Guide
Jeremiah
ca. 7th–6th Centuries BCE
Jeremiah engaged in debates with royal officials and with other prophets in Jerusalem, urged submission to Babylonia, and was repeatedly imprisoned as a traitor.
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Who Was Jeremiah?
Jeremiah was the prophet of exile par excellence. He was active before and during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah (627 BCE) through the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah (reigned 597–586 BCE). He engaged in debates with royal officials and with other prophets in Jerusalem, urged submission to Babylonia, and was repeatedly imprisoned as a traitor.
The Book of Jeremiah
Although Jeremiah himself did not go into exile in Babylonia (he went to Egypt shortly after 586 BCE), much of his book is concerned with the exile. It contains judgments against Judah that justify God’s punishment for the people’s religious and moral sins and against the other nations, as well as prophecies of comfort, picturing a return from exile and God’s inscribing his covenant on the people’s hearts so that they will never sin again. The book contains poetic speeches, prose sermons, disputations, symbolic actions, prophetic visions, a letter (to the exiles in Babylonia), numerous biographical stories about Jeremiah, and dialogues with God in which Jeremiah laments his tribulations as a prophet. The prophecies and events recorded are not arranged in chronological order.
Like the book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah contains, in chapters 39 and 52, narrative inserts from the book of Kings. Jeremiah drew on narrative, legal, and poetic traditions in the Torah and on earlier prophetic traditions as well. Especially in its final version, it bears the stamp of Deuteronomistic thought and style, linking it in some way with the group responsible for the compilation of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets.
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Related Primary Sources
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Jeremiah’s Prophetic Commission
Jeremiah 1
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the Lord came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth…
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Israel’s Rejection of God and Worship of False Gods
Jeremiah 2–3 (selections)
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go proclaim to Jerusalem: Thus said the Lord:
I accounted to your favor
The devotion of your youth,
Your love as a bride—
How you followed Me in…
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Punishment by a Distant Nation
Jeremiah 5:15–29
Lo, I am bringing against you, O House of Israel, A nation from afar
—declares the Lord;
It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation;
A nation whose language you do not know—
You will not…
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Jeremiah Speaks at the Temple
Jeremiah 7:1–26, 30–34
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand at the gate of the House of the Lord, and there proclaim this word: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship…
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True Glory versus False Pride
Jeremiah 9:22–23
Thus said the Lord:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;
Let not the strong man glory in his strength;
Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
But only in this should one glory:
In his…
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The Worthlessness of Others’ Gods, and the Everlasting Power of God
Jeremiah 10:1–10
Hear the word which the Lord has spoken to you, O House of Israel!
Thus said the Lord:
Do not learn to go the way of the nations,
And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky;
Let the nations be…
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Keep the Covenant between God and Israel
Jeremiah 11:1–14, 18–23
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
“Hear the terms of this covenant, and recite them to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem! And say to them, Thus said the Lord, the God…
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On Drought and Military Defeat
Jeremiah 14:1–15:1
The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.
Judah is in mourning,
Her settlements languish.
Men are bowed to the ground,
And the outcry of Jerusalem rises.
The…
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Jeremiah’s Lament to God
Jeremiah 15:10, 15–21
Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me—
A man of conflict and strife with all the land!
I have not lent,
And I have not borrowed;
Yet everyone curses me. [ . . . ]
O Lord, you know—
Rememb…
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The People Have No Future in Their Land
Jeremiah 16:1–13
The word of the Lord came to me:
You are not to marry and not to have sons and daughters in this place. For thus said the Lord concerning any sons and daughters that may be born in this place, and…
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Retribution and Divine Justice
Jeremiah 17:5–8, 14–18
Thus said the Lord:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the Lord.
He shall be like a bush in the desert,
Which does not sense the coming…
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Desecration of the Sabbath Leads to Destruction
Jeremiah 17:19–27
Thus said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go forth, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them: Hear the word of the…
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The Parable of the Potter
Jeremiah 18:1–12
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the house of a potter, and there I will impart My words to you.” So I went down to the house of a potter, and found him working at the…
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Jeremiah’s Arrest and His Lament over His Prophetic Role
Jeremiah 20:1–13
Pashhur son of Immer, the priest who was chief officer of the House of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. Pashhur thereupon had Jeremiah flogged and put in the cell at the Upper…
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Prophecies to the King and to the People
Jeremiah 21–23 (selections)
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to say, “Please inquire of the Lord on…
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Against False Prophets
Jeremiah 23:25–32
I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsely in My name: “I had a dream, I had a dream.” How long will there be in the minds of the prophets who prophesy falsehood—the prophets of…
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Good and Bad Figs
Jeremiah 24:1–10
The Lord showed me two baskets of figs, placed in front of the Temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had exiled King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and the officials…
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Past Prophetic Warnings Have Not Deterred Sin
Jeremiah 25:1–14
The word which came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, which was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. This is…
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Jeremiah’s Trial and Rescue
Jeremiah 26:1–24
At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came from the Lord:
“Thus said the Lord: Stand in the court of the House of the Lord, and speak to [the men of] all…
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A Contest between True and False Prophets
Jeremiah 27:1–15|28:1–17
At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
Thus said the Lord to me: Make for yourself thongs and bars of a yoke…
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Prophecies of Consolation and Restoration
Jeremiah 30–31 (selections)
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: Write down in a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you. For days are coming—declares the…
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Jeremiah’s Symbolic Purchase of Land
Jeremiah 32:1–15, 42–44
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging…
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The Restoration of the Davidic Monarchy
Jeremiah 33:10–18
Thus said the Lord: Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say is ruined, without man or beast— in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man…
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A Written Record of Jeremiah’s Prophecies
Jeremiah 36:1–32
In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
Get a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you—concerning Israel and…
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Jeremiah at the Fall of Jerusalem
Jeremiah at the Fall of Jerusalem, commissioned by the crown prince of Prussia, and first exhibited to great acclaim at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1872, depicts the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonia in…
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Prophecy to the Jews Who Fled to Egypt
Jeremiah 44 (selections)
The word which came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans living in the land of Egypt, living in Migdol, Tah-panhes, and Noph, and in the land of Pathros:
Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel…
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Babylon Will Be Destroyed
Jeremiah 51 (selections)
Polish the arrows,
Fill the quivers!
The Lord has roused the spirit of the kings of Media,
For His plan against Babylon is to destroy her.
This is the vengeance of the Lord,
Vengeance for His…
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Cake in Shape of Nude Female (Replica)
Cake mold in shape of nude female (replica), Cyprus, ca. 980–500 BCE. The mold, probably dating to the Iron Age II or a century later, emphasizes the nose, breasts, and genital region and likely would…
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Scribe Writing
Scribe writing, Sakkara, Egypt, ca. 2625–2350 BCE. The ease with which Baruch’s scroll was cut and burned in Jeremiah 36:23 indicates that it was written on papyrus, not leather. In this limestone…
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Battlefield with Prisoners and Corpses, on Egyptian Palette
Battlefield with prisoners and corpses, on Egyptian cosmetic palette, ca. 3100 BCE. The scene includes bound prisoners being led off and corpses being eaten by vultures, ravens, and a lion. Burial was…