JEREMIAH (jer'e-mrah), (Heb. r,7,YM yir meh-yaw', Jah will rise).
/. A native of Libnah, the father of Hamutal, Josiah's wife, who was mother of Jelloahaz (2 Kings xxiii :3t ) and Zedekiah (xxiv :18 ; Jer. :1). (B. C. before 632.) 2. A Gadite warrior who joined David in the wilderness (1 Chron. xii :to). (B. C. to61.) 3. Another man of Gad in David's army (t Citron. xii :13). (B. C. before moo.) 4. A Benjamite, who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chron. xii :4). (B. C. to53.) 5. A chief of the trans-Jordanic half-tribe of Manasseh (i Chron. v :24). (B. C. 782.) 6. Son of Habaziniah, and father of Jaazaniah, the Rechabite, whom the prophet tested with the proffer of wine (Jer. xxxv :3). (B. C. before bo6.) 7. A priest, head of one of the courses of tetn ple worship (Neh. xii :I, 34)• 8. One of the trumpet players at the celebration of the newly repaired walls of Jerusalem. Ap parently the same as the one who signed the cove nant with Jeremiah (Neli. x:2), and perhaps identical with (7). (B. C. 446-41o.) 9. Jeremiah the Prophet. Son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin (Jer.
(See ANATHOTH.) Many have supposed that his father was the high-priest of the same name (2 Kings xxii :8), who found the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah. This, however, seems improbable on several grounds— first, there is nothing in the writings of Jeremiah to lead us to think that his father was more than an ordinary priest ('Hilkiah [one] of the priests,' Jer. i :I) ; again, the name Hilkiah was common amongst the Jews (see 2 Kings xviii :18; Chron. vi :45 ; xxvi :it ; Neh. viii :4 ; Jer. xxix :3) ; and, lastly, his residence at Anathoth is evidence that Ile belonged to the line of Abiathar (i Kings ii :26 35), who was deposed from the high-priest's office by Solomon ; after which time the office appears to have remained in the line of Zadok.
(1) Early Life. Jeremiah was very young when the wnrd of the Lord first came to him (ch. i :6). This event took place in the thirteenth year of Josiah (B. C. 629), whilst the youthful prophet still lived at Anathoth. It would seem that he remained in his native city several years, but at length, in order to escape the persecution of his fellow townsmen (ch. xi:21), and even of his own family (ch. xii :6), as well as to have a wider field for his exertions, he left Anathoth and took up his residence at Jerusalem.
(2) Ally of Josiah. The finding of the book of the law, five years after the commencement of his predictions, must have produced a powerful influence on the mind of Jeremiah, and king Josiah no doubt found him a powerful ally in carrying into effect the reformation of religious worship (2 Kings xxiii :1-25). During the reign of this monarch, we may readily believe that Jere miah would be in no way molested in his work; and that from the time of his quitting Anathoth to the eighteenth year of his ministry, he prob ably tittered his warnings without interruption, though with little success (see ch. xi). Indeed. the reformation itself was nothing more than the forcible repression of idolatrous and heathen rites, and the re-establishment of the external service of God, by the command of the king. No sooner, therefore, was the influence of the court on behalf of the true religion withdrawn, than it was evident that no real improvement had taken place in the minds of the people. Jeremiah,
who hitherto was at-least protected by the influ ence of the pious king Josiah, soon became the object of attack, as he must doubtless have long been the object of dislike, to those whose inter ests were identified with the corruptions of re ligion.
(3) Relations to Jehoahaz and Sehoiakim. We hear nothing of the prophet during the three months which constituted the short reign of Jehoahaz; but 'in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim' the prophet was interrupted in his mIntstry by 'the priests and the prophets,' who with the populace brought hitn before the civil au thorities, urging that capital punishment should be inflicted on him for his threatenings of evil on the city unless the people amended their ways (ch. xxvi). The princes seem to have been in some degree aware of the results which the gen eral corruption was bringing on the state, and if they did not themselves yield to the exhortations of the prophet, they acknowledged that he spoke in the name of the Lord, and were quite averse from so openly renouncing His authority as to put His messenger to death. It appears, how ever, that it was rather owing to the personal in fluence of one or two, especially Ahikam, than to any general feeling favorable to Jeremiah, that his life was preserved ; and it would seem that he was then either placed under restraint, or else was in so much danger from the animosity of his adversaries as to make it prudent for him not to appear in public. In the fourth year of Jehoia kim (B. C. 6o6) he was commanded to write the predictions which had been given through him, and to read them to the people. Because he was 'shut up,' and could not himself go into the house of the Lord (ch. xxxvi:5) he therefore deputed Baruch to write the predictions after him, and to read them publicly on the fast-day. These threat enings being thus anew made public, Baruch was summoned before the princes to give an account of the manner in which the roll containing them had come into his possession. The princes, who, without strength of principle to oppose the wick edness of the king, had sufficient respect for re ligion, as well as sagacity enough to discern the importance of listening to the voice of God's prophet, advised both Baruch and Jeremiah to conceal themselves, whilst' they endeavored to in fluence the mind of the king by reading the roll to him. The result showed that their precautions were not needless. The bold self-will and reck less daring of the monarch refused to listen to any advice, even though coming with the professed sanction of the Most High. Having read three or four leaves 'he cut the roll with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed,' and gave im mediate orders for the apprehension of Jeremiah and Baruch, who, however, were both preserved from the vindictive monarch. Of the history of Jeremiah during the eight or nine remaining years of the reign of Jehoiakim we have no cer tain account. At the command of God he pro cured another roll, in which he wrote all that was in the roll destroyed by the king, 'and added besides unto them many like words' (ch. xxxvi :32).