Jeremiah Series

Jeremiah

Lineage and early life

Jeremiah was born to a priestly family, the son of Hilkiah, a kohen (Jewish priest) from the small Benjamite village of Anathoth in Judeh. The difficulties he encountered, described in the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, have prompted scholars to refer to him as "the weeping prophet.” As the prophet Jeremiah, he dictated prophecies from the Lord to his secretary, Baruch. Because of Jeremiah’s lineage, he would have been raised a priest, though no record of his priestly service exists. Instead, God chose this man of undeniable courage to speak to the people of Judah on the Lord’s behalf—even though they would not listen. Jeremiah was a prophet for five different kings. He wrote a lot about repentance and did many symbolic acts to teach people lessons.

Jeremiah was called to prophecy c. 626 B.C. by God to proclaim Jerusalem's coming destruction by invaders from the north. This was because Israel had forsaken God by worshiping the idols of Baal and burning their children as offerings to Baal. The nation had deviated so far from God's laws that they had broken the covenant, causing God to withdraw his blessings. God guided Jeremiah to proclaim that the nation of Judah would suffer famine, foreign conquest, plunder, and captivity in a land of strangers.

Jeremiah was nearly twenty years old when he began to prophesy, and he continued in that office for the rest of his adult life, some forty years or more. Because his message held little weight with the people, Jeremiah’s prophecies reveal a substantial amount of emotional depth—often sorrow over the plight of God’s people or his own troubles (Jeremiah 12:1–4; 15:10) caused him to weep and his tears to flow.

Jeremiah was active as a prophet from the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah (626 BC), until after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 BC. This period spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. The prophetess Huldah was a relative and contemporary of Jeremiah while the prophet Zephaniah was his mentor.

Jeremiah, also called the "weeping prophet,” was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.

He was closely involved in the political and religious events of a crucial era in the history of the ancient Near East; his spiritual leadership helped his compatriots survive disasters that included the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. and the exile of many Judaeans to Babylonia.

The main source of information concerning Jeremiah’s life is the biblical Book of Jeremiah, which records that is ministry began in the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah, who ruled the land of Judea in the seventh century B.C.E.

Jeremiah lived at a time of deep upheaval in Jewish history, most significantly the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. and the exile of the Jewish people to Babylonia. Much of the Book of Jeremiah is a lengthy tirade against the people for their faithlessness and ominous warnings of the destruction to come if they do not mend their ways. Jeremiah was scorned by the people to whom he preached, arrested, beaten, and left in a pit. King Zedekiah, the last ruler of Judah, had him imprisoned for warning of the fall of Jerusalem. Eventually Jeremiah was exiled to Egypt, where he eventually died. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was also the author of the Book of Lamentations, the sorrowful recounting of the destruction of Jerusalem that is read on the fast day of Tisha B’av (Tisha B’av is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred.)

The early chapters of the Book of Jeremiah are loaded with imagery of death and dispersion. “The carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off,” the prophet warns in an emblematic passage. “And I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride. For the whole land shall fall to ruin.”

Yet his was also a vision of hope. Laced throughout Jeremiah’s prophetic warnings are promises that returning to God shall lead to divine blessings and that God will ultimately honor his covenant with the Jewish people. In one of the most famous passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet buys a field as the armies of Babylon were laying siege to Jerusalem, a gesture that has come to represent hope in God’s faithfulness to his people. The later chapters of the Book of Jeremiah repeatedly reiterate God’s promise to redeem the people of Israel and restore them to their ancient land.