Prophets
יִרְמְיָהוּ
Jeremiah
Warning, siege, and fall, with more of the prophet's own distress on the page than anywhere else.
Hebrew nameYirmeyahu, meaning the lord exaltsChapters52Position6 of 8 in Prophets
Read it
Open chapter 1What is in it
Jeremiah speaks into the last decades before Jerusalem falls and is disbelieved, imprisoned and thrown into a cistern for it. The book keeps his complaints in, including the ones addressed against God.
It also contains the clearest statement in the Hebrew Bible of a covenant written inside people rather than on tablets.
If you read one chapter
Jeremiah 20:7 to 18
The most unguarded thing any prophet says about the job.
Passages worth knowing
- Jeremiah 1:4 to 10The call, and the objection that he is too young.
- Jeremiah 7The temple sermon: do not trust in these buildings.
- Jeremiah 20:7 to 18The confession, and the curse on his own birthday.
- Jeremiah 29:4 to 7Build houses in the city you were carried to, and seek its peace.
- Jeremiah 31:31 to 34A covenant written on the heart.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Jeremiah 29 tells exiles to settle and pray for their captors' city. What does that ask of them?
- 02
Why keep a prophet's accusations against God in the book?