Introduction to Jeremiah
Scripture quotations on this page are from the World English Bible (public domain), shown in quotation marks; all commentary is written by Scripture Trove. Source: Jeremiah · Introduction · Commentary
Jeremiah is the longest prophetic book in the Old Testament (by Hebrew word count it exceeds Isaiah), and one of the most deeply moving books in the whole Bible, because it records not only God's words but also the prophet's tears. Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet." His weeping was not weakness. It was God's heartbreak over His rebellious people, poured out and made visible in one man.
The name Jeremiah (יִרְמְיָהוּ, Yirmeyahu) means "Yahweh raises up" or "Yahweh throws." Yahweh raised up a prophet and "threw" His word into that generation. Jeremiah was called in the thirteenth year of Josiah (around 627 BC) and served until after the fall of Jerusalem (587 BC), a prophetic ministry of about 47 years. It spanned five kings (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah), and he watched with his own eyes the final struggle and collapse of the kingdom of Judah.
If Isaiah is the "Gospel" of the Old Testament, then Jeremiah is its "Gethsemane": a prophet torn between God's will and the people's resistance, bearing the cost of his calling alone. Jeremiah's experience is one of the deepest foreshadowings of Christ's suffering. Matthew 16:14 records that some who saw Jesus said, "This is Jeremiah." They saw Jeremiah's shadow in Him.
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Author | Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu, "Yahweh raises up"), son of Hilkiah the priest of Anathoth, with Baruch (Baruch) the scribe recording his words |
| Period of Writing | Approximately 627–580 BC (thirteenth year of Josiah through the early exile) |
| Historical Setting | Judah's final years: Josiah's reform → Jehoiakim's defiance → the rise of Babylon → two deportations of Jerusalem → the burning of the Temple |
| Core Message | Sin must bring judgment, but God's new-covenant promise can never be annulled: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart I will write it" |
| New Testament Significance | Jeremiah 31:31-34 is the deepest "new covenant" prophecy in the Old Testament, quoted at length in Hebrews 8, 9, and 10 |
The book of Jeremiah is not arranged chronologically, which is why so many readers feel lost. The chapters are grouped by theme, and the timeline jumps back and forth. Knowing the following structure can keep you from getting lost as you read:
Early rebukes (chapters 1–6): the call visions (the almond tree, the boiling pot), and the charge that Israel has forsaken the "fountain of living waters."
Temple sermon and conflict (chapters 7–20): the temple sermon (chapter 7), the symbolic acts of the potter and the clay jar, and Jeremiah's "Confessions" (his personal laments).
Kings, prophets, and the seventy years (chapters 21–29): the charges against the kings, the good and bad figs, the seventy-year prophecy, the clash between true and false prophets, and the letter to the exiles.
The Book of Consolation (chapters 30–33): the warmest part of the whole book. Jacob's trouble → the restoration of the bride → the new covenant (31:31-34) → Jeremiah buys a field.
Zedekiah and the fall of Jerusalem (chapters 34–39): the broken pledge to free slaves, the faithfulness of the Rechabites, Jehoiakim burning the scroll, Jeremiah cast into the muddy cistern, and the fall of Jerusalem.
The remnant goes down to Egypt (chapters 40–45): the murder of Gedaliah, the remnant defying God's word and going down to Egypt, the worship of the Queen of Heaven, and comfort for Baruch.
Oracles against the nations (chapters 46–51): judgment against Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Babylon, and other nations.
Historical appendix (chapter 52): a detailed record of the fall of Jerusalem, parallel to 2 Kings 24–25.
The soul of Jeremiah is this: at the moment when the old covenant was drawing to a close, the Temple was about to be destroyed, and everything seemed to be ending, God, through the mouth of a weeping prophet, declared that He would establish a new covenant, engraving the law on the tablet of the human heart, so that everyone would personally know Him, and "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (31:34). This is the voice in the Old Testament that comes closest to the cross.
The book of Jeremiah has two "authors": the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch.
Jeremiah (יִרְמְיָהוּ, Yirmeyahu) was born in Anathoth, a small town about five kilometers northeast of Jerusalem, a priestly city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 21:18). He was the son of Hilkiah the priest (Jeremiah 1:1). Note that this Hilkiah is not the high priest Hilkiah who found the Book of the Law in the Temple during Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22:8); they share the same name but are not the same man.
Jeremiah's call was extraordinary. God said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations" (1:5). This is the Old Testament's clearest declaration of election before birth. Jeremiah's own response was to draw back: "I don't know how to speak, for I am a child." But God reached out and touched his mouth and said, "I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (1:9-10). These six verbs, to pluck up, to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build, and to plant, sum up the two directions of Jeremiah's lifelong ministry: four are destructive (judgment), and two are constructive (hope). The weight of judgment far outweighs that of hope, and this sets the keynote of the book.
Baruch (בָּרוּךְ, Baruch, meaning "blessed") was Jeremiah's faithful scribe and companion. Chapter 36 records a pivotal scene: Jeremiah was barred from entering the Temple, so he dictated the oracles to Baruch and sent him to read them aloud in the Temple in his place. When King Jehoiakim heard the contents of the scroll, he went so far as to cut it to pieces with a knife and throw it into a brazier to burn, the most striking book-burning event in the Old Testament. But God commanded Jeremiah, "Take another scroll, and write in it all the words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned" (36:28), and "many similar words were added to them."
The composition of the book of Jeremiah likely went something like this: Baruch recorded a large body of oracles (in the first person) and narrative (in the third person) from Jeremiah's dictation, which was later edited, either during or before the exile, into the 52 chapters we have today. It is worth noting that the Greek Septuagint of Jeremiah is about one-eighth shorter than the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and the oracles against the nations stand in a different place: the Septuagint places them after chapter 25, while the Masoretic Text places them in chapters 46–51. The Chinese Union Version follows the order of the Masoretic Text.
| Dimension | Isaiah | Jeremiah |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Mainly poetic oracles | Poetic oracles + first-person narrative + third-person biography (written by Baruch) + personal laments ("Confessions") + a historical appendix |
| Presence of the Author | Isaiah stays relatively hidden; the focus is on God's word | Jeremiah himself appears constantly: his tears, his pain, his imprisonment, his arguments with God |
| Structure | Roughly chronological (1–39 → 40–55 → 56–66) | Not chronological; chapters grouped by theme; the timeline jumps back and forth |
| Names of Kings | Specific kings mentioned occasionally | Precise down to "such king, such year" (e.g., "the fourth year of Jehoiakim," 25:1) |
| Keynote | "The Holy One of Israel," holiness and glory | "The weeping prophet," pain and loneliness |
| Messianic Prophecy | The Servant Songs + the Prince of Peace | The new covenant + the Righteous Branch |
The most distinctive literary feature of the book is the Confessions of Jeremiah, six personal laments scattered through chapters 11–20 (11:18-23; 12:1-6; 15:10-21; 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-18). In these passages Jeremiah pours out to God his pain, his complaints, and even his thoughts of regretting his call. Jeremiah 20:7-9 is the most famous of them: "Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed... If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."
The book of Jeremiah describes sin more deeply and concretely than any other prophetic book. Jeremiah 2:13 is the most central image in the whole book: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
This image reveals the twofold structure of sin: it is not just one wrong deed, but two. First, forsaking the true water source; second, digging a leaky substitute for oneself. The tragedy of idolatry is not only that it worships the wrong object, but more deeply that it abandons the only living water that can quench thirst.
Jeremiah traces the root of sin further still, to the heart: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and exceedingly corrupt; who can know it?" (17:9). This is the Old Testament's deepest diagnosis of the sinfulness of the human heart, and it lays the groundwork for the "new covenant" of 31:31-34, in which God writes the law on the tablet of the heart.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 is the most important passage in the entire Old Testament. It is the only place in the Old Testament that uses the term "new covenant" (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה, berit chadashah):
"Yahweh says: Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt... I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart I will write it. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
This passage contains four core features of the new covenant:
Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 in full, and the writer says of the old covenant, "In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one old" (Hebrews 8:13). At the Last Supper Jesus took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20). The very concept of "new covenant" comes directly from Jeremiah.
Jeremiah's experience is the Old Testament type that comes closest to the suffering of Christ:
| Jeremiah | Christ |
|---|---|
| Chosen before birth (1:5) | Foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20) |
| Rejected by the people of his own hometown (11:21, the men of Anathoth plot to kill him) | Rejected by the people of Nazareth (Luke 4:28-29) |
| Persecuted by religious leaders (20:1-2, Pashhur strikes him) | Persecuted by the chief priests and scribes |
| Accused of treason (37:13-14) | Accused of "making himself a king" (John 19:12) |
| "like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (11:19) | "like a sheep led to the slaughter" (Acts 8:32, quoting Isaiah 53:7) |
| Wept for Jerusalem (9:1, "Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears!") | Wept for Jerusalem (Luke 19:41, "When he drew near to Jerusalem... he wept over it") |
| Bore the loneliness of his call alone (16:2, God forbade him to marry) | "He was despised, and as one from whom men hide their faces" (Isaiah 53:3) |
Matthew 16:14 records the disciples reporting that some guessed Jesus was "Jeremiah." It was no accident that people saw Jeremiah's shadow in Jesus.
The book opens by declaring Jeremiah a "prophet to the nations" (1:5), not merely a prophet to Judah. The oracles against the nations in chapters 46–51 cover Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Elam, and Babylon, proclaiming Yahweh's sovereignty over all the nations.
The "seventy years" prophecy (25:11-12; 29:10) is one of the most precise time prophecies in the book: Judah would serve Babylon for seventy years, and "when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation." Daniel, while in Babylon, read this prophecy of Jeremiah and began to pray for the return (Daniel 9:2). The historical fulfillment is remarkably precise: about 70 years from the first deportation (605 BC) to Cyrus's release of the exiles (536 BC), and exactly 70 years from the destruction of the Temple (586 BC) to the completion of the Second Temple (516 BC).
With its 52 chapters, mixed genres, and non-linear chronology, Jeremiah is the hardest prophetic book in the Old Testament to read "straight through." The following suggestions can help you find a way in:
First, start from the core chapters. A recommended entry path: chapter 1 (the call vision) → chapter 2 (the parable of the fountain of living waters) → chapter 7 (the temple sermon) → chapter 18 (the potter's parable) → chapter 20 (Jeremiah's confession) → chapter 29 (the letter to the exiles) → chapter 31 (the new-covenant promise) → chapter 36 (the burning of the scroll) → chapter 38 (the muddy cistern) → chapter 52 (the fall of Jerusalem).
Second, lay hold of Jeremiah the man. The book is not only a collection of oracles; it is the biography of a prophet. As you read, watch how Jeremiah's emotions shift: from his youthful reluctance at the call, to his fearless boldness in preaching, to his weeping struggle in loneliness, to his despair in the cistern, to his helplessness when finally dragged off to Egypt. This emotional thread will help you understand the book even more than the order of the chapters.
Third, read with two questions in mind: Where is the sin? Where is the hope? The keynote of Jeremiah is judgment, but behind every passage of judgment lies God's heart to draw His people back. The "fountain of living waters" in 2:13 hints that God is still flowing; 29:11, "I know the plans I have for you, plans for peace," was spoken in the darkness of exile; and the new-covenant promise of 31:31-34 appears in the middle of the warmest section of the book.
Fourth, do not skip the "Confessions." The six passages (11:18-23; 12:1-6; 15:10-21; 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-18) are Jeremiah's prayers, pouring out to God all the pain in his heart. If you have ever felt lonely in your faith, misunderstood, or full of doubt about your calling, Jeremiah's confessions will show you that you are not the first to feel this way, and you will not be the last. God placed these "unspiritual" prayers in Scripture precisely to tell you: you are allowed to speak to Him like this.
Fifth, read Jeremiah alongside Ezekiel and Daniel. These three were contemporaries: Jeremiah in Jerusalem, Ezekiel and Daniel in Babylon. They never met, yet they served the same God at the same time. Reading them side by side, you can see God doing one and the same work in one era, in different places, through prophets of very different temperaments.
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fountain of living waters | מְקוֹר מַיִם חַיִּים | meqor mayim chayyim | The central image of 2:13; God is the only living water that quenches thirst |
| Heart | לֵב | lev | Jeremiah's central battlefield (4:14 / 17:9 / 31:33) |
| New covenant | בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה | berit chadashah | 31:31-34, the only place in the Old Testament that uses the term "new covenant" |
| Seventy years | שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה | shiv'im shanah | 25:11 / 29:10, the term and the hope of the exile |
| Righteous Branch | צֶמַח צַדִּיק | tzemach tzaddiq | 23:5-6, a title for the Messiah |
| Yahweh Our Righteousness | יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ | YHWH Tsidqenu | 23:6 / 33:16, a name of the Messiah |
| Jacob's trouble | עֵת צָרָה לְיַעֲקֹב | et tzarah le-Ya'aqov | 30:7, a foreshadowing of the great tribulation |
| Pluck up / break down / destroy / overthrow / build / plant | נָתַשׁ / נָתַץ / אָבַד / הָרַס / בָּנָה / נָטַע | natash / natatz / 'avad / haras / banah / nata' | 1:10, the six verbs of Jeremiah's ministry |
| Whoredom / apostasy | זְנוּת / מְשׁוּבָה | zenut / meshuvah | The core of chapter 3; Israel's unfaithfulness pictured through the marriage covenant |
| Remnant | שְׁאֵרִית | she'erit | The central concept of chapters 40–44 |
| Weeping | בְּכִי | bekhi | Jeremiah's signature emotion, "the weeping prophet" |
| Temple | הֵיכָל / בַּיִת | hekhal / bayit | The heart of the chapter 7 temple sermon, "Do not trust in deceptive words" |
The making of the book of Jeremiah is more complex, and also more transparent, than most Old Testament books, because chapter 36 directly describes the scroll being written, burned, and then rewritten.
Jeremiah's earliest ministry was mainly oral proclamation. The early oracles (chapters 2–6) were likely delivered in this phase. Jeremiah 1:9, "I have put my words in your mouth," shows that the prophet's primary medium was the spoken "word."
Jeremiah 36:1-2 records that in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 BC), Yahweh commanded Jeremiah to "write on a scroll all the words I have spoken to you." Jeremiah dictated to Baruch, and Baruch wrote on the scroll. This was the starting point of the written book of Jeremiah.
King Jehoiakim listened to the scroll being read beside a winter brazier, and as each three or four columns were read he cut them off with a knife and threw them into the fire to burn (36:23). God commanded Jeremiah to rewrite it, and "many similar words were added to them" (36:32). This means the second scroll was longer than the first. Jeremiah is a book that grew after being burned.
The narrative sections after chapter 36 (chapters 37–44) recount Jeremiah's experiences mainly in the third person, and most scholars believe these were the "biography of Jeremiah" written by Baruch. As Jeremiah's close companion, Baruch recorded the prophet's experiences during the siege, his imprisonment, the fall of Jerusalem, and the descent into Egypt.
Chapter 52 (the historical appendix) runs almost entirely parallel to 2 Kings 24:18–25:30 and was probably drawn from Kings and added by an editor. The final editing of the whole book was likely completed during the exile or in the early years of the return.
Jeremiah is the Old Testament book where the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint differ most:
| Dimension | Masoretic Text (basis of the Chinese Union Version) | Septuagint |
|---|---|---|
| Total length | About 21,835 words | About 2,700 words shorter than the Masoretic Text (roughly 12.5%) |
| Location of the oracles against the nations | Chapters 46–51 (at the end of the book) | Immediately after 25:13 (as an extension of chapter 25) |
| Order of the oracles against the nations | Egypt → Philistia → Moab → Ammon → Edom → Damascus → Kedar → Elam → Babylon | Elam → Egypt → Babylon → Philistia → Edom → Ammon → Kedar → Damascus → Moab |
| Certain passages | The Masoretic Text has some passages the Septuagint lacks (such as the expansion of the Davidic covenant in 33:14-26) | The Septuagint is more concise |
Two textual traditions of Jeremiah have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: some manuscripts are closer to the Masoretic Text, others closer to the Septuagint. This shows that both textual forms existed side by side during the Second Temple period. Neither one is a copyist's mistake; they are two independent textual traditions.
What this means in practice for the reader: the Chinese Union Version follows the Masoretic Text, but when working through chapters 25 and 46–51, knowing the Septuagint's different arrangement helps in following scholarly discussion of the structure of the whole book.
The time of Jeremiah's ministry (627–580 BC) was a period of imperial transition in the ancient Near East: the Assyrian Empire was declining, Babylon (the Neo-Babylonian, Chaldean Empire) was rising, and Egypt was trying to recover its influence. Judah, caught between the three great empires, wavered in its foreign policy and was finally ground to pieces.
| Year (BC) | Event | Corresponding Passage in Jeremiah |
|---|---|---|
| 627 | Jeremiah is called | Jeremiah 1 |
| 621 | Josiah finds the Book of the Law; religious reform | Jeremiah 11, "the words of the covenant" |
| 612 | Nineveh, capital of Assyria, falls (Babylonian and Median coalition) | The background of Jeremiah's prophecy shifts |
| 609 | Josiah dies in battle at Megiddo; Neco appoints Jehoiakim | Jeremiah 22:10-12 (lament for Josiah/Jehoahaz) |
| 605 | Battle of Carchemish; Babylon defeats Egypt | Jeremiah 46:2-12; chapter 25, "seventy years" |
| 598–597 | First deportation (Jehoiachin surrenders) | Jeremiah 24, "two baskets of figs" |
| 588–587 | Babylon besieges the city for 18 months | Jeremiah 32 (Jeremiah buys a field); chapters 37–38 |
| 587 | Fall of Jerusalem; the Temple is burned | Jeremiah 39; chapter 52 |
| 586 | Gedaliah is assassinated | Jeremiah 40–41 |
| c. 585 | The remnant goes down to Egypt | Jeremiah 42–44 |
Ancient Near Eastern treaty language: the book of Jeremiah makes heavy use of the language pattern of ancient Near Eastern suzerain-vassal treaties: indictment → sentence → curse → remnant clause. This stands in one line with the covenant language of Exodus and Deuteronomy. The judgment Jeremiah proclaims is essentially a covenant lawsuit: God, as the suzerain, charges His vassal Israel with breaking the terms of the covenant.
The book of Jeremiah contains more prophetic symbolic acts than any other Old Testament book. God commanded the prophet to "perform" His message with his own body:
| Symbolic Act | Chapter | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| The linen belt hidden by the Euphrates | 13:1-11 | Israel was once like a belt clinging close to God, but now is ruined through pride |
| Forbidden to marry | 16:1-4 | Judah is about to perish; bearing children is meaningless |
| The potter's clay | 18:1-12 | God is the potter, with the right to reshape Israel according to His own will |
| Smashing the clay jar | 19:1-13 | Judah will be like a shattered jar, never to be mended again |
| The wooden yoke and the iron yoke | chapters 27–28 | The nations must submit to Babylon's "yoke"; the false prophet breaks the wooden yoke and brings on an iron one |
| The two baskets of figs | chapter 24 | The exiles are the good figs; those who remain are the bad figs |
| Buying a field | chapter 32 | He buys a field during the siege: "Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land" |
| Large stones hidden in the brickwork | 43:8-13 | Nebuchadnezzar will set up his throne in Egypt (a prophecy of Babylon's invasion of Egypt) |
These symbolic acts are not mere "teaching props." They are prophetic actions that in some sense take part in God's own work. When Jeremiah smashed the clay jar, he was not only drawing a comparison; he was announcing a historical event about to take place.
| Jeremiah | New Testament Citation | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| 1:5 | Galatians 1:15 | Set apart before birth (Paul's call echoes Jeremiah) |
| 7:11 | Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46 | "Den of robbers"; Jesus quotes Jeremiah directly as He cleanses the Temple |
| 9:24 | 1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17 | "Let the one who boasts boast in Yahweh" |
| 18:6 | Romans 9:21 | The potter and the clay; the sovereignty of God |
| 29:13 | Matthew 7:7 | "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart" |
| 31:15 | Matthew 2:17-18 | Rachel weeping for her children; Herod's slaughter of the infants |
| 31:31-34 | Hebrews 8:8-12; 10:16-17; Luke 22:20 | The new covenant; the Last Supper + the central argument of Hebrews |
| 31:33 | 2 Corinthians 3:3 | "Written on the heart"; the inwardness of the new covenant |
| 32:6-9 | — | The prophet buying a field; a model of faith in action |
| 50–51 | Revelation 17–18 | The overthrow of Babylon; the background of "Babylon the Great" in Revelation |
We can put it this way: without Jeremiah, the New Testament's "new covenant" has no Old Testament foundation. The Lord's Supper that Jesus instituted, the justification by faith that Paul expounded, and the better covenant that Hebrews sets forth all rest, directly or indirectly, on the "new covenant" promise of Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Major academic commentaries
Chinese resources
Jeremiah's 47 years of ministry spanned the whole course of Judah's journey from its last revival to its total collapse. No other prophet, like Jeremiah, watched everything he had prophesied come to pass one by one with his own eyes.
Jeremiah was called in the thirteenth year of Josiah (around 627 BC). Josiah was Judah's last godly king. During his reign he found the Book of the Law, abolished the idols, repaired the Temple, and launched a thorough religious reform (2 Kings 22–23). Jeremiah's attitude toward Josiah's reform was complex: he affirmed Josiah's godliness (22:15-16, "Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness?"), yet he also saw clearly that the reform touched only the surface, while the people's hearts had not truly turned back.
In 609 BC Josiah went out to meet Pharaoh Neco of Egypt, who was marching north, and was killed at Megiddo. That day became the turning point of Judah's destiny. From then on there was never another godly king, and Judah was ground to pieces between the two great empires of Egypt and Babylon.
Jehoahaz reigned only three months before Neco deposed him and carried him off to Egypt. The Egyptian Pharaoh then made Jehoiakim (also called Eliakim) a puppet king. Jehoiakim is the negative archetype of the book of Jeremiah: he had "eyes and heart for nothing but his own dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression and violence" (22:17). Under Jehoiakim's rule, Jeremiah delivered the temple sermon (chapter 7, "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of Yahweh'"), performed the symbolic acts of the potter and the clay jar (chapters 18–19), and was beaten and put in the stocks by the priest Pashhur (chapter 20).
In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar crushed the Egyptian army at Carchemish, and Babylon became the dominant power of the ancient Near East. In the same year Jeremiah announced the prophecy of "seventy years" of exile (25:11-12). Jehoiakim at first submitted to Babylon, but rebelled three years later, bringing on a Babylonian assault. Jehoiakim died (or was killed) during the siege, and his son Jehoiachin surrendered after reigning only three months.
In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar carried King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the court officials, and a great number of skilled craftsmen off to Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-16). This was the first exile. The prophet Ezekiel was among these exiles. The vision of the "two baskets of figs" in Jeremiah 24 is the theological interpretation of this exile: those carried off to Babylon were the "good figs," while those who remained in Jerusalem were the "bad figs," which completely overturned how people thought at the time.
Babylon set up Zedekiah as the last king of Judah. Zedekiah was an irresolute man. He secretly summoned Jeremiah several times (37:17; 38:14-28) but dared not openly obey the prophet's counsel. Jeremiah told him plainly, "Surrender to Babylon and you will live" (38:17-18), but Zedekiah feared being branded a traitor by the people.
At the same time the false prophet Hananiah publicly declared that "within two years" the exiles and the Temple vessels would be brought back (chapter 28), sharply opposing Jeremiah's "seventy years" prophecy. Jeremiah was accused of treason, beaten, and thrown into a cistern full of mud (38:6), until Ebed-Melech the Cushite pulled him out of the muddy cistern with rags and worn-out clothes.
In 587 BC (or 586 BC), after a siege of about 18 months, the walls of Jerusalem were breached. Zedekiah and his men fled by night through a gap in the wall but were overtaken on the plains of Jericho. At Riblah, Nebuchadnezzar "killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes," then "put out Zedekiah's eyes," bound him with bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon (39:5-7). The last sight he ever saw was his own sons being killed. The Temple was burned, the walls were torn down, and the kingdom of Judah came to an end.
Because Jeremiah had consistently urged the people to surrender to Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, released him and allowed him to remain in the land of Judah.
Babylon appointed Gedaliah as governor of Judah (chapter 40), but Gedaliah was soon assassinated by Ishmael (chapter 41). Under Johanan's leadership the remnant defied Jeremiah's warning and forced their way down to Egypt (chapters 42–43). Jeremiah continued his ministry at Tahpanhes in Egypt (43:7) until his death. Jewish tradition says that Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own people in Egypt, which echoes the hint in Hebrews 11:37, "They were stoned to death."