efficacy of his laws, Jer 31:31-36; Jer 33:8. Jeremiah, contemplating those calamities which impended over his country, represented, in the most descriptive terms, and under the most impressive images, the destruction that the invading enemy should produce. He bewailed, in pathetic expostulation, the shameless adulteries which had provoked the Almighty, after long forbearance, to threaten Judah with inevitable punishment, at the time that false prophets deluded the nation with the promises of assured peace, and when the people, in impious contempt of the Lord’s word, defied its accomplishment. Jeremiah intermingles with his prophecies some historical relations relative to his own conduct, and to the completion of those predictions which he had delivered. The reputation of Jeremiah had spread among foreign nations, and his prophecies were deservedly celebrated in other countries. Many Heathen writers also have undesignedly borne testimony to the truth and accuracy of his prophetic and historical descriptions.

As to the style of Jeremiah, says Bishop Lowth, this prophet is by no means wanting either in elegance or sublimity, although, generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both. His thoughts, indeed, are somewhat less elevated, and he is commonly more large and diffuse in his sentences; but the reason of this may be, that he is mostly taken up with the gentler passions of grief and pity, for the expression of which he has a peculiar talent. This is most evident in the Lamentations, where those passions altogether predominate; but it is often visible also in his prophecies, in the former part of the book more especially, which is principally poetical: the middle parts are chiefly historical; but the last part, consisting of six chapters, is entirely poetical, and contains several oracles distinctly marked, in which this prophet falls very little short of the lofty style of Isaiah. But of the whole book of Jeremiah it is hardly the one half which I look upon as poetical.

Jeremiah survived to behold the sad accomplishment of all his darkest predictions. He witnessed all the horrors of the famine, and, when that had done its work, the triumph of the enemy. He saw the strong holds of the city cast down, the palace of Solomon, the temple of God, with all its courts, its roofs of cedar and of gold, levelled to the earth, or committed to the flames; the sacred vessels, the ark of the covenant itself, with the cherubim, pillaged by profane hands. What were the feelings of a patriotic and religious Jew at this tremendous crisis, he has left on record in his unrivalled elegies. Never did city suffer a more miserable fate, never was ruined city lamented in language so exquisitely pathetic. Jerusalem is, as it were, personified, and bewailed with the passionate sorrow of private and domestic attachment; while the more general pictures of the famine, the common misery of every rank, and age, and sex, all the desolation, the carnage, the violation, the dragging away into captivity, the remembrance of former glories, of the gorgeous ceremonies and the glad festivals, the awful sense of the divine wrath heightening the present calamities, are successively drawn with all the life and reality of an eye-witness. They combine the truth of history with the deepest pathos of poetry.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary