Jeremiah

The prophet Jeremiah began to prophesy about 626 bce during the reign of the Judaean king Josiah. From the town of Anathoth and probably from the priestly family of Eli, this prophet, who may have been instrumental in the Deuteronomic reform, dictated his oracles to his secretary Baruch. Only a youth in his late teens when he experienced the call by Yahweh to be a “prophet to the nations,” Jeremiah was a hesitant reforming prophet, experiencing deep spiritual struggles regarding his adequacy from the very beginning of his call and throughout his prophetic ministry. After the death of Josiah in 609 bce, however, he became an outspoken prophet against the national policy of Judah, a policy that he knew would lead to the disaster that came to be called the Babylonian Exile. Because of his prophecies, which were unpopular with the military and the revolutionists against the Babylonians, Jeremiah was kidnapped by conspirators after 586 and taken to Egypt, where he disappeared.

The Book of Jeremiah is a collection of oracles, biographical accounts, and narratives that are not arranged in any consistent chronological or thematic order. One 20th-century German biblical scholar, Wilhelm Rudolph, has attempted to arrange the chapters of the book according to certain chronological details. He has divided the work into five sections: (1) prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem, chapters 1–25, during the reigns of kings Josiah (640–609) and Jehoiachim (609–598), and the period after Jehoiachim (597–586); (2) prophecies against foreign nations, chapters 25 and 66–61; (3) prophecies of hope for Israel, chapters 26–35 (probably after the death of Josiah in 609); (4) narratives of Jeremiah’s sufferings, chapters 36–45 (from a post-586 period), and (5) an appendix, chapter 52. Jeremiah’s own prophetic oracles are found particularly in chapters 1–36 and 46–52. Baruch’s writings about Jeremiah are found primarily in chapters 37–45, 26–29, and 33–36.

During the reign of Josiah, after his call, Jeremiah preached to the people of Jerusalem and warned them against the sin of apostasy. Recalling the prophecies of the 8th-century Israelite prophet Hosea, Jeremiah reproached the Judaeans for playing harlot with other gods and urged them to repent. He prophesied that enemies from the north would be the instruments of Yahweh’s judgment on the apostate land and Jerusalem would suffer the fate of a rejected prostitute. The idolatry and immorality of the Judaeans would inevitably lead to their destruction. Because of the impending threat from the north, Jeremiah warned the people to flee from the wrath that was to come.

At the beginning of Jehoiachim’s reign, Jeremiah preached in the temple that because of Judah’s apostasy “death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.” Because he spoke words that were unpopular, his own townsmen of Anathoth plotted against his life. To symbolize the fate of Judah, Jeremiah adopted some rather bizarre techniques. He buried a waist cloth and wore it when it was spoiled to illustrate the fate of Jerusalem, which had worshipped other gods than Yahweh.

Throughout his career Jeremiah had moments of deep depression, times when he lamented that he had become a prophet. Because of the uncertainty of the times, Jeremiah did not marry.

A master of symbolic actions and the use of symbolic devices, Jeremiah used a potter’s wheel to show that Yahweh was shaping an evil future for Judah; and he bought a flask, after which he broke it on the ground to illustrate again the fate of Judah. Because of such words and actions, Jeremiah often found himself in trouble. Pashur, a priest, had Jeremiah beaten and placed in stocks. When released, Jeremiah told Pashur he would go into captivity and die. Despite the plots against him, Jeremiah continued to rely on the grace of Yahweh. He was brought to trial for prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, but his defense attorneys—“certain of the elders”—pointed out that King Hezekiah had not punished the prophet Micah of Moresheth in the 8th century for similar statements.

Continuing to prophesy against the moral and religious corruption of Jerusalem during the reign of Zedekiah (597–586), Jeremiah became even more unpopular for his advocacy to surrender to Babylon.

In spite of his apparent failure to win over the people to his cause, Jeremiah inaugurated a reform that had lasting effects. He helped to bring about a change in religion from the view that primarily accepted corporate responsibility to one that held that religion is more individualistic in terms of responsibility. His words in chapter 31, verse 33, are a summation of his reform: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”