Jeremiah (Person)

Biblical Account

According to Jeremiah 1:1-3, he was the son of Hilkiah, of the priests in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. He was called in the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah, and his ministry continued through the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah until after the fall of Jerusalem. When called, he hesitated, saying, "I am a child" (1:6). The major events of his ministry include the following:

• His sermon at the gate of the temple, rebuking the people who felt secure simply because they trusted in the temple (chapters 7 and 26)
• Symbolic acts such as the linen girdle, the potter, the broken earthen bottle, and the yoke (chapters 13, 18, 19, and 27), and his confrontation with the false prophet Hananiah (chapter 28)
• His prophecy of the seventy years of Babylonian captivity (25:11; 29:10) and his letter to the exiles (chapter 29)
• King Jehoiakim's burning of the scroll that the scribe Baruch had written at his dictation (chapter 36)
• His imprisonment and casting into a dungeon (a pit) after urging surrender to Babylon, and his rescue by Ebedmelech the Ethiopian (chapters 37–38)

After the fall of Jerusalem, he was released by order of Nebuchadnezzar (chapter 39). When the governor Gedaliah was assassinated, Jeremiah was taken down to Egypt against his will by the remaining people (chapter 43). The Bible does not record his death.

Significance Within Scripture

Jeremiah left several laments in which he poured out his anguish before God (chapters 11–20). For this reason he is called "the weeping prophet" (compare 9:1).

Within the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 36:21, Ezra 1:1, and Daniel 9:2 refer to his seventy-year prophecy.

The passage most significant for the New Testament is the "new covenant" of 31:31-34. Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes it at length, and Jesus spoke of the "new covenant" when instituting the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:20; KJV "new testament"). In addition, Matthew 2:17-18 quotes Jeremiah 31:15, and in Matthew 16:14 some people supposed Jesus to be Jeremiah. Jesus' description of the temple as "a den of thieves" (Mark 11:17) also derives from Jeremiah 7:11.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Fulfillment of the new covenant: Reformed churches grounded in covenant theology hold that this promise has been fulfilled in Christ and the church. Dispensationalism holds that, because the text explicitly names "the house of Israel, and ... the house of Judah," a future fulfillment for national Israel also remains.
• Matthew 27:9: This verse introduces the prophecy of the thirty pieces of silver as the words of Jeremiah, yet its content is closer to Zechariah 11:12-13. Among the proposed explanations is that it is a composite citation combining Zechariah with passages in Jeremiah that mention a potter and a field (chapters 18–19 and 32).
• Authorship of Lamentations: The attribution of Lamentations to Jeremiah is an ancient tradition found in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) and elsewhere. The Hebrew text does not name an author.
• Extrabiblical traditions: The story that he hid the ark of the covenant on Mount Nebo appears in 2 Maccabees 2, which is not part of the Protestant canon. The account that he was stoned to death in Egypt is likewise a later tradition and not part of the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not," is widely quoted at early morning prayer meetings and other prayer gatherings. Jeremiah 29:11, "the thoughts that I think toward you ... thoughts of peace, and not of evil," is also frequently used for Scripture memorization. Some preachers, however, stress that because 29:11 was originally part of a letter to the exiles, it should be read with attention to its context.

The account of his calling (1:5-10) is often used in sermons on mission and vocation. In Sunday school, the story of his confinement in the pit and subsequent rescue is a frequent subject.