JEREDILA.H, the name of eight men mentioned in the Old Testament, the only very notable one being Jeremiah the prophet. He was of priestly descent, and born or resident at Anathoth, about 3 miles from Jerusalem. His father's name was Hilkiah. When called to the prophetic office, in the 13th year of King Josiah, B. C. 629 or 625, he calls himself a child. His prophetic life spanned the llth of King Zedekiah, about B. c. 588, a period of 37 or 41 years. At that time Judah found itself between two powerful kingdoms, Babylon on the E. and Egypt on the S. Josiah espoused the Babylonian alliance, and lost his life fighting against the Egyptians. Jere miah also was on the Babylonian side, and, when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah was treated with kindness by the conqueror, being offered the option of an honorable posi tion in Babylon or permission to remain in his own land. Jeremiah elected to stay, and found Gedaliah appointed ruler by the Chaldeans. On the murder of that governor the assassins and their sympathizers fled to Egypt, taking Jere miah with them. Tradition says that he
was put to death in Egypt for preaching against idolatry. He wrote two Old Testament books, the prophecies of Jere miah and the Lamentations. Many ra tionalistic critics attribute to him also the book of Deuteronomy.
The Prophecies of Jeremiah.—One of the canonical books of the Old Testa ment, the second of the greater prophets. The several predictions are not in chrono logical order, though it is believed by some critics that an arrangement of an other character is discernible. The con cluding chapter, an historical one, is evi dently from another hand—the Hebrew and . Septuagint differ considerably. Jeremiah xxxi: 15 is quoted in the New Testament in Matt. ii: 18, and Jer. xxxi: 31-34, in Heb. viii: 8-12. The quota tion from Jeremy the prophet in Matt. xxvii: 9 is now found only in Zech. xi: 12, 13.