Introduction
1. Life and Times of Jeremiah. Jeremiah (the name probably meaning 'appointed by God') belonged to a priestly family living at a small town named Anathoth (now Anâta, consisting of about a dozen houses and the remains of a church) some two miles to the NE. of Jerusalem The high priest Abiathar, of the line of Ithamar, had settled there in the days of David (1 Kings 2:26). The prophet's family had apparently been owners of land in that region ever since Abiathar's time, and their social status is further indicated by the fact that Jeremiah had for his scribe Baruch, whose brother was chief chamberlain to ZedeMah (Jeremiah 51:59 : see also on Jeremiah 45:1). We may add that Hilkiah, the father of Jeremiah, is not to be identified with the reforming high priest of Josiah's day (2 Kings 22:8), as the latter belonged to the line not of Ithamar but of Eleazar At an early period in Jeremiah's life (though the expression 'child' in Jeremiah 1:6 may partly at least refer to his sense of unfitness for such a task) he was moved to realise—probably in gradually increasing measure—the working of the divine spirit within him. In the thirteenth year of Josiah, 626 b.c., he received his call to be a prophet, and his prophetic life was continued under that king's four successors, viz. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Eventually the danger which had long threatened the southern kingdom culminated in the overthrow of the Jewish monarchy by the Babylonian power, which had lately risen on the ruins of that of Assyria. Zedekiah and a large number of his subjects were carried captive to Babylon. The prophet, with unselfish patriotism, rejecting the conqueror's offer of honourable treatment in exile, remained in Judæa, carrying on his prophetic office during the turbulent times which ensued, until a body of his countrymen forced him to accompany them to Egypt (Jeremiah 43:4.). There, according to a Christian tradition, he met a martyr's death at Tahpanhes, being stoned by the Jews who resented his faithful reproofs.
Thus Jeremiah has fitly been called 'the prophet of the decline and fall of the Jewish monarchy,' and the manner of his end seems to have been in close accord with the character of his life-work and sufferings. For, like Cassandra, it was his fate through life to gain but little credence for his warnings.
Jeremiah is one who reveals with frankness the workings of his mind. Hence his prophecies are charged with a large element of human interest. His countrymen as a whole—alike those who had, and those who had not, sympathised with Josiah's reforms (2 Chronicles 34)—refused to see that nothing short of a thorough amendment of life and morals would satisfy God's law and avert national disaster. The prophet's office then was to utter and reiterate a needed warning, emphasising it by fervour of language and variety of illustration, though sensible all the time that his appeals were probably in vain. The end was approaching, and at last, when princes and people alike proved faithless, he centred his hopes upon the few in whose case adversity and exile had had their chastening uses.
Belonging to the orders both of priest and prophet, and living at the very time when each had sunk to its lowest degree of degradation, he was compelled to submit to the buffeting which they each bestowed upon one who by his every word and deed was passing sentence upon them. Hostility, abuse, powerlessness to avert the coming ill's, a solitary life and prohibition of marriage (Jeremiah 16:2)—these were the conditions of life allotted to a man of shy and timid disposition and naturally despondent mind. No miracle was wrought for his benefit. His predictions were scorned. He failed to induce his compatriots to recognise the solidity of his claims to a hearing. At times he despaired even, as it seems, of life (Jeremiah 20:14). And yet he could not be silent. The divine message must find its utterance (Jeremiah 20:8), and in fact the promise made to him at the time of his call (Jeremiah 1:18), and renewed later (Jeremiah 15:20), did not fail.
Reign of Josiah.During the reign of this king, commencing 639 b.c., the dangers arising to Judæa from its geographical position became painfully evident. It was the natural battleground between the rival powers of Assyria and Egypt. So small a kingdom could not cope with either of these dangerous neighbours without the support of the other, and therefore the problem which pressed for solution was with which of the two it was most prudent to throw in their lot. There was still as earlier, in Isaiah's time (Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 31:1) a strong party in the state favouring either alternative. The extension of Josiah's work of reformation (to which we are about to refer), beyond the borders of his own kingdom northwards (to Geba, 2 Kings 23:8), showed that the power of Assyria, which just a hundred years earlier had overthrown the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, was on the wane. On the other hand, it by no means followed that Egypt was to be depended on, even though the Chaldean (BabyIonian) power, soon to take the place of Assyria, was scarcely yet above Judæa's political horizon.
Notwithstanding this precarious position with regard to external politics, the inner life of the state did not lack certain hopeful features. The new king, unlike his idolatrous predecessors, Manasseh and Amon, was one whose ardour on the side of Jehovah, seconded as it was by wise counsellors, took the form of a vigorous campaign against the idol-worship and immorality which had polluted those two reigns. The altars erected to Baal, the worship of 'the host of heaven' (2 Kings 17:16), the images of the horses and chariots of the sun within the very precincts of the Temple, the offering of human sacrifices in the valley of Hinnom (on the S. and W. of Jerusalem), the gross immoralities of Canaanitish worship—these were wide-spread indications of the religious corruptions which Josiah assailed. The great principle underlying his reforms was that Jehovah alone should be the object of worship, and that that worship should be centralised at Jerusalem. So far as this principle took effect, it had very important consequences on the religious life of the nation. This centralisation was a standing protest against the worship of a plurality of gods. Moreover, the limitation of sacrifice to the central sanctuary tended to throw into greater relief worship in its more spiritual aspect independent of any particular locality.
But, as Jeremiah clearly saw, the abuses were too deeply rooted for these reformers to penetrate much below the surface, and the mass of the people were supported in their adherence to the old ways by the priests of the local shrines ('high places') throughout the land, who naturally resisted a change that deposed them from their office and cut away an important source of subsistence (2 Kings 23:9). Accordingly, the picture which the prophet draws of the condition of society is a startling one. On every side among high and low there was dishonesty, false swearing, murder, and open licentiousness. (For an account of the local Baal-worship see Intro, to Hosea.)
Many, doubtless, were the influences which culminated in what we term Jeremiah's call. The sight of abounding immorality and idolatry, the tradition of his house, and the hostility to reforms on the part of many of the natural guardians of religion, both priests and prophets, moved him to painful selfcommuning, and urged him to lift up his voice against the sins of the nation. A strong impetus no doubt was given to his prophetic ardour when, five years after his call, the Book of the Law came to light in the Temple (2 Kings 22:8). That book contained at least a considerable portion of our book of Deuteronomy. Such graphic pictures of punishment for unfaithfulness to Jehovah, as are to be found in Deuteronomy 28, cannot but have served as an antidote to the shyness of his nature, and nerved him afresh for the task appointed him. He had to face, on the one hand, the immoral and idol worshippers, on the other, persons who maintained that, to secure the abiding favour of Jehovah, it was only necessary to offer more numerous and costly sacrifices and to increase the splendour of the Temple ritual. According to them, the Temple was in itself a charm which must render Jerusalem and its inhabitants secure (Jeremiah 7:4).
Shortly before the newly risen Chaldean power, by the capture of Nineveh, made good its claim as the successor to Assyria (607 b.c.), Josiah openly espoused its side (2 Kings 23:29), confronted Necho, king of Egypt, on his march against Chaldea, and was slain in battle at Megiddo (608 b.c.).
Reign of Jehoahaz (the Shallum of Jeremiah 22:11), 608 b.c. After a brief reign of three months this king was carried captive to Egypt by Necho, and the land made tributary (2 Kings 23:33). The prophet evidently felt that in Jehoahaz the nation had lost one who would have used his power for good (Jeremiah 22:10).
Reign of Jehoiakim, elder brother of Jehoahaz (2 Chronicles 36:2; 2 Chronicles 36:5). The king of Egypt placed him on the throne, and his reign lasted for eleven years (608-597 b.c.). His policy, the reverse of that of his father Josiah, was a disastrous one (2 Kings 24:1). Under him the hope of averting the ruin of the country soon faded away. In the worship of 'the high places' and in the bloodstained rites, either encouraged or at least connived at by him, men sought deliverance from the troubles of servitude to a foreign oppressor. The king was cruel, frivolous, eager for his own glorification, and regardless of the national religion (Jeremiah 22:13). Under his rule the faithful few were refined by adversity, and it was seen, as in the time of Manasseh, that faithfulness to God might easily lead to martyrdom. The priests and false prophets, exasperated by Jeremiah's rebukes and warnings, and encouraged by the king's murder of Urijah, even demanded that Jeremiah too should die, but were foiled in their purpose (Jeremiah 26:16).
Real and not pretended service is the great lesson which Jeremiah at this time enforced, and in so doing he excited the animosity of his foes by the very truth of the charges that he brought against them. In opposition to those who still advocated alliance with Egypt against Babylon, he declared that the latter would assuredly prevail, and illustrated his words by the symbol of the potter's clay and the breaking of the earthen vessel (Jeremiah 18:19).
The fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign (605 b.c.) gave noteworthy proof of Jeremiah's prescience. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated the army of Necho at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and, advancing into Palestine, drove many, including the Rechabites (c.35), to seek shelter within the walls of Jerusalem. The conqueror advanced to the capital and bore away both captives and sacred vessels to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6). The complete overthrow was deferred, only because of Nebuchadnezzar's hasty return home on the report of his father's illness, in order to secure his succession to the throne. From this time forth Jeremiah's forecasts assume an air of greater definiteness. He speaks no longer, as in Jeremiah 1:14; Jeremiah 6:1, of an enemy from 'the north,' but declares plainly that the king of Babylon, as God's instrument of punishment, is destined to prevail, urges submission, and promises that those who abide by his counsel shall be left undisturbed in their land. The rest, though captivity for seventy years is to be their lot, shall in the end be restored. Probably it was soon after the battle of Carchemish that there occurred the scene of the king's burning of the prophet's roll and repudiation of his warnings (Jeremiah 36). From this time till the end of Jehoiakim's reign Jeremiah seems to have been absent from Jerusalem. The king received no more warnings. After three years' payment as vassal of the tribute which he yearned to spend upon self-indulgence, he rebelled, was attacked by bands of Chaldeans and others, and probably in an engagement with some of them, came to a violent end and a dishonoured burial (Jeremiah 22:18).
Reign of Jehoiachin (the Jeconiah of Jeremiah 24:1, and the Coniah of Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28) 597 b.c. He was the son of Jehoiakim, was set up by Nebuchadnezzar, and, like his uncle Jehoahaz, reigned but three months, when he and the flower of the community with him (the 'good figs' of Jeremiah 24) were deported to Babylon. After thirty-six years' imprisonment he was released by Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, Evil-merodach (Jeremiah 52:31). To this period belongs Jeremiah 13, with its acted symbol of the linen girdle.
Reign of Zedekiah, 597-586 b.c. He was the youngest son of Josiah, well disposed, but utterly weak. He showed more disposition than his predecessors had done to consult with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:17; Jeremiah 38:14), and under his advice to submit to Babylon. On the other hand, he was devoid of any real zeal for religion, and yielded, now to the suggestions of the prophet, now to those of the princes, who advocated resistance, either single-handed or in alliance with Egypt. Thus he was virtually powerless against the strong wills and more vigorous leaders opposed to him (Jeremiah 38:5; Jeremiah 38:25). To the worthiest part of the nation, who were in captivity, Jeremiah writes a letter of comfort (Jeremiah 29), advising submission, and promising restoration in due time.
At the beginning of the ninth year of ZedeMab. a Chaldean army laid siege to Jerusalem. Jeremiah had already from time to time worn a yoke upon his neck, symbolical of the coming servitude (Jeremiah 27:2), and when the false prophet, Hananiah, who promised deliverance, had broken the yoke (Jeremiah 28:10), he received the sentence of speedy death at the mouth of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28:16) because he had 'spoken rebellion against the Lord.' It was natural for self-reliant, irreligious men to be highly displeased with such acts and words as these, and much persecution, including imprisonment, fell to the prophet's lot in consequence, the king being too weak to give him any permanent support (Jeremiah 37:11). In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, 586 b.c., the city was sacked and the Temple burnt. Zedekiah's eyes were put out, and he was brought to Babylon, and immured in a dungeon, apparently till his death.
Jeremiah was permitted to remain under Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar's new governor, who was of a family friendly to the prophet. But in two months' time Gedaliah was murdered by the irreconcilables among the remnant in the land. In the turbulent period that followed, the prophet, viewed by the people as a traitor, foretold the want and misery that would ensue, if, through fear of the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 42:7.), they went down to Egypt. They only replied by compelling him to accompany them thither. From Tahpanhes, a town near the eastern border of Lower Egypt, we draw the last certain notice of him that we possess. He declares that the fate which had befallen Judaaa shall also be that of Egypt, and that Nebuchadnezzar's throne shall be set up at the entrance to Pharaoh's house (Jeremiah 43:10). He also makes a dying protest against the idolatrous worship practised by his countrymen (Jeremiah 44). We have no notice in the Bible of his death.