Major prophets
The book of Jeremiah
Jeremiah’s warnings to Judah before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, and his promise of a new covenant.
Jeremiah was called in the thirteenth year of Josiah and prophesied until after Jerusalem’s fall. His scribe Baruch wrote out his words twice, after the king burned the first scroll (Jeremiah 36). It includes the promise of a new covenant (31:31–34), quoted in Hebrews 8.
Kinds of writing
- Prophecy 77%
- Narrative 21%
- Letter 2%
Key verses
Known and appointed before he was born. “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.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (World English Bible)
The heart is deceitful. The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 (World English Bible)
Plans for a hope and a future. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (World English Bible)
A new covenant. “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,”
Jeremiah 31:31 (World English Bible)
Jerusalem's wall is broken through. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
Jeremiah 39:2 (World English Bible)
People
JeremiahBaruchJosiahJehoiakimZedekiahNebuchadnezzarGedaliah
Places
AnathothJerusalemValley of HinnomRiblahMizpahTahpanhesEgyptBabylon
On the timeline
God calls JeremiahJehoiakim burns Jeremiah's scrollJeremiah's letter to the exilesBabylon besieges JerusalemJerusalem falls; the temple is burnedGovernor Gedaliah murderedJeremiah taken to EgyptJehoiachin released from prison
The New Testament quotes or alludes to Jeremiah 11 times (counted in the site’s Old in the New).
Dating notes
Ussher’s dates for Jeremiah’s call (629 BC) and the end of his ministry run a few years earlier than some others. The span is an estimate; Scripture doesn’t say when the book was written.