Jeremiah, the second of the four greatest prophets of the Bible, was born in the town of Anathoth, located 4 km from Jerusalem. His father was a Levite, that is, a hereditary priest. Subsequently, Jeremiah also had to enter the service in the temple. However, the young man chose a different path for himself - he became a prophet.
Destiny
According to legend, the prophet Jeremiah, whose biography will be briefly presented below, embarked on the path of piety at the behest of the Lord himself. According to legend, Jehovah first appeared to him at the age of 15. The Lord told the young man that he had chosen him as a prophet even before his birth. At first, Jeremiah refused God's offer, citing, first of all, his tongue-tied tongue. Then the Lord touched his lips and said, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth." After that, the young man accepted the gift of the prophet and carried it for 40 years of his life.
Sermons and instructions
The first meeting of the Lord with Jeremiah took place around 626 BC, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the righteous king Josiah. Jerusalem was already a very large city, and therea huge temple in which a huge number of professing the Jewish faith gathered for the holidays.
Apparently, it was in this large cult building, from which nothing remains today, that Jeremiah preached. The prophet (a photo of the mountain on which the Jerusalem temple once stood can be seen above), judging by the available information, proclaimed the word of God also in the squares, at the gates, and even in the king's house. Unlike the various false prophets who preached in Jerusalem at that time, Jeremiah did not encourage or praise the Jewish people. On the contrary, he vehemently denounced his unrighteousness and transgressions. He reproached the high priests for hypocrisy, declaring that since there is no sincere faith in God in their hearts, the magnificent expensive rites they conduct are a waste of time. He denounced the prophet and the crowd, accusing them of idolatry. In those days, many Jews were engaged in carving figurines of foreign gods from wood and stone and praying to them, as well as making sacrifices.
Hostile attitude of compatriots
Jeremiah is a prophet, and this title in Judah has always been considered very high. Such people were usually obeyed and revered. However, despite this, the attitude towards the saint because of his intractability and strictness in Jerusalem was not very good. After all, few people will like the fact that he is constantly accused of something and accused of complete unbelief. Among other things, the prophet Jeremiah also predicted the imminent decline of Jerusalem if the Jews did not repent and turn to God. This, of course, also called to himthe hostility of the nobility and the crowd.
Even his family eventually abandoned the prophet. However, he apparently spent his entire life not in Jerusalem itself or anywhere else, but in his native city, Anathoth. This place, by the way, has survived to this day. Now it is called Anata. Fellow citizens both in Anathoth and in Jerusalem hated Jeremiah and laughed at him, asking: “Where is the Word of the Lord? When will it come to us?”.
Righteous rulers
The death of the pious King Josiah was a real blow to the saint, who foresaw the onset of troubled times. In honor of this event, the prophet Jeremiah, whose life can be an example for both believing Jews and Christians, even wrote a special song-lamentation. And indeed, in the future, the country was ruled by a not too pious and intelligent king. True, after Josiah, the rather kind and God-abiding Jehoahaz also ascended the throne. However, he reigned, unfortunately, not for long - only three months. Jehoahaz was the younger son of the deceased Josiah and ascended the throne bypassing his older brother Joachim. Historically, it is known that he broke off relations with the pharaoh of Egypt, Necho II, due to the defeat of the latter near the Babylonian city of Harran. Angry at this, the treacherous ruler summoned Jehoahaz to his headquarters in the city of Ribla, allegedly for negotiations, but captured him and sent him to Egypt, where he later died.
The prophet Jeremiah grieved about this king even more than about Josiah, urging the Jews in his next song to “pity not the dead, but the one who is morewill never return to his native land.”
A terrible prophecy
Submit to the will of God to the Jews was advised by many biblical prophets. Jeremiah is no exception in this regard. After Joahaz, the protégé of Necho II, Joachim, ascended the throne of Judea, vowing to be a faithful vassal of Egypt. The reign of this ruler became a real curse for the prophet Jeremiah. Soon after his accession to the throne, the saint came to Jerusalem and announced that if the Jews did not repent and submit to the will of God, turning to the young, but rapidly gaining strength state of Babylonia, the city would soon be captured by foreigners, and its inhabitants would be taken captive for 70 years. The prophet also predicted the destruction of the main shrine of the Jews - the Jerusalem Temple. Of course, his words aroused particular discontent among false prophets and priests. The saint was captured and presented to the court of the people and the nobility, who demanded his death. However, the prophet still managed to escape. His noble friend Ahikam and some other princes favored by him helped him.
The book of prophecy and the king
Some time after these unpleasant events, Jeremiah's disciple Baruch collected all the prophecies he had made into one book and read them before the people in the vestibule of the Jerusalem temple. Having heard about this, King Joachim wished to personally familiarize himself with these records. After he read them, a terrible anger fell upon the head of the prophet. Court eyewitnesses said that the ruler personally cut off pieces from the scroll with records of Jeremiah's predictions and burned them inthe fire of the brazier in front of him until he completely destroyed the book.
After that, the life of the prophet Jeremiah became especially difficult. He and his disciple Baruch had to hide from the wrath of Joachim in a secret shelter. However, here the saints did not waste time and recreated the lost book, adding other prophecies to it.
The meaning of Jeremiah's predictions
Thus, Jeremiah is a prophet, the main idea of all whose predictions was that the Jews should submit to the then young, but rapidly gaining strength, state of Babylonia. The saint urged the nobility and the ruler to turn away from Egypt and not bring terrible misfortunes to Judea. Of course, no one believed him. Many considered him even a spy for Babylonia. After all, Egypt was the strongest state in those days, and no one could even imagine that some young country would cause disasters for its vassals. Jeremiah's calls only irritated the Jews and turned against him.
Fall of Judah
Destruction of the scroll with unpleasant for him predictions did not help the unrighteous king Joachim, who spent all his time in unbridled amusements. In 605 BC. e. At the Battle of Carchemish, the young Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar inflicted a crushing defeat on the Egyptian troops. The Jews, who did not heed the words of Jeremiah, of course, participated in this battle as vassals of Necho II.
When Nebuchadnezzar approached the walls of Jerusalem, King Joachim had to pay off part of the temple treasures from him and give his sons as hostagesmany noble people of Judea. After the Babylonians left, the unrighteous ruler continued his carefree life.
In 601 B. C. e. Nebuchadnezzar undertook another campaign against Egypt. However, Necho the Second managed to repulse him this time. The king of Judea, Joachim, took advantage of this to finally break with Babylonia. Insulted, Nebuchadnezzar, who by that time had already subjugated Ammon and Moab, moved on to Jerusalem. In 598 BC. e. the city was taken by him, its ruler was killed, and the temple was destroyed. Jeremiah's prophecy came true. As he predicted, the Jews who were driven to Babylonia subsequently spent 70 years in captivity.
Jeremiah is a prophet who, as already mentioned, lived just a few kilometers from the walls of Jerusalem and for many years had the opportunity to admire its majestic outlines. The pictures of the ruined city and the temple deeply struck him. The prophet expressed all his pain and sorrow in a special poetic text. The latter is officially included in the Bible and is called "Lamentations of Jeremiah".
Death of a prophet
What happened to Jeremiah after the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar is not known for certain. According to available data, the king of Babylonia generously allowed the saint to remain in his homeland. The governor of Judea, Gedaliah, appointed by him, even favored the prophet and defended him in every possible way. However, after the death of this governor, Jeremiah's enemies forcibly took him to Egypt. It is believed that in this country, angry Jews out of revenge killed the saint by stoning him.
Attitude towards the prophet in other religions
Christianity evaluates Jeremiah as the second of the main prophets of the Bible and at the same time honors him as a saint. Approximately the same attitude exists towards him in Judaism. Jews also consider him the second most important prophet, but he is not considered a saint. Prophet Jeremiah is not particularly revered in Islam. It is not mentioned in the Quran. However, like many other nations, Muslims know about him and revere him as a prophet of the Old Testament.
To whom the prophet Jeremiah likens the Jewish people
Jeremiah's predictions are thus mostly connected with the political events that took place during his lifetime. However, much attention is paid to the moral side in his sermons and instructions. The Prophet sincerely believed that it was possible to avoid future misfortunes only by repenting and submitting to the will of God.
He likens the Jewish people to an apostate who does not know what he is doing. Jeremiah compares all the Jewish ancestors who renounced the faith of that time to a bundle of firewood that will flare up and burn from the word of God alone.
The prophet, in spite of everything, assigns a special role to the Jewish people as God's chosen one. However, at the same time, he compares it not only with a bundle of firewood that is about to catch fire, but also with a clay pot. This is evidenced by a significant incident that happened to the prophet. One day, walking through the streets of Jerusalem, he approached a potter, took one of the pots from him and smashed it on the ground, prophesying about the imminent death of Judah and comparing it with this fragile vessel.
Jeremiah's predictions today
Thus, we found out what the prophet Jeremiah preached about. First of all, the prophet called to forget about pride and draw closer to God. Currently, he is one of the most revered saints, including in Christianity. The story of his life and the predictions he made are set out in the "Book of the Prophet Jeremiah", which will not be difficult to find and read if desired.
Lamentations of Jeremiah
Jeremiah is a prophet, especially revered by Christians. His work, known as The Lamentations of Jeremiah, is, as already mentioned, part of the Bible. This sacred book contains only five songs. The first, second and fourth have 22 verses, each of which begins and is designated by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The third canto contains 66 verses divided into three groups. The verses in them also begin with consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The fifth song also consists of 22 verses, but in this case they are not ordered by letter numbering.
Jeremiah (the prophet), whose years of life were spent in Anathoth and Jerusalem, in the first song of "Lamentation" with great sorrow tells about the leading of the Jews to the Babylonian captivity and the death of Zion. In the second, the prophet analyzes what happened, calling the misfortune that happened to the country a well-deserved punishment of God. The third ode is a manifestation of the highest sorrow of the saint. Only at the end of this part does the prophet express hope for the mercy of God. In the fourth part of "Lamentation" the prophet moderates the bitterness of grief over the lost city by realizing his own guilt before the Lord. In the fifth song, the saint achieves complete calm, accepts what happened asgiven and expresses hope for the best.
So you now know to whom the prophet Jeremiah likens the Jewish people and what he preached about. This ancient biblical saint lived in troubled hard times, but despite this and the sorrows that befell him personally and all of Judea as a whole, he remained faithful to the God of his ancestors. Therefore, it can serve as an example for all Christians and Jews.
