Jeremiah was a prophet-priest living in Jerusalem in the late 7th century BC. He warned the people of Judah of impending judgment, eventually prophesying of the capture of Jerusalem by Babylon. And He lived long enough to see the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. He then spoke of the future of Jerusalem after the Babylon itself was defeated.
The Setting
After preaching in Jerusalem for some twenty years, Jeremiah is told by YHWH to collect his sermons and sayings and write them down. (See chapter 36.) Jeremiah's prophecies, a century after those of Isaiah, had a similar message, but as Isaiah warned the northern kingdom of destruction, Jeremiah warned the southern kingdom of judgment and destruction. Both prophets saw a bright future for Israel, far beyond the coming storms. (The prophet Ezekiel spoke after Jeremiah, and like Jeremiah, he too spoke of judgment and renewal. However, Ezekiel was late enough to personally experience the Babylonian captivity and speak from Babylon.
Jeremiah's prophecies and messages carry grief as he warns his people and weeps over them.
Outline
Jeremiah is difficult to outline, as it consists of a collection of stories about the life of Jeremiah and his messages. Follow the Bible Project, we might break the book into three pieces:
- Jer. 1-25, Before the exile
- Jer. 26-45, Stories of Despair and Hope
- Jer. 46-52, Judgment of the Nations
Resources and References
My practice is to read through the text from the New International Version (NIV), copied into the blog and italicized in blue. At the head of each blue paragraph of text I place a short title; after the text I place my thoughts or comments in black. I begin this process with my own reactions and thoughts and then supplement these comments with gleanings from a commentary or two. I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window (and go down a rabbit hole if one wishes!)
For the book of Jeremiah, I have relied on a number of commentaries:
- Derek Kidner (whose study in the Psalms has been a favorite of mine for five decades) is author of The Message of Jeremiah, InterVarsity Press, 1987.
- One commentary is the chapter by Charles L. Feinberg in volume 6, of The Expositors Bible Commentary series, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein.
- A somewhat old commentary is simply called Jeremiah, by Theodore Laetsch, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1965.
There are other resources online.
- Amongst the online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, is a set of commentaries by Hilda Bright:
- Jer. 1-10, The Sins of God’s People
- Jer. 11-20, God’s People do not Obey the Covenant
- Jer. 21-33, False Prophets and the Message of the True Prophet
- Jer. 34-39, What the King of Babylon did to Zedekiah and to Jerusalem
- Jer. 40-44, The People Decide to go to Egypt
- Jer. 45-52, Final Prophecies and Final Words
There are additional materials here. (The Easy English Bible commentaries are easy to read, with deliberately simple language intended for those for whom English is a second language. The Old Testament text is included in the commentary.)
- The Gospel Coalition now has a set of online commentaries. Here is a commentary on Jeremiah by Matthew H. Patton.
- Ligonier Ministries (by R. C. Sproul) has a list of their top five commentaries on Jeremiah.
I highly recommend the Bible Project. Their short video on Jeremiah is here. They have some additional resources here.
Originally scheduled January 19, 2025; updated November 3, 2025
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