Jeremiah

When God called Jeremiah to warn the kingdom of Judah of its impending destruction, the kingdom was relatively prosperous, free, and secure. But Judah’s fortunes dramatically changed as Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon asserted his power in the region. Judah suffered under his heavy hand for twenty years before he destroyed the city of Jerusalem and exiled its citizens to Babylon. Throughout these events, Jeremiah warned of judgment and destruction while distinctively recording his own experience of the pain and conflict these announcements brought. Jeremiah beautifully conveyed God’s passionate plea for his people to return to him and receive salvation, and he also proclaimed God’s promise to restore Israel.

Setting

During the decades before Jeremiah’s birth, Assyria dominated the ancient Near East, including Egypt for a time. King Manasseh of Judah became a vassal of Assyria, swore allegiance to Assyrian deities, and worshiped idols for most of his long reign (686–642 BC; see 2 Kgs 21:1-7). As a result, the kingdom of Judah became a spiritual wasteland (but see 2 Chr 33:10-17). Manasseh’s son Amon followed his father’s negative example during his brief reign (2 Kgs 21:21). When some of the palace servants in Jerusalem assassinated Amon (2 Kgs 21:23-24), the people quickly crowned Amon’s eight-year-old son, Josiah, as king of Judah.

Josiah served the Lord, rejecting his forebears’ support of paganism. In the twelfth year of his reign, he decreed that pagan idols and altars should be destroyed (2 Chr 34:3-7). In his eighteenth year on the throne, he funded the repair of the Temple so that the priests and people of Judah could worship the one true God (2 Chr 34:8). During these repairs, the Book of the Law, which had been forgotten during Manasseh’s reign, was recovered. It clearly described Judah’s sins, and its teachings became a basis for Jeremiah’BC, soon after the Book of the Law was found.

Josiah’s death in battle with the Egyptians in 609 BC (see 2 Kgs 23:29) spelled the end of revival in Judah and the beginning of the end of the nation. Between 612 and 605 BC, the Babylonians crushed the Assyrians and beat back the Egyptians; Judah’s security and prosperity ended as the Babylonians gained control of the region. Between 605 and 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked, subjugated, and finally destroyed the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.

During this time, Judah’s kings remained apostate from the Lord and refused to heed Jeremiah’s warnings. Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim (609–598 BC), renewed pagan worship in Judah and relied on the Egyptians for support against the Babylonians; he was violently antagonistic to Jeremiah’s messages. His son Jehoiachin reigned for only three months at the beginning of 597 BC. When the Babylonians defeated Judah in April 597 BC, they replaced Jehoiachin with his uncle Zedekiah (597–586 BC), who reigned as a vassal of Babylon.

Zedekiah is depicted as weak and indecisive. He respected Jeremiah and often asked him for advice, but he lacked the courage to follow the Lord. Instead, Zedekiah followed the advice of his administrators and broke his covenant of service to the Babylonian king. As a result, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in January 588 BC. In July 586 BC they finally broke through the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and razed the city. Many people in Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon, though a remnant remained in Judah—including Jeremiah, who recorded what happened to the remnant community during the days following Jerusalem’s destruction.

Summary

Chapter 1 (627 BC) tells how God chose Jeremiah as his messenger.

Chapters 2–20 (627–605 BC) establish the dynamic interactions between God, Jeremiah, and the people of Judah. Through Jeremiah, God severely criticized pagan worship in Judah, warned of invasion from the north, and pronounced severe punishment. In chapters 11–20, Jeremiah learns more about God’s purposes.

Chapters 21–29 (605–593 BC) focus on verbal battles that Jeremiah had with Judah’s kings, priests, and other prophets. Jeremiah’s messages include scathing criticisms of these vicious leaders.

Chapters 30–33 (596–588 BC) provide a bright spot as they emphasize the possibility of restoration for the people of Judah and envision a new covenant relationship between God and his people. The vision reaches into the future and announces a “righteous descendant” (33:15) who will bring salvation.

Chapters 34–45 (605–580 BC) tell of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the breach of the city walls, and the complete destruction of the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Judah. Chapters 34–36 make it clear that the destruction was the result of Judah’s having broken its covenant with the Lord. Jeremiah then describes what occurred after the Babylonians left Judah (586–580 BC): Gedaliah the governor was assassinated, and the remaining people of Judah fled to Egypt despite Jeremiah’s warning not to.

Chapters 46–51 (605–593 BC) are an anthology of God’s judgments on Judah’s neighbors. Each of these nations, large and small, was to be punished for their idolatry and for their cruelty to God’s chosen people. A few nations were promised divine help in the future. Israel was promised deliverance from exile and restoration in the Promised Land.

Chapter 52 (586–561 BC) describes the last days of Jerusalem, essentially repeating 2 Kings 24:18–25:30.

Authorship and Date

In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim’s reign (605 BC), Jeremiah dictated a series of messages to Baruch, who wrote them on a scroll that was eventually delivered to the king (Jer 36:1-26). The king destroyed this scroll, but Jeremiah and Baruch rewrote the messages and “added much more!” (36:32). The contents of this second scroll probably make up chapters 2–20. Much of the rest of the book of Jeremiah appears to have been written later and added to the growing anthology. The book includes events down to Jeremiah’s arrival in Egypt, so it seems likely that the book was essentially complete by 580 BC.

Manuscripts

Two very different texts of Jeremiah have been preserved, representing two different collections of messages. The first, the Hebrew Masoretic Text, was preserved among the Babylonian exiles and underlies nearly all English translations of Jeremiah. The other text was preserved among the Egyptian refugees and became the basis of the Greek translation (the Septuagint), which was produced by Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt about 250 BC. The Septuagint text is about 2,700 words shorter than the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and it rearranges some of the material.

Literary Features

The Messenger System. The text of Jeremiah is dominated by a structure of communication called a “messenger system,” common in the royal governments of the ancient Near East and still in use today. The ruler of a country selected a person to deliver verbal and written messages to other countries. The messenger carried the authority of their ruler as they delivered the message. The recipient accepted or rejected the message and sent back a reply. If the recipient rejected the message, he might abuse the messenger and prepare for war (see 2 Sam 10:1-19). The messenger would report back to their ruler, who would decide how to respond.

Judicial Framework. Many of the messages in Jeremiah feature a judicial framework and vocabulary. The courtroom setting is established early in the book with the Lord’s statement, “I will bring my case against you. . . . I will even bring charges against your children’s children in the years to come” (Jer 2:9). The Lord assumes the roles of plaintiff, judge, and executioner. As plaintiff, he brings charges and evidence of sin against Judah. After the defendants express their arguments, the Lord pronounces the sentence as judge and then carries it out as executioner.

Narratives. Jeremiah contains historical narratives in which the prophet deals with kings, officials, priests, other prophets, and the common people in times of crisis. The book also includes many autobiographical narratives. Narrative sections often end with the pronouncement of a decree, usually in poetic form.

Meaning and Message

A battle raged in Old Testament Israel between pagan idol worship and worship of the Lord. Jeremiah repeatedly reminded the Israelites of their covenant with the Lord and that he required their true, heartfelt, and exclusive devotion. In a pivotal passage (Jer 10:1-16), Jeremiah clearly contrasts the foolishness of idolatry with the majesty, glory, purity, and power of the God of Israel.

The people of Jerusalem and Judah thus faced a major conflict. Jeremiah warned them that if they continued to worship pagan idols, they would lose their holy city and Temple, their loved ones, and their wealth and freedom. The people tried to escape their predicament through defiance, arrogance, alliances, and anger, but the events of war soon plunged them into utter despair and death. Even then, they seemed unable to choose another course of action. To cease believing in the magical power of idols and rituals and to give up the allure and excitement of pagan festivals and sexual freedom seemed too great a loss. The possibility that the Temple and Jerusalem might be destroyed was unthinkable. So only a few repented.

With passionate pleas, the Lord offered a way back to his gracious salvation. If the people would earnestly and completely remove the vicious and salacious practices of idolatry from their lives, submit to the Lord without reservation, and fulfill his ethical requirements, then the Lord would cease being angry and accept them as his people again. Even when the calamities of ruin, death, and exile became a reality, the Lord promised to preserve a remnant who would serve him. He promised to bring the captives back to their homeland and grant them peace and prosperity.

The brightest description of God’s mercy is found in chapters 30–33, which offer the promise of a new covenant and a new king. Instead of uprooting and tearing down, God would plant and rebuild (1:10; 31:28). However, only a few repented in Jeremiah’s days.

In all of this, the prophet Jeremiah experienced a deep tension between the Lord’s command (1:17-19) and his own desires. The Lord’s command was “Go . . . and tell,” whereas the prophet desired to keep peace with his neighbors (see 20:8-9). He felt a deep solidarity with his people, and the terrible words of judgment and destruction he was called to pronounce cut deeply into his own soul. More than any other Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah let us see his heart as he struggled to obey (15:16-18; cp. Matt 26:36-42).

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

The Prophecies of the Old Testament, as the Epistles of the New, are placed rather according to their bulk than their seniority - the longest first, not the oldest. There were several prophets, and writing ones, that were contemporaries with Isaiah, as Micah, or a little before him, as Hosea, and Joel, and Amos, or soon after him, as Habakkuk and Nahum are supposed to have been; and yet the prophecy of Jeremiah, who began many years after Isaiah finished, is placed next to his, because there is so much in it. Where we meet with most of God's word, there let the preference be given; and yet those of less gifts are not to be despised nor excluded. Nothing now occurs to be observed further concerning prophecy in general; but concerning this prophet Jeremiah we may observe, I. That he was betimes a prophet; he began young, and therefore could say, from his own experience, that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, the yoke both of service and of affliction, Lam 3:27. Jerome observes that Isaiah, who had more years over his head, had his tongue touched with a coal of fire, to purge away his iniquity (Isa 6:7), but that when God touched Jeremiah's mouth, who was yet but young, nothing was said of the purging of his iniquity (Jer 1:9), because, by reason of his tender years, he had not so much sin to answer for. II. That he continued long a prophet, some reckon fifty years, others above forty. He began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, when things went well under that good king, but he continued through all the wicked reigns that followed; for when we set out for the service of God, though the wind may then be fair and favourable, we know not how soon it may turn and be tempestuous. III. That he was a reproving prophet, was sent in God's name to tell Jacob of their sins and to warn them of the judgments of God that were coming upon them; and the critics observe that therefore his style or manner of speaking is more plain and rough, and less polite, than that of Isaiah and some others of the prophets. Those that are sent to discover sin ought to lay aside the enticing words of man's wisdom. Plain-dealing is best when we are dealing with sinners to bring them to repentance. IV. That he was a weeping prophet; so he is commonly called, not only because he penned the Lamentations, but because he was all along a mournful spectator of the sins of his people and of the desolating judgments that were coming upon them. And for this reason, perhaps, those who imagined our Saviour to be one of the prophets thought him of any of them to be most like to Jeremiah (Mat 16:14), because he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. V. That he was a suffering prophet. He was persecuted by his own people more than any of them, as we shall find in the story of this book; for he lived and preached just before the Jews' destruction by the Chaldeans, when their character seems to have been the same as it was just before their destruction by the Romans, when they killed the Lord Jesus, and persecuted his disciples, pleased not God, and were contrary to all men, for wrath had come upon them to the uttermost, Th1 2:15, Th1 2:16. The last account we have of him in his history is that the remaining Jews forced him to go down with them into Egypt; whereas the current tradition is, among Jews and Christians, that he suffered martyrdom. Hottinger, out of Elmakin, an Arabic historian, relates that, continuing to prophesy in Egypt against the Egyptians and other nations, he was stoned to death; and that long after, when Alexander entered Egypt, he took up the bones of Jeremiah where they were buried in obscurity, and carried them to Alexandria, and buried them there. The prophecies of this book which we have in the first nineteen chapters seem to be the heads of the sermons he preached in a way of general reproof for sin and denunciation of judgment; afterwards they are more particular and occasional, and mixed with the history of his day, but not placed in due order of time. With the threatenings are intermixed many gracious promises of mercy to the penitent, of the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity, and some that have a plain reference to the kingdom of the Messiah. Among the Apocryphal writings an epistle is extant said to be written by Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon, warning them against the worship of idols, by exposing the vanity of idols and the folly of idolaters. It is in Baruch, ch. 6. But it is supposed not to be authentic; nor has it, I think, any thing like the life and spirit of Jeremiah's writings. It is also related concerning Jeremiah (2 Macc. 2:4) that, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans, he, by direction from God, took the ark and the altar of incense, and, carrying them to Mount Nebo lodged them in a hollow cave there and stopped the door; but some that followed him, and thought that they had marked the place, could not find it. He blamed them for seeking it, telling them that the place should be unknown till the time that God should gather his people together again. But I know not what credit is to be given to that story, though it is there said to be found in the records. We cannot but be concerned, in the reading of Jeremiah's prophecies, to find that they were so little regarded by the men of that generation; but let us make use of that as a reason why we should regard them the more; for they are written for our learning too, and for warning to us and to our land.

JEREMIAH, son of Hilkiah, one of the ordinary priests, dwelling in Anathoth of Benjamin (Jer 1:1), not the Hilkiah the high priest who discovered the book of the law (Kg2 22:8); had he been the same, the designation would have been "the priest", or "the high priest". Besides, his residence at Anathoth shows that he belonged to the line of Abiathar, who was deposed from the high priesthood by Solomon (Kg1 2:26-35), after which the office remained in Zadok's line. Mention occurs of Jeremiah in Ch2 35:25; Ch2 36:12, Ch2 36:21. In 629 B.C. the thirteenth year of King Josiah, while still very young (Jer 1:5), he received his prophetical call in Anathoth (Jer 1:2); and along with Hilkiah the high priest, the prophetess Huldah, and the prophet Zephaniah, he helped forward Josiah's reformation of religion (2Ki. 23:1-25). Among the first charges to him was one that he should go and proclaim God's message in Jerusalem (Jer 2:2). He also took an official tour to announce to the cities of Judah the contents of the book of the law, found in the temple (Jer 11:6) five years after his call to prophesy. On his return to Anathoth, his countrymen, offended at his reproofs, conspired against his life. To escape their persecutions (Jer 11:21), as well as those of his own family (Jer 12:6), he left Anathoth and resided at Jerusalem. During the eighteen years of his ministry in Josiah's reign he was unmolested; also during the three months of Jehoahaz or Shallum's reign (Jer 22:10-12). On Jehoiakim's accession it became evident that Josiah's reformation effected nothing more than a forcible repression of idolatry and the establishment of the worship of God outwardly. The priests, prophets, and people then brought Jeremiah before the authorities, urging that he should be put to death for his denunciations of evil against the city (Jer 26:8-11). The princes, however, especially Ahikam, interposed in his behalf (Jer 26:16, Jer 26:24), but he was put under restraint, or at least deemed it prudent not to appear in public. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), he was commanded to write the predictions given orally through him, and to read them to the people. Being "shut up", he could not himself go into the house of the Lord (Jer 36:5); he therefore deputed Baruch, his amanuensis, to read them in public on the fast day. The princes thereupon advised Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves from the king's displeasure. Meanwhile they read the roll to the king, who was so enraged that he cut it with a knife and threw it into the fire; at the same time giving orders for the apprehension of the prophet and Baruch. They escaped Jehoiakim's violence, which had already killed the prophet Urijah (Jer 26:20-23). Baruch rewrote the words, with additional prophecies, on another roll (Jer 36:27-32). In the three months' reign of Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, he prophesied the carrying away of the king and the queen mother (Jer 13:18; Jer 22:24-30; compare Kg2 24:12). In this reign he was imprisoned for a short time by Pashur (Jer. 20:1-18), the chief governor of the Lord's house; but at Zedekiah's accession he was free (Jer 37:4), for the king sent to him to "inquire of the Lord" when Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem (Jer 21:1-3, &c.; Jer 37:3). The Chaldeans drew off on hearing of the approach of Pharaoh's army (Jer 37:5); but Jeremiah warned the king that the Egyptians would forsake him, and the Chaldeans return and burn up the city (Jer 37:7-8). The princes, irritated at this, made the departure of Jeremiah from the city during the respite a pretext for imprisoning him, on the allegation of his deserting to the Chaldeans (Jer 38:1-5). He would have been left to perish in the dungeon of Malchiah, but for the intercession of Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian (Jer 38:6-13). Zedekiah, though he consulted Jeremiah in secret yet was induced by his princes to leave Jeremiah in prison (Jer 38:14-28) until Jerusalem was taken. Nebuchadnezzar directed his captain, Nebuzar-adan, to give him his freedom, so that he might either go to Babylon or stay with the remnant of his people as he chose. As a true patriot, notwithstanding the forty and a half years during which his country had repaid his services with neglect and persecution, he stayed with Gedaliah, the ruler appointed by Nebuchadnezzar over Judea (Jer 40:6). After the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, Johanan, the recognized ruler of the people, in fear of the Chaldeans avenging the murder of Gedaliah, fled with the people to Egypt, and forced Jeremiah and Baruch to accompany him, in spite of the prophet's warning that the people should perish if they went to Egypt, but be preserved by remaining in their land (Jer. 41:1-43:13). At Tahpanhes, a boundary city on the Tanitic or Pelustan branch of the Nile, he prophesied the overthrow of Egypt (Jer 43:8-13). Tradition says he died in Egypt. According to the PSEUDO-EPIPHANIUS, he was stoned at TaphnÃ&brvbr or Tahpanhes. The Jews so venerated him that they believed he would rise from the dead and be the forerunner of Messiah (Mat 16:14).

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

The principle of the arrangement of his prophecies is hard to ascertain. The order of kings was—Josiah (under whom he prophesied eighteen years), Jehoahaz (three months), Jehoiakim (eleven years), Jeconiah (three months), Zedekiah (eleven years). But his prophecies under Josiah (the first through twentieth chapters) are immediately followed by a portion under Zedekiah (the twenty-first chapter). Again, Jer 24:8-10, as to Zedekiah, comes in the midst of the section as to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fifth chapters, &c.) So the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth chapters as to Jehoiakim, follow the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirty-third, thirty-fourth chapters, as to Zedekiah; and the forty-fifth chapter, dated the fourth year of Jehoiakim, comes after predictions as to the Jews who fled to Egypt after the overthrow of Jerusalem. EWALD thinks the present arrangement substantially Jeremiah's own; the various portions are prefaced by the same formula, "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord" (Jer 7:1; Jer 11:1; Jer 18:1; Jer 21:1; Jer 25:1; Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:1, Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1; Jer 44:1; compare Jer 14:1; Jer 46:1; Jer 47:1; Jer 49:34). Notes of time mark other divisions more or less historical (Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 36:1; Jer 37:1). Two other portions are distinct of themselves (Jer 29:1; Jer 45:1). The second chapter has the shorter introduction which marks the beginning of a strophe; the third chapter seems imperfect, having as the introduction merely "saying" (Jer 3:1, Hebrew). Thus in the poetical parts, there are twenty-three sections divided into strophes of from seven to nine verses, marked some way thus, "The Lord said also unto me". They form five books: I. The Introduction, first chapter II. Reproofs of the Jews, the second through twenty-fourth chapters, made up of seven sections: (1) the second chapter (2) the third through sixth chapters; (3) the seventh through tenth chapters; (4) the eleventh through thirteenth chapters; (5) the fourteenth through seventeenth chapters; (6) the seventeenth through nineteenth and twentieth chapters; (7) the twenty-first through twenty-fourth chapters. III. Review of all nations in two sections: the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth through forty-ninth chapters, with a historical appendix of three sections, (1) the twenty-sixth chapter; (2) the twenty-seventh chapter; (3) the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters. IV. Two sections picturing the hopes of brighter times, (1) the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; (2) the thirty-second and thirty-third chapters; and an historical appendix in three sections: (1) Jer 34:1-7; (2) Jer 34:8-22; (3) Jer. 35:1-19. V. The conclusion, in two sections: (1) Jer 36:2; (2) Jer 45:1-5. Subsequently, in Egypt, he added Jer 46:13-26 to the previous prophecy as to Egypt; also the three sections, the thirty-seventh through thirty-ninth chapters; fortieth through forty-third chapters; and forty-fourth chapter. The fifty-second chapter was probably (see Jer 51:64) an appendix from a later hand, taken from Kg2 24:18, &c.; Kg2 25:30. The prophecies against the several foreign nations stand in a different order in the Hebrew from that of the Septuagint; also the prophecies against them in the Hebrew (the forty-sixth through fifty-first chapters) are in the Septuagint placed after Jer 25:14, forming the twenty-sixth and thirty-first chapters; the remainder of the twenty-fifth chapter of the Hebrew is the thirty-second chapter of the Septuagint. Some passages in the Hebrew (Jer 27:19-22; Jer 33:14-26; Jer 39:4-14 Jer 48:45-47) are not found in the Septuagint; the Greek translators must have had a different recension before them; probably an earlier one. The Hebrew is probably the latest and fullest edition from Jeremiah's own hand. See on Jer 25:13. The canonicity of his prophecies is established by quotations of them in the New Testament (see Mat 2:17; Mat 16:14; Heb 8:8-12; on Mat 27:9, see on Introduction to Zechariah); also by the testimony of Ecclesiasticus 49:7, which quotes Jer 1:10; of PHILO, who quotes his word as an "oracle"; and of the list of canonical books in MELITO, ORIGEN, JEROME, and the Talmud.

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