By Various
Prophetic warnings of judgement and restoration
Subject
Themes
A young priest from the village of Anathoth is called before his birth to serve as God's prophet to the nations. Jeremiah's commission is paradoxical from the start: he is set over kingdoms to uproot, tear down, and destroy, but also to build and plant. For more than forty years, spanning the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, he delivers warnings that are almost universally rejected, embodying in his own suffering the anguish of a divine relationship that has been betrayed.
A young priest from the village of Anathoth is called before his birth to serve as God's prophet to the nations. Jeremiah's commission is paradoxical from the start: he is set over kingdoms to uproot, tear down, and destroy, but also to build and plant. For more than forty years, spanning the reigns…
The prophetic career of Jeremiah spans one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of the ancient Near East. The late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE witnessed the collapse of the Assyrian empire, the brief resurgence of Egyptian power under the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and the meteoric…
The entire prophetic message rests upon the foundation of a covenant relationship between God and Israel that has been systematically violated. When God recalls Israel's early devotion during the wilderness years, he uses the language of marital love: the nation followed him like a young bride…
God's justice operates on a scale that encompasses every nation on earth, not merely the covenant people. Jeremiah is given a wine cup of fury and commanded to administer it to Jerusalem first, then to Egypt, the Philistines, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Arabia, Elam, the Medes, and every kingdom…
Jeremiah's ministry reveals the staggering personal cost exacted from those who carry God's word faithfully into a hostile world. Unlike other prophetic figures whose inner lives remain largely hidden, Jeremiah's emotional landscape is laid bare with unflinching honesty. He wishes his head were…
Amid the relentless pronouncements of judgement, a sustained thread of restoration weaves through the prophetic oracles with increasing specificity and emotional power. The promise is never presented as a cancellation of punishment but as something that emerges on the other side of it. Judgement and…
The conflict between Jeremiah and the false prophets constitutes one of the most sustained examinations of prophetic legitimacy in all of scripture. The question is not abstract. Real people die, cities burn, and nations fall based on which prophetic voice the king and people choose to believe. The…
Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, receives his prophetic commission before birth. Jehovah declares that he was sanctified in the womb and ordained a prophet to the nations. When Jeremiah protests that he is only a child and does not know how to speak,…
Jehovah is presented throughout as the sovereign creator who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. He fills heaven and earth simultaneously, is near and far off at once, and governs every nation, not only Israel. He…
Zedekiah son of Josiah ascends the throne of Judah at the age of twenty-one, placed there by Nebuchadnezzar after the deportation of Jehoiachin. He reigns for eleven years, and the narrative consistently portrays him as a man caught between forces he cannot control, possessing neither the courage to…
Baruch son of Neriah serves as Jeremiah's scribe and closest companion throughout the most turbulent years of Judah's final decline. His family background is significant: his brother Seraiah later carries Jeremiah's oracle against Babylon to the Euphrates, and the family appears to have been part of…
Before his birth, Jeremiah is set apart by God as a prophet to the nations. Born to the priest Hilkiah in Anathoth, within the territory of Benjamin, he receives his divine commission during the reign of King Josiah and continues to prophesy through the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, right up to…
God issues a devastating challenge: search the streets of Jerusalem for even one person who executes judgement and seeks truth, and the entire city will be pardoned. The search proves futile. The poor are foolish and ignorant of God's ways, while the great men have broken every restraint and burst…
Jeremiah wishes his head were waters and his eyes a fountain of tears so that he might weep day and night for the slain of his people. He longs to flee to some wilderness lodging place, for the nation he loves has become a den of adulterers and traitors. Every brother supplants, every neighbour…
God commands Jeremiah to buy a linen girdle, wear it against his body, and then travel to the Euphrates to hide it in a cleft of rock. After many days, Jeremiah returns and retrieves the girdle, only to find it marred and completely worthless. The sign is explained: just as the girdle clung close to…
Judah's sin is engraved with an iron pen and a diamond point upon the tablet of the heart and the horns of the altars. Two portraits stand in absolute contrast. Cursed is the one who trusts in human strength and turns away from God, for he shall be like scrubby heath in the desert, dwelling in…
King Zedekiah sends envoys to Jeremiah, hoping God will perform wondrous works to drive Nebuchadnezzar away from Jerusalem. The reply is devastating. God will not only refuse to help but will actively turn Judah's own weapons against them, assemble the besieging Chaldeans into the very heart of the…
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, Jeremiah declares that he has prophesied faithfully for twenty-three years, yet the people have never listened. Because of their persistent refusal, God announces that he will send Nebuchadnezzar, whom he calls "my servant," to devastate the land and all the…
Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles in Babylon, carried by the hand of Elasah and Gemariah. The counsel it contains is radically practical: build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat the produce, take wives and have children, and seek the peace of the city where they have been carried,…
Still imprisoned, Jeremiah receives a second word from God: "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Though the houses of the city and the king's palace are being dismantled to build barricades against the siege, and the streets fill with…
Zedekiah reigns in Jerusalem but heeds neither God's word nor Jeremiah's counsel. When the Egyptian army marches north and the Chaldeans temporarily lift their siege, hope surges through the city. Zedekiah sends messengers asking Jeremiah to pray for the nation. The reply is crushing: Pharaoh's army…
In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, a man of royal blood, arrives at Mizpah with ten companions and dines with the governor Gedaliah. During the meal, they rise and murder Gedaliah along with every Jew and Chaldean soldier present. The next day, eighty mourners from Shechem, Shiloh, and…
A brief but poignant message reaches Baruch son of Neriah, Jeremiah's faithful scribe, dating to the fourth year of Jehoiakim when Baruch first wrote down the prophet's words on a scroll. The burden of recording relentless judgement has broken him. He cries out: "Woe is me now! for the Lord hath…
Oracles pour out against five more nations in rapid succession. The Ammonites face rebuke for seizing the territory of Gad while Israel still had rightful heirs; their capital Rabbah will become a desolate heap, though Ammon's captivity will eventually be restored. Edom's famed wisdom has vanished…
Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, receives his prophetic commission before birth. Jehovah declares that he was sanctified in the womb and ordained a prophet to the nations. When Jeremiah protests that he is only a child and does not know how to speak,…
Jehovah is presented throughout as the sovereign creator who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. He fills heaven and earth simultaneously, is near and far off at once, and governs every nation, not only Israel. He…
Zedekiah son of Josiah ascends the throne of Judah at the age of twenty-one, placed there by Nebuchadnezzar after the deportation of Jehoiachin. He reigns for eleven years, and the narrative consistently portrays him as a man caught between forces he cannot control, possessing neither the courage to…
Baruch son of Neriah serves as Jeremiah's scribe and closest companion throughout the most turbulent years of Judah's final decline. His family background is significant: his brother Seraiah later carries Jeremiah's oracle against Babylon to the Euphrates, and the family appears to have been part of…
A young priest from the village of Anathoth is called before his birth to serve as God's prophet to the nations. Jeremiah's commission is paradoxical from the start: he is set over kingdoms to uproot, tear down, and destroy, but also to build and plant. For more than forty years, spanning the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, he delivers warnings that are almost universally rejected, embodying in his own suffering the anguish of a divine relationship that has been betrayed.