Overview
Jeremiah records the prophetic ministry of the weeping prophet who proclaimed God's judgment upon Judah during the final decades before the Babylonian exile. Its fifty-two chapters combine biographical narrative, poetic oracles, prose sermons, and symbolic actions into a powerful testimony of faithful proclamation against overwhelming opposition.
Jeremiah warned for forty years that Judah's persistent idolatry and injustice would bring destruction—a message that earned him imprisonment, persecution, and near-death. The fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC vindicated his prophecies, though at a cost no prophet would wish to bear.
Yet Jeremiah is also the prophet of the new covenant (chapter 31), promising a future when God would write His law upon the hearts of His people. This prophecy, quoted at length in Hebrews, finds its fulfillment in Christ and stands as one of the most significant theological contributions of the entire Old Testament.
Historical Background
Jeremiah son of Hilkiah was a priest from Anathoth in Benjamin who prophesied from approximately 626 to 586 BC. His scribe Baruch recorded and compiled many of his oracles. The prophet witnessed the fall of Jerusalem and was taken unwillingly to Egypt.
The historical setting spans the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, encompassing Josiah's reform, the rise of Babylon, and the destruction of Jerusalem. The book addresses Judah in its final days and the early exilic community.
Jeremiah is the second of the Major Prophets in the Christian canon. In the Hebrew ordering, it sometimes precedes or follows Ezekiel among the Latter Prophets. The book is the longest in the Bible by word count.
Devotional
Jeremiah's calling reveals a God who knows His servants before they are formed in the womb. The prophet's objection—I am but a child—met the same divine response that every reluctant servant receives: I am with thee. God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
For forty years, Jeremiah preached to a people who refused to listen. His faithfulness in the face of persistent rejection challenges every comfortable assumption about ministry. Success in God's economy is measured not by results but by obedience. The prophet's tears were not a sign of weakness but of a heart aligned with God's own grief over sin.
The promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 stands as a watershed in redemptive history. No longer would God's law be merely external, engraved on tablets of stone. It would be written on the heart—internalized, personalized, transformative. This is the covenant ratified by Christ's blood at the Last Supper.
Jeremiah purchased a field in Anathoth even as Jerusalem fell—an act of defiant hope. In the darkest moment, the prophet invested in the future God had promised. Faith sometimes looks foolish to the world, but it sees further than the present crisis.
Chapters
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth i...
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another ma...
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt...
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and s...
O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusal...
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Jud...
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might wee...
Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of...
Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy...
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. the dearth: He...
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind...
The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond:...
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancie...
Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house...
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto hi...
Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there...
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith...
The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple...
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth...
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came...
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came...
And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah kin...
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusa...
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israe...
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king...
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was y...
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Bab...
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son...
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Ju...
And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiak...
Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the...
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadre...
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzaradan the captain...
Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the...
Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah...
And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the...
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land o...
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he...
The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,...
Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for...
Concerning the Ammonites , thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no...
The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldea...
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them t...
Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned ele...