Bible History
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
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JEREMIAH
="exalted of Jehovah" (Jerome); "appointed of Jehovah"(Gesenius); "Jehovah throws" (Hengstenberg); compare 1:10. 1. Son of Hilkiah, a priest in Anathoth of Benjamin; not the high priest Hilkiah who discovered the book of the law in Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22:8), for Jeremiah's father is not designated as "the priest" or "the high priest." Moreover, the Anathoth priests were of the line of Abiathar, who was deposed by Solomon (1 Kings 2:26-35). Thenceforward the high priesthood was in Eleazar's and Zadok's line. The independent history (2 Chronicles 35:25; 36:12,21) mentions his "lamentation for Josiah," Zedekiah's "not humbling himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah," and the Babylonian captivity "to fulfill Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years" (Jeremiah 27:7; 25:9-12; 26:6,7; 29:10). In 629 B.C., the 13th of Josiah's reign, while a mere youth at Anathoth, three miles from Jerusalem (Jeremiah 1:2), "the word of Jehovah came to him" just as manhood was opening out to him, calling him to lay aside his natural sensitiveness and timid self distrust, and as Jehovah's minister, by the might of Jehovah's efficacious word, to "root out ... throw down, build and plant." "Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." To his pleas of childlike inability to speak (as Moses, Exodus 3:11,12; 4:10-12; and Isaiah, 6:5-8), Jehovah opposes His mission and His command: "thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." To his fear of men's faces Jehovah declares "I am with thee to deliver thee." Touching Jeremiah's mouth (as Isaiah's; compare Jesus' touch, Matthew 9:21,29), Jehovah put His words in the prophet's mouth, so that the prophetic word became divinely efficient to produce its own fulfillment; even as the Word was the efficient cause of creation. Jeremiah must have at first exercised his office incontemplation rather than action, for he is not mentioned in connection with Josiah's reforms, or the great Passover held in the 18th year of his reign, five years subsequent to Jeremiah's call. It is from the prophetess Huldah, not from him, that the godly king sought counsel. Yet he must have warmly sympathized with this great revival. Indications of affinity or friendship with some of the actors in it occur in the sameness of names: Jeremiah's father bearing the name of Hilkiah, Josiah's high priest; his uncle that of Shallum, Huldah's husband (Jeremiah 32:7; compare 2 Kings 22:14); Ahikam, Jeremiah's protector (Jeremiah 26:24), was also the fellow worker with Huldah in the revival; moreover Maaseiah, governor of Jerusalem, sent by Josiah as ally of Hilkiah in repairing the temple (2 Chronicles 34:8), was father of Neriah, the father of both Baruch and Seraiah, Jeremiah's disciples (Jeremiah 36:4; 51:59). The finding of the book of the law, the original temple copy (see HILKIAH ) exercised a palpable effect on his later writings. (Compare Jeremiah 11:3-5 with Deuteronomy 7:12; 4:20; 27:26; Jeremiah 34:14 with Deuteronomy 15:12; 32:18 with Exodus 20:6; 32:21 with Exodus 6:6). He saw that the reformation was but a surface one, and would not ensure the permanent peace which many anticipated from it (Jeremiah 7:4), for while "the temple" was restored the spirit of apostasy still prevailed, so that even Israel seemed just in comparison with what Judah had become (Jeremiah 3:11), a seeker of the truth was scarcely to be found, and self seeking was the real aim, while "the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests hear rule by their means, and God's people (!) love to have it so"(Jeremiah 5:1,31). Five years after his call to prophesy the book of the law was found in the temple by Hilkiah (2 Kings 22:8; 23:25); then Jeremiah in Jehovah's name proclaimed, "Hear ye this covenant, and speak (it in your turn to others, namely,) unto the men of Judah and Jerusalem."Next Jehovah commanded Jeremiah to take a prophetic tour, proclaiming the covenant through the cities of Judah, as well as in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:1,2,6). Apparently, he lived at first in Anathoth, repairing thence from time to time to prophesy in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 2:2), until the enmity of his townsmen and even his brethren, because of his godly faithfulness (Jeremiah 11:18-21; 12:6), drove him to Jerusalem. He knew not of their plotting against his life until Jehovah revealed it. His personal experiences were providentially ordered to qualify him to be the type in his own person, as well as the prophet, of Messiah (compare Isaiah 53:7). So Hisbrethren, and the Nazarenes His townsmen, treated Christ (Luke 4:24-29; John 1:11; 7:5; Psalm 69:8). By Jehovah's direction Jeremiah was to have neither wife or children (Jeremiah 16:2), in order to symbolize the coming of calamities on Judea so severe that the single state (contrary to the natural order) would be preferable to the married (1 Corinthians 7:8,26,29; Matthew 24:19; Luke 23:29). Eighteen years after his first call king Josiah died. During this period, when others thought evil distant, the vision of the see ALMOND tree, the emblem of wakefulness, showed Jeremiah that evil was hastening, and the seething pot that it should come from the N., namely, the Babylonians entering into the Holy Land from the N. by way of Hamath (Jeremiah 1:11-15). Jeremiah, like Isaiah (Isaiah 30:1-7), foresaw that the tendency of many to desire an alliance with Egypt, upon the dissolution of the Assyrian empire whose vassal Manasseh was, would end in sorrow (Jeremiah 2:18): "what hast thou to do in the way of (with going down to) Egypt? to drink the waters of Sihor (to seek hosts as allies from the Nile land)?"1-45, concerning Israel; (2) Jeremiah 46-51, concerning the nations. Jeremiah 1-23, are prophetic as to Israel; Jeremiah 24-45. combine prophecy and history; Jeremiah 24-29, set forth Nebuchadnezzar as God's instrument of chastising Israel and the nations, irresistible for the time, submission the wisest policy, the exiles better in position than the people at home; Jeremiah 30-33, the most Messianic portion, sets forth Israel restored under Messiah reigning upon David's throne; Jeremiah 34-45, mainly historical, illustrating from the people's unbelief the need of God's judgments. The New Testament by quotations stamps Jeremiah's canonicity (Matthew 2:17; 16:14; Hebrews 8:8-12). Philo quotes Jeremiah as an "oracle." Melito, Origen, Jerome, and the Talmud similarly include it in the canon. 1 Chronicles 23:23; J ERIMOTH , 24:30. Ezra 10:29, "and Ramoth" in the Hebrew margin (Qeri), but Jeremoth in the Hebrew original text (Kethib).
Bibliography Information
Fausset, Andrew Robert M.A., D.D., "Definition for 'jeremiah' Fausset's Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Fausset's; 1878.
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