Jeremiah
(2 Chronicles 36:12,21, Jeremiah 1:1,2)
(C3345-3435, 659/569 BC)
His name, Jirmejah in Hebrew means "The LORD will rise." He was one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
God called him to prophesy in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (628 BC), but he first refused. God called him again and encouraged him with promises and signs related to the position and role of a prophet. He then left his city and went to live in Jerusalem, where he helped King Josiah a lot.
Then Jeremiah prophesied to the Jews, obedient to the command of God, about the calamity that the king of Babylon would soon bring over Jerusalem (Jeremiah 1:2-17 and 25:3). Zephaniah and other prophets admonished the people to repent, but were not heeded (Zephaniah 1:1, Jeremiah 25:3-5).
Nineteen years later, at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, God commanded Jeremiah to stand in the court of the temple and there he exhorted the people that came from all the cities of Judah to humble themselves before the Lord. It was the Feast of Tabernacles, when all the men of the cities should attend Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 15:16).
When they refused to repent, he pronounced God's judgment against them, saying that the house would become like Shiloh, and this city would be cursed among all nations of the earth (Jeremiah 26:6).
Consequently Jeremiah was imprisoned by priests and "prophets" and all the people who were present there. Accused of deserving the death penalty, he was acquitted and released in a public trial by the princes and elders (Jeremiah 26:1-19), influenced by Ahikam, a man who was given authority when Josiah was king and was a friend of Jeremiah.
In 606 BC, the fourth year of Jehoiakim in Judah and the first of the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, Jeremiah reproved the Jews for not having obeyed the Word of the Lord, which he had proclaimed for twenty-two years.
All the while the people had remained stubborn and disobedient to the warnings of Jeremiah, as well as those of other prophets at that time.
Again, he warned the people of the next invasion of their land by Nebuchadnezzar and his army, which would take them captive to Babylon, and there they would remain in exile for a period of seventy years. Judah and other nations would have to serve the king of Babylon.
In fact, soon after that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and invaded the kingdom of Judah and besieged Jerusalem. He had Jehoiakim tied with chains to take him captive to Babylon. But he soon changed his mind, apparently when he learned of the death of his father Nabopolassar, and hastily returned by a shortcut to ensure his rights to the throne of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar took with him some captives (including Daniel), and vessels of the house of the LORD, for use in his own temple, and forced Jehoiakim to pledge loyalty to him. The following year (605 BC), Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptian army, thus taking dominion over the Middle East.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem were asked to make a solemn fast. God then commanded Jeremiah to take the roll of a book, and write therein all the words that were spoken throughout this time against Israel, Judah and against all the nations (Jeremiah 36:2). The people of Judah would still have opportunity to repent from their evil way upon reading the evil that awaited him, that God might forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Jeremiah dictated these words to a scribe named Baruch, who wrote a book on the roll, and then told Baruch to take it to the house of the Lord on the day of fasting and read it before all the people, so that they might convert and beg God's forgiveness. Baruch did what he was told.
The son of a scribe was there and after the reading he went down to the king's house where all the princes were assembled and told them what had been read to the people. The princes sent for Baruch with the roll and asked him to read it in the presence of them all.
They were afraid of what they heard and after getting confirmation from Baruch that Jeremiah had truly dictated it all, they advised him to hide well with Jeremiah, they left the roll in the chamber of a scribe and went and told the king all they had heard.
The king ordered them to bring the roll and to read it in his presence and that of the princes. In contempt, the king cut it into pieces and threw them in the fire as they were read. After the reading was finished none of them feared or expressed sadness, and the king ordered that Jeremiah and Baruch be arrested, but they were not found because "the Lord hid them."
Instructed by the Lord, Jeremiah wrote it all again on another roll, and told Jehoiakim that, for having despised and burned the first roll, he and his descendants would all be punished: all the evil that was spoken of there would come upon them, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah (Jeremiah chapter 36).
After three years as a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiakim rebelled but had no peace: he was harassed by bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, sent by the Lord to destroy Judah, thus fulfilling the prophecies of the time of Manasseh, whose iniquity the Lord spared not (2 Kings 21:10-16). Finally in 600 BC Nebuchadnezzar's army attacked and destroyed the weakened kingdom of Judah and captured Jehoiakim.
When they left, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, then only eighteen years old took the kingdom, but reigned for only three months and ten days, during which he also did what was evil before the LORD.
The army of the Chaldeans returned and besieged Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar himself came, Jehoiachin gathered all his court and went to meet with him. But, as had been prophesied by Jeremiah (22:24-28), Nebuchadnezzar arrested everyone and took them captive to Babylon along with what was most precious in the temple and the king's house, and all men of political, military and industrial value, ten thousand in all.
Jehoiachin was jailed for 36 years but at the age of 54 was released by Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar and new king of Babylon, who kindly gave him a place above all other kings who were also in Babylon: he was allied to eat with him and received a daily allowance for the rest of his life.
Nebuchadnezzar appointed a paternal uncle of Jehoiachin in his place, a son of Josiah, whom he named Zedekiah. He was only twenty-one years old and reigned for eleven years over the poor people who were left on the land. He also did what was evil to the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke from the LORD.
In 595 BC God warned through Jeremiah that the Mede-Persians would overwhelm Babylon, and the Jews were comforted with the promise of deliverance. Six years later, Jeremiah was imprisoned for prophesying that the king and the people would fall into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and was kept in prison until this happened.
Jeremiah was then taken captive on the way to Babylon by the Chaldeans, but was released in Ramah and given the option to go on with honourable treatment to Babylon or to return to live miserably with those who had been left in his country.
He chose to stay with his people (Jeremiah 39:11-14, 40:1-6) and went to be with Gedaliah, who had been appointed governor of the cities of Judah. Gedaliah was killed shortly after that and his successor Johanan, against the advice of Jeremiah, went down to Egypt with the remnant of the people, taking with him Jeremiah and Baruch (Jeremiah 43:6).
We know little more about Jeremiah, but he probably spent the rest of his life trying to convert the people to the Lord, against Whom they had revolted so much (Jeremiah 44). He lived until the reign of
Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, and probably died at about the age of ninety.
The book of Jeremiah contains some Messianic prophecies, the main ones being in chapters 23:1-8, 31:31-40 and 33:14-26. He also wrote the book of Lamentations, containing five poems about the sin and punishment of the people of Israel, and ending with a prayer seeking God's forgiveness for Israel upon the repentance of the people.
R David Jones