JEREMY, EPISTLE OF, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament. The letter purports to have been written by Jeremiah to the exiles who were already in Babylon or on the way thither. The author was a Hellenistic Jew, and not improbably a Jew of Alexandria. His work, which shows little literary skill, was written with a serious practical purpose. He veiled his fierce attack on the idol gods of Egypt by holding up to derision the idolatry of Babylon. He warned the exiles that they were to remain in captivity for seven generations ; that they would there see the worship paid to idols, from all participation in which they were to hold aloof ; for that idols were nothing save the work of men's hands, without the powers of speech, hearing, or self-preserva tion. They could not bless their worshippers even in the smallest
concerns of life ; they were indifferent to moral qualities, and were of less value than the commonest household objects, and finally, "with rare irony, the author compared an idol to a scarecrow (v. 7o), impotent to protect, but deluding to the imagination"