Old Testament

Jeremiah

Jeremiah is the book of a priest's son from Anathoth who preached for about forty years as Judah slid toward ruin, from Josiah's thirteenth year (about 627 BC) to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and beyond. He was sent 'to uproot and tear down' and then 'to build and to plant' (): he called Judah to return to the LORD, warned that Babylon would destroy city and temple, and suffered beatings, prison and a muddy cistern for saying so. It belongs in the Bible because, at the moment the old order collapsed, it announced the new covenant in which God writes His law on the heart and remembers sin no more (), the covenant Jesus sealed in His blood.

Author: Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, from a priestly family in Anathoth in Benjamin (1:1), who dictated at least some of his words to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah (36:4, 32). The book was gathered over time, and its last chapter is an appendix added after the note 'Here end the words of Jeremiah' (51:64); scholars differ on how much of the prose was shaped by later editors.
Audience: Judah and Jerusalem in their last decades: kings, priests, prophets and people who trusted the temple and expected peace. Later words reach the exiles in Babylon (chapter 29), the survivors who fled to Egypt (chapters 43-44) and the nations around them (chapters 46-51).
When: From 627 BC under Josiah, through Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and Jeremiah's last message in Egypt. The final scene, Jehoiachin's release in Babylon, is dated to about 562 BC (52:31).
Where: Mostly Jerusalem: the temple courts, the palace and the courtyard of the guard where Jeremiah was held during the siege. After the fall he stays briefly at Mizpah and is then taken to Tahpanhes in Egypt, where the book's narrative of his life ends.
Genre: Jeremiah is prophecy in many forms: poetic oracles and laments, prose sermons, acted signs (a ruined loincloth, a smashed jar, a yoke on his neck, a field bought during a siege), a letter to exiles, oracles against the nations and long stories about the prophet told in the third person. It is the longest book in the Bible by word count, and it is arranged more by subject than by date, so a passage from Jehoiakim's reign can follow one from Zedekiah's. The book also survives in two forms: the Hebrew text that English Bibles translate, and an ancient Greek translation that is noticeably shorter and places the oracles against the nations in the middle of the book. Read it by noting which king is on the throne, listening for the personal prayers called his confessions, and expecting grief and hope to stand side by side.

Shape of the book

The Call of a Prophet to the Nations · ch 1The LORD sets Jeremiah apart before birth, puts His words in his mouth, and shows him an almond branch and a boiling pot from the north.
Warnings to Judah and the Prophet's Confessions · ch 2–20A covenant lawsuit, calls to return, the temple sermon, acted signs with a loincloth, a potter and a jar, and Jeremiah's anguished complaints to God.
Kings, Prophets and Seventy Years · ch 21–25Judgment on the last kings and the false prophets, the promise of a righteous Branch for David, two baskets of figs, and the cup of wrath for the nations.
The Fight over the True Word · ch 26–29Jeremiah is tried for his temple sermon, wears a yoke against Hananiah's promise of quick release, and writes to the exiles to settle in Babylon.
The Book of Consolation · ch 30–33Promises of healing and return, Rachel comforted, the new covenant, a field bought during the siege, and the Branch who brings righteousness.
The Fall of Jerusalem and Its Aftermath · ch 34–45Broken oaths, a burned scroll, the prophet in a cistern, the city taken, Gedaliah murdered, a flight to Egypt against God's word, and a word to Baruch.
Oracles Against the Nations · ch 46–51Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Elam and finally Babylon itself drink the cup of judgment, with restoration promised to some.
Appendix: The Word Fulfilled · ch 52A retelling of Jerusalem's fall that ends with King Jehoiachin released from prison and eating at the king of Babylon's table.

Themes

Return to the LORD. The Hebrew verb shuv, to turn or return, runs through the book. The LORD pleads with faithless Israel to return (), asks why people who fall get up but His people never come back (), and announces that He relents when a nation turns from evil (). The tragedy is that Judah will not turn, and the hope is that God Himself will one day turn their hearts.
False Security and False Prophets. Judah trusted the temple (), the law it possessed () and prophets who cried 'Peace, peace' when there was no peace (; ). Jeremiah exposes prophets who speak their own dreams and never stood in the LORD's council (), and the clash with Hananiah () shows how hard it was to tell true from false when both spoke in the LORD's name.
The Heart and the New Covenant. Jeremiah's diagnosis goes to the heart: sin engraved on it with an iron stylus (), a heart deceitful above all things (), a leopard that cannot change its spots (). The remedy is God's own act: a new covenant in which He writes His law on their hearts, all know Him, and He forgives and forgets their sin (; ).
The Cost of Speaking for God. No prophet tells us more about his inner life. Jeremiah is forbidden to marry (), plotted against by his own town (), put in the stocks () and lowered into a cistern (). His confessions (-; ; ; ; ) argue with God, curse the day of his birth, and still confess that the word burns like fire in his bones.
The LORD of All Nations. Jeremiah is appointed 'a prophet to the nations' (). The LORD calls Nebuchadnezzar 'My servant' (; ) and gives the earth to whom He pleases, yet He also judges Babylon for its pride (). Submission to Babylon was God's will for that generation, never a surrender to a permanent power.
Judgment with Tears. Jeremiah wishes his eyes were a fountain of tears for his people (), and the LORD Himself grieves over the inheritance He gives up () and yearns for Ephraim as a dear son (). Judgment in this book is real and deserved, but it is never cold.

Where Christ is

Jeremiah's clearest gift to the New Testament is the new covenant, which Jesus named over the cup at the Last Supper and Hebrews quotes at length. The book also promises a righteous Branch from David's fallen line, and Jeremiah's own life, rejected by his people, tried for speaking against the temple and grieving over Jerusalem, is a pattern the Gospels recall in Jesus. Jesus quotes Jeremiah when He clears the temple, and Matthew sees Jeremiah's words fulfilled around His birth and His betrayal.

The New Covenant. Promise and fulfillment. God promises a covenant unlike the one broken after the exodus, with His law written on the heart and sins remembered no more. Jesus calls the cup 'the new covenant in My blood,' and Hebrews quotes the whole promise to show that Christ is the mediator of a better covenant whose one sacrifice brings full forgiveness. (; ; ; ; )
The Righteous Branch of David. Promise and fulfillment. With David's line about to lose the throne, God promises to raise up a righteous Branch who will reign wisely and be called The LORD Our Righteousness. The New Testament announces Jesus as the son of David given his father David's throne, and Paul says Christ has become our righteousness. (; ; ; )
The Prophet Rejected at the Temple. Echo and direct quotation. Jeremiah asked whether the LORD's house had become a den of robbers and warned it would end like Shiloh; he was seized by priests and declared worthy of death. Jesus quotes when He clears the temple, speaks of its coming destruction, and is tried and handed over. Some people even thought Jesus was Jeremiah. (; ; ; ; )
Rachel Weeping and the Potter's Field. Fulfillment as Matthew reads it. Rachel weeping for her children in Ramah, a picture of exile followed by a promise of return, is heard again in the grief of Bethlehem at Jesus' birth. Matthew also ties the potter's field bought with Judas's silver to Jeremiah, most likely joining Jeremiah's potter and field passages with . (; ; ; ; )
The Cup of Wrath. Echo. Jeremiah is handed the cup of the wine of the LORD's wrath to make the nations drink. Jesus prays that the cup might pass from Him and then drinks it, and Revelation uses Jeremiah's images of the cup and of Babylon's fall for the final judgment of every proud power. (; ; ; ; )

Voices

John Calvin. Commenting on the new covenant of , he held that it is new not in substance but in form: the same God and the same law, now given with the Spirit's power to write it on the heart and with the clearer grace revealed in Christ. Read the full commentary ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Keep a list of the kings at hand: Josiah (to 609 BC), Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim (609-598), Jehoiachin (597) and Zedekiah (597-586). Many chapters name their king, and the book jumps back and forth in time.
Read the narrative chapters beside 2 Kings 22-25 and 2 Chronicles 34-36. Chapter 52 closely follows 2 Kings 24:18-25:30.
Mark the confessions (11:18-12:6; 15:10-21; 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-18). They show what faithful ministry cost Jeremiah, and God's answers to him are part of the message.
Read chapters 30-33 as the center of hope, and then notice that the stories which follow show the same people still refusing to listen. The promise rests on God, not on Judah's improvement.
Know that Jeremiah comes down in two forms. The ancient Greek translation is roughly an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and puts the oracles against the nations after 25:13, in a different order. Some scholars think it reflects an earlier, shorter Hebrew edition, noting that a few Hebrew fragments from Qumran agree with it, while others think the translator shortened his text; other Qumran fragments match the longer Hebrew, which English Bibles translate. Both forms carry the same message, but chapter numbers in Greek-based sources differ from ours.

Key terms

Return, turn שׁוּב (shuv) — The book's key verb for repentance, used also for turning away and for coming home from exile. Jeremiah plays on its senses, as in 3:22 and 8:4-5.
Falsehood, lie שֶׁקֶר (sheqer) — A favorite word of Jeremiah for deceptive words, false trust and false prophecy, such as trusting 'deceptive words' about the temple (7:4, 8) and prophets who prophesy lies (23:25-26).
Uproot and plant נָתַשׁ / נָטַע (natash / nata) — From the six verbs of Jeremiah's commission (1:10). They return at turning points, in the potter's house (18:7-9), for the exiles (24:6) and in the promise of restoration (31:28).
New covenant בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה (berit chadashah) — Found as a phrase only in 31:31 in the Old Testament. The same God and the same law, but written on the heart, with forgiveness at its foundation.
Branch צֶמַח (tsemach) — A sprout from a cut-down stump, the title for the coming king from David's line (23:5; 33:15), taken up by Zechariah (3:8; 6:12).
Loving devotion חֶסֶד (chesed) — Loyal covenant love. Israel's early devotion as a bride (2:2), the LORD's delight in it (9:24), and His everlasting love that draws His people back (31:3).

Easy to misread

Reading 29:11 as a personal promise of comfort and success for any individual. It was written to the exiles in Babylon, with plural 'you', after telling them to settle in for seventy years. It does reveal God's faithful purposes for His people, but its first meaning is hope beyond a long exile, not a quick escape from hardship.
Treating Jeremiah's call to surrender to Babylon as politics or cowardice. His enemies called it treason (38:4), but the book presents it as obedience to the LORD who had handed the nations to Nebuchadnezzar for a set time (27:6-8), and the same prophet announced Babylon's own fall (chapters 50-51).
Thinking the new covenant replaces God's law with a religion of feelings. The promise is that God will put His law within them and write it on their hearts (31:33). What changes is the heart and the forgiveness, not God's standards. Christians agree the new covenant began in Christ but differ on how its promises to Israel and Judah relate to the church and to the Jewish people.
Hearing Jeremiah's complaints as unbelief to be avoided. They are prayers addressed to God, honest about pain and anger, and God answers them, even rebuking him when he speaks wrongly (15:19). The book shows a man arguing with God, not walking away from Him.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video