Jeremiah's name, not uncommon in Israel, is of disputed meaning. His name may well reflect his parents' hopes for him and the nation, in which case the meaning "the Lord exalts" is preferable to "the Lord hurls" or "the Lord establishes." Jeremiah's relation to so many political events makes it strange that his name appears nowhere in Kings or Chronicles. He was born in 646 B.C. in the Levitical town of Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin; he died, probably in Egypt, not long after 586.
In his day Jeremiah was unquestionably the greatest spiritual personality in Israel. His was not a happy life; his expressions of sorrow are classic. Only he among the prophets showed his personal feelings as he proclaimed God's message. By birth, Jeremiah was a priest; by grace, a prophet; by the trials of life, a bulwark for God's truth; by daily spiritual experience, one of the greatest exponents of prophetic faith in his unique relation to God; by temperament, gentle and timid, yet constantly contending against the forces of sin; and by natural desire, a seeker after the love of a companion, his family, friends, and, above all, his people - which were all denied him.
Jeremiah's life - private and public - is openly displayed in his book: his brave actions, his tenderheartedness toward his coreligionists, and his deep emotional and spiritual struggles before God. His disappointments and sufferings were undeniably as poignant as those of any other Jewish prophet. His life may be characterized as being one long martyrdom.
Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah was of a priestly family, but nothing indicates that he ever exercised a priestly ministry. Possibly his father was the Hilkiah who found the "Book of the Law" in the temple (2 Ki 22:8). Jeremiah's father was probably a descendant of Abiathar, the sole survivor of the priests of Nob (1 Sa 22:20). After ministering under David, Abiathar was exiled by Solomon to Anathoth, where he had property (1 Ki 2:26). That he was from Anathoth further accounts for the fact that in Josiah's day Jeremiah was not as well known as Huldah the prophetess (2 Ki 22:14-20). That Jeremiah was a man of means may be inferred from his purchase of a field in 32:6-15.
Jeremiah was called to the prophetic office in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (1:2; i.e., 626 B.C.); he was about twenty years old at the time and served in that office for more than forty years. The Lord did not permit him to marry (16:2). Though his public ministry was long and checkered, there is no indication that he ever had any disciples; and his closest companion was his faithful secretary and scribe, Baruch the son of Neriah.
Jeremiah preached in Jerusalem until the fall of the kingdom of Judah in 586 (cf. 7:2; 22:1; 27:1-2; 32:1). After that, he labored for some time among the survivors in Judah and later among the Jews who had fled to Egypt (chs. 40-44). His call included both Israel and the other nations of his time (1:10). The call was both simple and direct (1:4-5), but the prophet's reaction difference markedly from Isaiah's (Isa 6) and Ezekiel's (Eze 1).
His Public Ministry
Jeremiah's ministry was carried on in a politically, socially, morally, and spiritually chaotic era. The glorious days of reformation under Hezekiah in the eighth century were eclipsed by the long, ungodly reign of Manasseh, who along with his fealty to the Assyrian monarchs maintained a syncretistic worship for his people. Jeremiah did not hide his hatred for the apostasy and social injustices of Manasseh. In this spiritual decline priests and prophets alike were implicated.
When Jeremiah began to preach, the godly Josiah had begun his reforms to wipe out idolatry from his kingdom. The content of the prophet's preaching confirms his full support of Josiah's reforms and calls for a truly repentant return to the Lord. Tragically, the people of Judah had already become so ungodly that they were no longer responsive to calls to return to God. But in grace the Lord continued to plead with Judah through Jeremiah. From the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah never deviated from the position that Judah and Jerusalem were to be destroyed by a nation from the north and the people carried into captivity (4:5-9); 6:22-26). The threatening invasion of the northern enemy gave urgency to his warnings.
With Jehoiakim's rule (608 B.C.), Jeremiah again began a public ministry. In the famous temple address (chs. 7; 26), he indicated that only faithfulness to God could guarantee the nation's security; otherwise the temple would be destroyed. He aroused bitter opposition to himself and his message from all segments of the nation, including his own family. Sad and despairing because of the rejection of his message, he yet loved, prayed for, and agonized over his people. No greater and truer Jewish patriot ever preached the truth to them. Even when the Lord forbade him to pray for them, he continued to intercede. At times he felt that God himself had forsaken him. He even cursed the day of his birth.
Jehoiakim was so enraged with Jeremiah's denunciatory messages that he cut the scroll of his prophecy to pieces and burned it. So Jeremiah became a fugitive from the king's wrath. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign (according to Hebrew reckoning [25:1], or in the third year according to Babylonian computation [Da 1:1], Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon first invaded Judah. He had defeated Pharaoh Neco of Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.), an event of unsurpassed importance because it settled the question of world supremacy in that day. After Egypt's defeat, Jeremiah counseled that it was futile and contrary to God's will to resist Nebuchadnezzar. One can imagine the unpopular nature of this message. Thereafter Jeremiah's life was one of uninterrupted misunderstanding and persecution.
Under Zedekiah's rule, Jeremiah fared no better, though this king was not so violently opposed to him as Jehoiakim had been. But Zedekiah was weak and vacillating, constantly fearing his powerful nobles. Jeremiah had some ministry to the king, but it bore little if any fruit. When the kingdom of Judea fell to Nebuchadnezzar in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, the Babylonian king appointed Gedaliah as governor of Judah (40:1-6). Soon after his appointment the governor was assassinated by a descendant of the Davidic house (41:1-2), Ishmael son of Nethaniah. The remnant in Mizpah, against Jeremiah's protests, fled to Egypt from the wrath of Babylon (vv. 16-18), and Jeremiah and Baruch were compelled to accompany them (42:1-43:7). At the end of his ministry, Jeremiah was at Tahpanhes in Egypt, where he both predicted Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt (43:8-13) and denounced the idolatry of the Jews there (ch. 4). Beyond this nothing is known of Jeremiah's life.
Jeremiah encountered more opposition from more enemies than any other OT prophet. Much of it stemmed from the fact that he continually preached one theme: unconditional surrender. Had not the Lord protected him, he would have been martyred.
Nothing certain is known of the time, place, or manner of Jeremiah's death. According to 44:29-30, Jeremiah was still alive around 570 B.C. (Pharaoh Hophra [Apries] reigned 588-569). By an unusual providence the prophet who fought his entire life against Egypt was forced to end his days there as a captive. A late, unattested tradition claims that the men of Tahpanhes stoned Jeremiah to death. There is a rabbinical account of his deportation with Baruch to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the conquest of Egypt and of his death there, but this is unconfirmed.
Singularly, this great man of God, so little heeded by his own people, has been accorded great respect after death. Alexandrian Jews especially have held him in profound regard (cf. 2 Mc 2:1-8; 15:12-16; see also Mt 16:14). That later Jews saw in him their intercessor partially explains this.
