JEREMIAH orovr and nyl,, raised up or appointed by Cod ; Sept. 'Iepel.cias). I. LIFE.
The prophet Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin [ANA THOTH]. Many have supposed that his father was the high-priest of the same name (2 Kings xxii. S), who found the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah (Umbreit, Praktischer Commentar Tiber den yeremia, p. x. ; see Carpzov, hztrod. part p. 130). 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) ;—again, the name Hilkiah was common amongst the Jews (see 2 Kings xviii. IS ; Chron. vi. 45, xxvi. 11 ; Neh. viii. 4 ; Jer. xxix. 3) ;—and lastly, his residence at Anathoth is evidence that he belonged to the line of Abiathar (1 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. Jeremiah was very young when the word 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 vvould seem that he re mained 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. The finding of the book of the law, five years after the commencement of his predictions, must have produced a powerful in fluence 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 Jeremiah 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 probably uttered 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-estab lishment of the external service of God, by the command of the kin,g. No sooner, therefore, was the influence of the court on behalf of the true re ligion withdrawn, than it was evident that no real improvement had taken place in the minds of the people. Jeremiah, who hitherto was at least pro
tected by the influence 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 interests were identified with the cor niptions of religion. 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 inter rupted in his ministry by the priests and the pro phets,' who with the populace brought him before the civil authorities, 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 general 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, however, that it was rather owing to the personal influence of one or two, especially Ahikam, than to any general feeling favourable 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 Jehoiakim (B. c. 606) he was commanded to write the predictions which had been given through him, and to read them to the people. From the cause, probably, which we have intimated above, he was, as he says, 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 threatenings being thus anew made public, Baruch was sum moned 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 wicked ness of the king, had sufficient respect for relig,ion, as well as sagacity enough to discern the import ance of listening to the voice of God's prophet, ad vised both Baruch and Jeremiah to conceal them.