PERSON · PROPHET
Jeremiah
Jeremiah was called before his birth to be a prophet to the nations and commissioned to speak the word of the LORD during the final decades of Judah's existence as an independent kingdom before the Babylonian exile (Jeremiah 1:5–10). He announced a new covenant that God would make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, written on their hearts rather than on stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:31–34). He witnessed and lamented the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC (Jeremiah 39:1–10; Lamentations 1:1).
Jeremiah 1:1–19
- Ministry
- Late monarchy of Judah through the Babylonian conquest and aftermath, approximately 627–580 BC
The Story
Before he drew his first breath, he had already been claimed. That is where Jeremiah's story begins — not at a moment of human decision, not at a crossroads of ambition and calling, but in the secret counsel of God before the world had ever heard the name. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee," the LORD told him, "and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5·KJV
It is among the most arresting commissions in all of Scripture, and it sets the terms for everything that follows: a man who did not choose his burden so much as discover that the burden had always been his.
He was the son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, and his ministry began in the thirteenth year of King Josiah — a reign that brought genuine religious reform to Judah, but reform that arrived too late to turn the tide of a nation already deeply compromised in its faithfulness to God. Jeremiah would preach through the reigns of Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah — five kings, each chapter of the monarchy darker than the last, the shadow of Babylon lengthening across the land with every passing year. He did not stand before these kings as a court prophet offering comfortable counsel. He stood before them, and before the people, as a man required to say the thing no one wished to hear.
His first recorded response to God's commission was one of recoil. "Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." The text does not let us dwell there long, however, because God does not accept the protest. He touches Jeremiah's mouth, places his words there, and sets him over nations and kingdoms — to root out and pull down, to destroy and throw down, to build and to plant. Even the commission contains its own sorrow: the dismantling must come before the building. That proportion would prove accurate. Jeremiah would spend far more of his life announcing ruin than announcing restoration, though restoration was never absent from his message.
Life & Legacy
Death
TraditionScripture does not record the circumstances or location of Jeremiah's death. Church tradition, reported by Jerome and others, holds that he was stoned to death by his fellow exiles in Egypt at Tahpanhes, but this is not attested in the biblical canon.
Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah (preface); Scripture does not record
Legacy
ScriptureJeremiah dictated his prophecies to his scribe Baruch, who wrote them on a scroll that was read publicly and eventually brought before King Jehoiakim, who cut it apart and burned it (Jeremiah 36:1–32). Jeremiah's prophecies of a seventy-year Babylonian captivity were later referenced by Daniel (Daniel 9:2), and crowds in Jesus' time identified Jesus as Jeremiah returned (Matthew 16:14).
Jeremiah 36:1–32; Daniel 9:2; Matthew 16:14
Character
ScriptureJeremiah expressed deep personal anguish over his prophetic calling, cursing the day of his birth and lamenting that he had become a man of strife and contention to the whole land (Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jeremiah 15:10). He was forbidden by God to marry or have children as a sign of the coming judgment (Jeremiah 16:1–4), and he was imprisoned in a cistern by officials who considered his words treasonous (Jeremiah 38:6).
Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 16:1–4; Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jeremiah 38:6
Significance
ScriptureJeremiah was called before his birth to be a prophet to the nations and commissioned to speak the word of the LORD during the final decades of Judah's existence as an independent kingdom before the Babylonian exile (Jeremiah 1:5–10). He announced a new covenant that God would make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, written on their hearts rather than on stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:31–34). He witnessed and lamented the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC (Jeremiah 39:1–10; Lamentations 1:1).
Jeremiah 1:5–10; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Jeremiah 39:1–10
DeathTradition
Scripture does not record the circumstances or location of Jeremiah's death. Church tradition, reported by Jerome and others, holds that he was stoned to death by his fellow exiles in Egypt at Tahpanhes, but this is not attested in the biblical canon.
Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah (preface); Scripture does not record
LegacyScripture
Jeremiah dictated his prophecies to his scribe Baruch, who wrote them on a scroll that was read publicly and eventually brought before King Jehoiakim, who cut it apart and burned it (Jeremiah 36:1–32). Jeremiah's prophecies of a seventy-year Babylonian captivity were later referenced by Daniel (Daniel 9:2), and crowds in Jesus' time identified Jesus as Jeremiah returned (Matthew 16:14).
Jeremiah 36:1–32; Daniel 9:2; Matthew 16:14
CharacterScripture
Jeremiah expressed deep personal anguish over his prophetic calling, cursing the day of his birth and lamenting that he had become a man of strife and contention to the whole land (Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jeremiah 15:10). He was forbidden by God to marry or have children as a sign of the coming judgment (Jeremiah 16:1–4), and he was imprisoned in a cistern by officials who considered his words treasonous (Jeremiah 38:6).
Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 16:1–4; Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jeremiah 38:6
SignificanceScripture
Jeremiah was called before his birth to be a prophet to the nations and commissioned to speak the word of the LORD during the final decades of Judah's existence as an independent kingdom before the Babylonian exile (Jeremiah 1:5–10). He announced a new covenant that God would make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, written on their hearts rather than on stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:31–34). He witnessed and lamented the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC (Jeremiah 39:1–10; Lamentations 1:1).
Jeremiah 1:5–10; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Jeremiah 39:1–10
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