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Jeremiah.pdf

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I. Identity of Jeremiah

Name and Calling

• “Jeremiah” (Hebrew: יִרְמְיָהוּ, Yirmeyahu) likely means “The LORD appoints” or “The LORD throws/casts down.”
• Son of Hilkiah, of the priests in Anathoth of Benjamin (Jer. 1:1; Josh. 21:18).
• Called before birth as “a prophet unto the nations”; appointed to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build, and plant (Jer. 1:4-10).
• Jeremiah knew the temple and covenant forms from the inside, yet exposed religious confidence that had become empty ritual (Jer. 7:1-15; 8:8-12).

Personality

• Tender, reluctant, and deeply affected by his message (Jer. 1:6; 8:18-9:1).
• Frequently lonely and opposed, yet enduring rejection, imprisonment, threats, and national collapse (Jer. 11:18-23; 15:10; 20:7-18; 37-38).

II. Historical Setting

Timeframe

• Jeremiah prophesied from the thirteenth year of Josiah through the fall of Jerusalem and beyond (Jer. 1:2-3).
• Approximate span: c. 627-586 BC, from Josiah through Zedekiah, with aftermath into the remnant period (2 Kings 22-25; Jer. 40-44).

International Setting

• Assyria was collapsing; Babylon was rising. Nineveh fell in 612 BC; Carchemish in 605 BC established Babylon's dominance (Jer. 46:2).
• Judah tried to survive between Egypt and Babylon, but Jeremiah called submission to Babylon God's discipline (Jer. 27:1-22; 38:17-23).

Judah's Condition

• Josiah's reforms were real, but the nation's heart remained divided (2 Kings 22-23; Jer. 3:6-10).
• Idolatry, injustice, false prophecy, and temple-confidence marked Judah's final decades (Jer. 5; 6:13-15; 7).