JEREMIAH (Appointed by Jehovah) was son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth (a small village close to Jerusalem). He began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, about seventy years after Isaiah's death, and continued to do so all through the troubled times of the Babylonian invasion. He was regarded as the bird of evil omen by the rulers of Jerusalem, and was subjected to cruel persecution. He saw the city besieged and taken, his warnings neglected but fulfilled, his fellow-citizens carried captive, and Jerusalem a heap of ruins; and in an adjoining cave he wrote his Lamentations over it. A remnant rallied round him after the murder of Gedaliah, and were forbidden by God, through his mouth, to flee into Egypt; but they accused him of falsehood, and disregarding the Divine command, carried him with them into that country (xliii.), where, according to Jerome, he was put to death, having prophesied for about forty years.

His prophecies are not in chronological order, but seem to have been re-arranged according to their subjects, viz.:—(1) Warnings to the Jews. (2) Survey of all nations, with an historical appendix. (3) Prediction of brighter days to come, with a similar appendix. (4) Prophecies regarding Egypt. The concluding chapters (from li. 34) are supposed to have been compiled from the later portions of II. Kings, and may have been added by Ezra. Jeremiah was contemporary with Ze-phaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Daniel. He foretold the precise date of the Captivity, the fate of Zedekiah, the Return of the Jews, future decay of Babylon, and fall of many other nations. He is said to have buried the ark; and he predicted the abrogation of the Law, the inauguration of a spiritual worship, the blessing of the Atonement, the call of the Gentiles through the Gospel, and the final acceptance of the Jews.

Bunsen and Ewald consider that the prophecies seem to be most naturally grouped together by the recurrence of the formula, "The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah," as follows:—! (Chap, i.) An introduction, probably prefixed to the whole at the final revision. 2. (ii.—xxi.) Probably the roll written by Baruch (xxxvi. 32), after the one read in the ears of Jehoiakim had been burnt by him. 3. (xxii.—xxv.) Shorter prophecies delivered against the kings of Judah and false prophets. 4. (xxv.—xxviii.) Two great prophecies of the fall of Jerusalem. 5. (xxix.—xxxi.) The message of comfort for the exiles in Babylon. 6. (xxxii.—xliv.) The history of the last two years before the capture of Jerusalem, and of Jeremiah's work during that and the subsequent period. 7. (xlvi.—li.) The prophecies against foreign nations, ending with the great predictions against Babylon. 8. (lii.) The supplementary narrative, which is also a preface to Lamentations.

The LXX. translation contains so many differences of reading, as well as variations m the arrangement of the chapters, that it would seem to have been made from some other recension of the Hebrew than any now extant; or else, the translators endeavoured to make the Hebrew more plain, and the arrangement more methodical. The genuineness of the book has never been seriously questioned; neither can its date be doubted. Gesenius- conjectures that more than

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thirty Psalms (sc. v., vi., xiv., xxii.—xli., Hi.—lv., lix.—lxxi.), were composed by Jeremiah; if so, they are a valuable record of the hymnology of that period.