The weeping prophet
Jeremiah's personal laments (11:18–23, 12:1–6, 15:10–21, 17:14–18, 18:19–23, 20:7–18) are unlike anything else in the prophetic corpus — a man broken by the word he must deliver.
Old Testament · Book 24 of 66
Jeremiah
The weeping prophet of Judah's final generation — 627 BC call under Josiah to the 586 BC fall of Jerusalem and into Egyptian exile. Fifty-two chapters of lament, confrontation, and covenant promise, with the New Covenant glimpsed at the book's theological apex.
52
Chapters
627–580 BC
Ministry span
New Covenant
Theological apex
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Weeping Prophet · Seventy-Year Frame
Jeremiah's ministry runs from Josiah's thirteenth year to the Egyptian exile. The seventy-year sentence he announces will be counted by Daniel in Babylon (Dan 9).
- Author
- Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of the priestly family of Anathoth (1:1); Baruch the scribe assisted with dictation (36:4, 45:1)
- Date
- Ministry c. 627–580 BC; book compiled during and after the 586 BC exile
- Audience
- Judah in its final generation; exilic and post-exilic readers
- Position
- Old Testament · Book 24 of 66
Structure
- Call and early ministry1–6
Jeremiah called in Josiah's thirteenth year; the almond-rod and seething-pot visions; first oracles against apostate Judah.
- Temple sermon and symbolic acts7–20
The Temple sermon (ch. 7, 26); the buried loincloth (13); the potter's house (18); the broken pot (19); Pashhur and the stocks (20); the personal confessions.
- Against kings, prophets, and priests21–29
Oracles against Judah's last kings; the Branch (23:5–6); false prophets; Hananiah's yoke; the letter to the exiles.
- Book of consolation30–33
The New Covenant (31:31–34); the purchase of the field at Anathoth (32); the Branch of righteousness (33). The book's theological centre.
- Jerusalem's fall narrated34–45
Zedekiah's vacillation; Jehoiakim burns the scroll (36); siege and fall (39); assassination of Gedaliah; flight to Egypt with the remnant.
- Oracles against the nations46–51
Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Elam, Babylon — the LORD's judgment on the nations, climaxing in Babylon's doom.
- Historical appendix52
The fall of Jerusalem narrated again, closely paralleling 2 Kings 24–25.
Section pages
Each section is one focused part of Jeremiah — purpose, key movements, key verses, Christ-in-this-section. Roughly five minutes each.
Themes
The New Covenant (31:31–34)
‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.’ The OT's most explicit anticipation of the new-creation gospel; quoted at length in Heb 8 as the framework of the new-covenant argument.
The Branch and YHWH Tsidkenu
‘I will raise unto David a righteous Branch … this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ (23:5–6; cf. 33:15–16). Messianic prophecy that names the coming king by a divine name.
False prophets and true
Jeremiah's polemic against Hananiah and the court prophets (ch. 23, 27–28). The test of prophetic authenticity: fulfilment, theology, and the cost of speaking in the LORD's name.
Symbolic acts
The loincloth (13), the potter's house (18), the broken pot (19), the yoke (27–28), the purchased field (32). Embodied prophecy — the message enacted when words will not be heard.
Seventy years and return
‘This whole land shall be a desolation … and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years’ (25:11). Daniel will later calculate from this verse (Dan 9); the return under Cyrus (538 BC) answers it.
If you only read a few chapters
- 1The call of Jeremiah‘Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.’ The almond-rod and seething-pot visions.
- 7The Temple sermon‘Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD … are these.’
- 18The potter's house‘Cannot I do with you as this potter?’ The clay, the marred vessel, the sovereign hand.
- 23The Branch and false prophetsYHWH Tsidkenu — ‘the LORD our righteousness’ — named for the coming king.
- 29Letter to the exiles‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you’ (29:11) — in the setting of seventy-year exile.
- 31The New Covenant‘I will make a new covenant … I will write [my law] in their hearts.’ The book's theological apex.
- 32The field at AnathothJeremiah buys a field as a sign during the siege — hope when hope is least visible.
- 33Restoration promised‘In those days shall Judah be saved’; the Branch of righteousness repeated.
- 36Jehoiakim burns the scrollThe king cuts the scroll with a penknife and casts it into the fire; Jeremiah dictates it again.
- 39Jerusalem fallsThe city is taken; Zedekiah's sons slain; his eyes put out; the long-announced judgment arrives.
- 52Historical appendixThe fall narrated again; the note on Jehoiachin's release closing the book on a glimmer of hope.
Featured studies in this book
Trees of ScriptureJer 11–12Trees — Eden, Cross, New JerusalemJer 11–12MazzarothJer 2MazzarothJer 2Trees of ScriptureJer 16The Genealogies of ChristJer 24–30Names of GodJer 6Names of GodJer 5–6Covenants of ScriptureJer 31–34The CovenantsJer 31–34Creation to New CreationJer 31–34Names of GodJer 15–16The CovenantsJer 18–20