Jeremiah

Life and work

Jeremiah was called to prophetic ministry as a young man in the thirteenth year of King Josiah, roughly 627 BC, and he traced his ministry through the reigns of five kings of Judah down to the fall of Jerusalem — some four decades of turbulent history (Jeremiah 1:1-3). He was the son of Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth, a village near Jerusalem.

At his call, Jeremiah protested that he was too young and did not know how to speak, but the Lord told him not to say 'I am only a youth,' touched his mouth, and appointed him 'over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant' (Jeremiah 1:4-10). Two visions followed — an almond branch and a boiling pot — signaling that God was watching and that disaster would come from the north.

Jeremiah's ministry was one of unrelenting, unpopular warning. He condemned Judah's idolatry and social injustice, predicted the nation's coming destruction and exile at the hands of Babylon, and urged submission to Babylonian rule as the only path to survival — counsel that made him appear a traitor to many of his contemporaries (Jeremiah 21, 27, 38). He was beaten, put in stocks, thrown into a muddy cistern to die, and repeatedly imprisoned for his message (Jeremiah 20:1-2; 37:11-16; 38:1-13).

He commissioned his scribe Baruch to write down his prophecies on a scroll, which King Jehoiakim contemptuously cut apart and burned in a fire pot as it was read to him — Jeremiah simply dictated it again, with additional words added (Jeremiah 36). Throughout, Jeremiah expressed raw personal anguish in passages scholars call his 'confessions,' at points cursing the day of his birth and accusing God of deceiving him, yet unable to stop proclaiming the message (Jeremiah 20:7-18).

Jeremiah lived to see his warnings fulfilled: Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, deporting much of the population (Jeremiah 39, 52). Amid the wreckage, and even as he foresaw the exile, Jeremiah bought a field in his hometown of Anathoth as a prophetic sign that the land would one day be restored and normal life would resume (Jeremiah 32).

After Jerusalem's fall, the Babylonians permitted Jeremiah to remain in Judah under the governorship of Gedaliah rather than be deported. After Gedaliah was assassinated, a group of Judeans fled to Egypt for fear of Babylonian reprisal and forced Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them, against Jeremiah's own prophetic warning not to go (Jeremiah 40-43). Tradition holds he died in Egypt, though the Bible does not record his death directly.

The book of Lamentations, a series of five poetic laments over the destruction of Jerusalem, is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, though it does not name its author internally; the association reflects ancient Jewish and early Christian tradition (its placement following Jeremiah in the Septuagint) rather than a direct scriptural claim.

Dating

Called as a young man in Josiah's 13th year, 627 BC (Jeremiah 1:2), and ministered through the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and beyond, into the Egyptian exile of the remaining Judahite remnant (Jeremiah 43-44). His death isn't recorded in Scripture; tradition holds he was killed by fellow exiles in Egypt.

Extra-biblical evidence

Scripture references

• Jeremiah 1-52 — The prophetic book bearing his name
• Lamentations 1-5 — Traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, mourning Jerusalem's destruction
• Matthew 2:17-18 — His prophecy of weeping in Ramah applied to Herod's slaughter of infants
• Matthew 16:14 — Some thought Jesus might be Jeremiah returned
• Matthew 27:9 — A prophecy attributed to Jeremiah cited regarding the price paid for Judas's betrayal

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Jeremiah

Reflect

Jeremiah kept speaking for decades with almost no one listening — what right thing would you keep doing even without results?