Bible Study: Old Testament Books
Jeremiah, aka Jeremias
In Hebrew Yirme-Yahu, or, in an abbreviated form,
Yirme-Yah, "Jah (the Lord) is exalted."
Jeremiah prophesied from the thirteenth year of Josias (639-608 B.C.), i.e. from 627 B.C., till after the Fall of Jerusalem in 588. When the Chaldeans took the city, they treated Jeremiah with the greatest respect and gave him leave either to go to Babylon or to stay in Palestine, chapters 39-40. He chose to remain with the remnant of the Jews in Palestine, but in spite of his opposition he was carried by them into Egypt (Jeremiah 43), where he continued to prophesy, 43-44. According to one tradition he was stoned to death by these same Jews in Egypt; according to another, he was taken to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor when the latter ravaged Egypt in accordance with Jeremiah's own prophecy. If 4 Kings 25 was written by the Prophet, as many have thought, he may have lived there till the reign of Evil-Merodach, the successor of Nabuchodonosor, in 562 B.C.
After the death of Josias in a futile attempt to withstand Pharaoh Nechao in his attack on the Assyrians, events moved on apace. Nineveh fell in 606 B.C., Nabopolassar inaugurated the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and his son Nabuchodonosor succeeded him in 605; Joachaz, son of Josias, was taken prisoner by Nechao in 608, and his brother Eliachim (Joachim), was set upon the throne by the Egyptian monarch, only, however, to fall into the hands of the Babylonians shortly after; after three years of vassalage, he rebelled and was punished by an incursion of the Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites, and Chaldees. Egypt was powerless being crushed by the Babylonians, and when in 597 Nabuchodonosor came up against Joachin son of Joachim and carried him away to Babylon, there was no one to say him nay. The vessels of the Temple were carried off, and an immense number of the nobility went with them into exile. Sedecias (Matthanias) was placed upon the throne by the Babylonians, but foolishly rebelled; hence, in the ninth year of his reign, 588, began the final siege of the city by the forces of Nabuchodonosor, and in the fifth month of his eleventh year it fell. Sedecias fled, but was captured, and the last king of the stock of David was blinded by the king of Babylon after his sons had been put to death before his eyes.
During all these stirring times, Jeremiah had not been silent. When Nineveh fell in 606, he foretold that the nation of the Jews would go into captivity in Babylon and would remain there seventy years -- and this in spite of the fact that, only a few years before, an Egyptian king had claimed suzerainty over Palestine by dethroning one king and setting up another. These seventy years were thus practically contemporary with the duration of the Neo-Babylonian Empire which -- inaugurated after the fall of Nineveh -- succumbed in 538 to the forces of Cyrus, the Jews being allowed to return in 536 B.C.
One broad division might be made as follows:
Chapters 1-45: Prophecies relating to home affairs.
Chapters 46-51: Those relating to foreign affairs.
Chapter 52: Supplementary historical chapter.
Such a division though convenient is misleading. A more useful one would be:
Chapters 1 to 3:5. Introduction.
Chapters 3:6 to 24. Prophecies and sermons of the time of Josias, i.e., from 627-608 B.C.
Chapters 25:1-13, 46-51, 25:15-23, Prophecies against the nations.
Chapters 26-38. Prophecies subsequent to the time of Josias, i.e. from 608-586 B.C.
Chapter 39: An epilogue; the actual capture of the city.
Chapters 40-45; 52: An appendix, treating of the events which followed upon the fall of the city.
It will be noticed that above we have inserted chapters 45-51. between verses 13 and 15 of chapter 25. These chapters contain the various prophecies against the nations. In Isaiah and Ezechiel similar prophecies against the Gentiles occur in the center of the book, viz. Isaiah 13-28; Ezechiel 25-32. Jeremiah 25 appears to give a summary view of these prophecies, and it seems natural to assign them a place in this chapter. This has actually been done by the Greek translators who insert these prophecies between verses 13 and 15, verse 14 being omitted. The Septuagint (LXX), indeed, presents us with a text of Jeremiah which differs remarkably from the present Hebrew text. It is calculated that it is at least one eighth shorter than the Hebrew; this is of interest when we reflect that the Old Latin version was made from it, and was the one used by the Fathers antecedent to St. Jerome. These omissions by the LXX are very striking. We give here some of the more remarkable:
Jeremiah 10:5-8, 10 11:7-8 17:1-4 27:13-14, 19-22 29:16-20 30:10-11 33:14-26 34:11 39:4-13 51:44-49
Nor are there merely omissions; a comparison of the Greek and Hebrew (Vulgate) texts of chapter 27 will show that nearly every verse has been cut down in a systematic fashion. Thus nearly 2700 words of the original text are omitted in the Greek version. Such a fact calls for explanation, and various theories have been put forward to account for it. Before, however, detailing some of these theories, it will be well to notice certain difficulties in the present arrangement of the Hebrew, and therefore of the Vulgate text. These will best appear from an attempt to arrange the prophecies chronologically.
As far as can be gathered from the contents of the various chapters, the prophecies may be divided up as follows:
Chapters 1-20: Prophecies in the time of Josias.
Chapter 26: may be referred to the first year of Joachim, viz. 608 B.C.; but cf. Jeremiah 28:1, where the beginning of the reign of Sedecias is also termed his fourth year.
Chapters 25, 35-36, 45-46: these are assigned to the fourth year of Joachim, i.e. 605 B.C.
Chapters 21-24 are referred to Sedecias.
Chapter 27 is referred to Joachim, but the whole context, cf. verses 12 and 20, seems to demand that we should read Sedecias instead of Joachim.
Chapters 29-31 are assigned to the first year of Sedecias.
Chapter 28 to his fourth year.
Chapter 32-34 and 39 belong to his tenth or eleventh year.
This confusion in the chronological arrangement shows us that the book has undergone considerable editing; and this conclusion is fully borne out by the state of the Greek text already referred to. Origen (Ep. to Africanus) remarked this long ago: "in Jeremiah we found much transposition and alteration of the words of the prophecies." Some have been inclined to regard these differences between the texts as due to the existence of two or more editions of the prophecies; the existence of such editions seems indicated by chapters 30:2, 36:2, 23, and 32. But it seems clear that the changes existing are due to deliberate action on the part of some editor, thus note particularly the variations between the two texts of chapter 27 referred to above, and the place assigned in the Hebrew (Vulgate) and Greek texts to the Prophecies against the nations. Hence it seems more in accordance with the facts to allow the existence of two separate editions of the Hebrew text, one of them lying at the base of the Greek translation, the other at the base of the present Massoretic Hebrew text. In confirmation of this it should be noted that the LXX translation is as a rule exceedingly servile in this book. Hence it is legitimate to argue that they translated carefully what they had before them. It may be convenient to give here the order of the chapters according to the LXX
Many of his striking expressions have passed into ordinary speech; cf. such passages as: Jeremiah 2:13, 6:30, 8:20, 8:22, 11:19, 12:5, 13:23, 20:14, 20:18, 22:24-30, 23:23-29, 25:16, 29:12-13, 31:3, 31:29, 48:44.
The Rabbins called Jeremiah "the Prophet of desolation," but this term only conveys a half truth. It was indeed his mission "to root up, to pull down, and to destroy," but no one of the Prophets, not even excepting Isaiah, has left us such gems of consolation. Thus the Isaianic doctrine of "the Remnant" fills a large place in Jeremiah prophecies: Jeremiah 5:18, 6:9, 9:24, 15:11, 29:12, 42:19, and all of chapters 30 and 31.
And though there is no such section as the "Comfort ye" of Isaiah, yet the doctrine of the Messiah and of a Messianic kingdom is insisted on again and again: Jeremiah 3:17-19, 14:8-9, 17:13, 17:24-26, 22:4, 23:5, 30:9-24, 31:22, 32:37-44, 33:6-26, 46:27-28.
Jeremiah 30:9, 33:15, 33:21;
Jeremiah 8:8, 31:7, 18:18, 26:4, 31:33.
And compare:
Jeremiah 2:6 with Deuteronomy 32:10, Jeremiah 5:15 with Deuteronomy 28:49, Jeremiah 7:3 with Deuteronomy 28:26, etc.
Modern critics claim that we have here a proof that Deuteronomy was composed, not merely discovered, in the time of Jeremiah, but the fact that it was discovered at that time is quite sufficient explanation of Jeremiah's familiarity with Deuteronomy. Indeed the Prophet's familiarity with other portions of the Bible has never received adequate attention from Biblical critics; in the following parallels it is not always easy to say where the priority lies:
by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.
Jeremiah prophesied from the thirteenth year of Josias (639-608 B.C.), i.e. from 627 B.C., till after the Fall of Jerusalem in 588. When the Chaldeans took the city, they treated Jeremiah with the greatest respect and gave him leave either to go to Babylon or to stay in Palestine, chapters 39-40. He chose to remain with the remnant of the Jews in Palestine, but in spite of his opposition he was carried by them into Egypt (Jeremiah 43), where he continued to prophesy, 43-44. According to one tradition he was stoned to death by these same Jews in Egypt; according to another, he was taken to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor when the latter ravaged Egypt in accordance with Jeremiah's own prophecy. If 4 Kings 25 was written by the Prophet, as many have thought, he may have lived there till the reign of Evil-Merodach, the successor of Nabuchodonosor, in 562 B.C.
The Political Situation
As in the case of Isaiah, it is necessary to grasp the state of affairs in the eastern world if we would understand the prophecies of Jeremiah. The following genealogical table will show the relationships of the kings of Judah under whom he prophesied:The reign of Ezechias in the previous century had been glorious. The Assyrians had been driven back at his prayer, and Israel seemed to have turned to God with their whole hearts. But the long and iniquitous reign of Manasses, 696-641 B.C., had undone all the good wrought by his father. Hence the wrath of God was upon the nation, Jeremiah 15:1-5; but, as always, He gave them a time for repentance, and raised up the pious king Josias and the prophet Jeremiah to warn and instruct the apostate people. From the outset the Prophet knows that the case of Israel is hopeless: "I have set thee this day," said the Lord, when He gave him his commission, "over the nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to pull down, and to waste and to destroy; and to build and to plant." The situation was complex. Isaiah had insisted on the inviolability of God's Temple, Isaiah 37:33-35; Isaiah 31:4; etc., and his prophecies had been fulfilled. Moreover, he had declared that even though the Assyrian was God's chosen instrument of vengeance: yet "Blessed be My people of Egypt, and the work of My hands to the Assyrian, but Israel is My inheritance." When Jeremiah began to prophesy, Assyria was but a shadow and the Chaldeans but a name; hence the temptation was great to disregard them both, and fancy that as God had done in the days of Ezechias so would He do now. Hence the fanatical trust which the people reposed in the Temple; as long as that existed there could be no fear for Judah, Jeremiah 7 and Jeremiah 26. In the time of Isaiah the people's hopes lay in Egypt, and an active body of counselors urged an alliance with that country; in the days of Jeremiah there seem to have been few active politicians; on the contrary, a spirit of apathetic and blind confidence prevailed. It is this that gives the peculiar tone to Jeremiah prophecies. He sees in the light of God the coming catastrophe, he realizes that it is well merited, but he loves his nation with a passionate love and grieves for their blindness. Hence the pathetic prayers which form so striking a feature of the whole book, cf. for example, 14:19-22. Always regarded as a figure of Our Lord in his sufferings, he is especially so in the mournful outlook he has upon the Jewish world; we might assign to him as his motto: "If thou also hadst known the things that are to thy peace, but now they are hidden from thine eyes because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation."
Josias
639-608 B.C.Joachaz
608Joachim
(Eliachim)
608-597Sedecias
(Matthanias)
597-586Joachin
(Jechonias)
597
After the death of Josias in a futile attempt to withstand Pharaoh Nechao in his attack on the Assyrians, events moved on apace. Nineveh fell in 606 B.C., Nabopolassar inaugurated the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and his son Nabuchodonosor succeeded him in 605; Joachaz, son of Josias, was taken prisoner by Nechao in 608, and his brother Eliachim (Joachim), was set upon the throne by the Egyptian monarch, only, however, to fall into the hands of the Babylonians shortly after; after three years of vassalage, he rebelled and was punished by an incursion of the Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites, and Chaldees. Egypt was powerless being crushed by the Babylonians, and when in 597 Nabuchodonosor came up against Joachin son of Joachim and carried him away to Babylon, there was no one to say him nay. The vessels of the Temple were carried off, and an immense number of the nobility went with them into exile. Sedecias (Matthanias) was placed upon the throne by the Babylonians, but foolishly rebelled; hence, in the ninth year of his reign, 588, began the final siege of the city by the forces of Nabuchodonosor, and in the fifth month of his eleventh year it fell. Sedecias fled, but was captured, and the last king of the stock of David was blinded by the king of Babylon after his sons had been put to death before his eyes.
During all these stirring times, Jeremiah had not been silent. When Nineveh fell in 606, he foretold that the nation of the Jews would go into captivity in Babylon and would remain there seventy years -- and this in spite of the fact that, only a few years before, an Egyptian king had claimed suzerainty over Palestine by dethroning one king and setting up another. These seventy years were thus practically contemporary with the duration of the Neo-Babylonian Empire which -- inaugurated after the fall of Nineveh -- succumbed in 538 to the forces of Cyrus, the Jews being allowed to return in 536 B.C.
The Prophecies of Jeremiah
Various divisions of the book have been proposed.One broad division might be made as follows:
Chapters 1-45: Prophecies relating to home affairs.
Chapters 46-51: Those relating to foreign affairs.
Chapter 52: Supplementary historical chapter.
Such a division though convenient is misleading. A more useful one would be:
Chapters 1 to 3:5. Introduction.
Chapters 3:6 to 24. Prophecies and sermons of the time of Josias, i.e., from 627-608 B.C.
Chapters 25:1-13, 46-51, 25:15-23, Prophecies against the nations.
Chapters 26-38. Prophecies subsequent to the time of Josias, i.e. from 608-586 B.C.
Chapter 39: An epilogue; the actual capture of the city.
Chapters 40-45; 52: An appendix, treating of the events which followed upon the fall of the city.
It will be noticed that above we have inserted chapters 45-51. between verses 13 and 15 of chapter 25. These chapters contain the various prophecies against the nations. In Isaiah and Ezechiel similar prophecies against the Gentiles occur in the center of the book, viz. Isaiah 13-28; Ezechiel 25-32. Jeremiah 25 appears to give a summary view of these prophecies, and it seems natural to assign them a place in this chapter. This has actually been done by the Greek translators who insert these prophecies between verses 13 and 15, verse 14 being omitted. The Septuagint (LXX), indeed, presents us with a text of Jeremiah which differs remarkably from the present Hebrew text. It is calculated that it is at least one eighth shorter than the Hebrew; this is of interest when we reflect that the Old Latin version was made from it, and was the one used by the Fathers antecedent to St. Jerome. These omissions by the LXX are very striking. We give here some of the more remarkable:
Jeremiah 10:5-8, 10 11:7-8 17:1-4 27:13-14, 19-22 29:16-20 30:10-11 33:14-26 34:11 39:4-13 51:44-49
Nor are there merely omissions; a comparison of the Greek and Hebrew (Vulgate) texts of chapter 27 will show that nearly every verse has been cut down in a systematic fashion. Thus nearly 2700 words of the original text are omitted in the Greek version. Such a fact calls for explanation, and various theories have been put forward to account for it. Before, however, detailing some of these theories, it will be well to notice certain difficulties in the present arrangement of the Hebrew, and therefore of the Vulgate text. These will best appear from an attempt to arrange the prophecies chronologically.
As far as can be gathered from the contents of the various chapters, the prophecies may be divided up as follows:
Chapters 1-20: Prophecies in the time of Josias.
Chapter 26: may be referred to the first year of Joachim, viz. 608 B.C.; but cf. Jeremiah 28:1, where the beginning of the reign of Sedecias is also termed his fourth year.
Chapters 25, 35-36, 45-46: these are assigned to the fourth year of Joachim, i.e. 605 B.C.
Chapters 21-24 are referred to Sedecias.
Chapter 27 is referred to Joachim, but the whole context, cf. verses 12 and 20, seems to demand that we should read Sedecias instead of Joachim.
Chapters 29-31 are assigned to the first year of Sedecias.
Chapter 28 to his fourth year.
Chapter 32-34 and 39 belong to his tenth or eleventh year.
This confusion in the chronological arrangement shows us that the book has undergone considerable editing; and this conclusion is fully borne out by the state of the Greek text already referred to. Origen (Ep. to Africanus) remarked this long ago: "in Jeremiah we found much transposition and alteration of the words of the prophecies." Some have been inclined to regard these differences between the texts as due to the existence of two or more editions of the prophecies; the existence of such editions seems indicated by chapters 30:2, 36:2, 23, and 32. But it seems clear that the changes existing are due to deliberate action on the part of some editor, thus note particularly the variations between the two texts of chapter 27 referred to above, and the place assigned in the Hebrew (Vulgate) and Greek texts to the Prophecies against the nations. Hence it seems more in accordance with the facts to allow the existence of two separate editions of the Hebrew text, one of them lying at the base of the Greek translation, the other at the base of the present Massoretic Hebrew text. In confirmation of this it should be noted that the LXX translation is as a rule exceedingly servile in this book. Hence it is legitimate to argue that they translated carefully what they had before them. It may be convenient to give here the order of the chapters according to the LXX
In fine it should be noted that both the Hebrew and the Greek text are cited in N.T.; thus in Matthew 2:18, we have a citation from 31:15, which only occurs in the Hebrew text; in Hebrews 8:9, on the contrary, we have a quotation from 31:32, which only occurs in the LXX.
LXX VULGATE 32:1-24. = 25:14-38. 33:1-6, 13. = 26:1 -to- 46:13. 51:1-35. = 44:1-30. 26:1-28. = 46:1-28. 29:1-7. = 47:1-7. 21:1-44. = 48:1-47. 30:1-5. = 49:1-5. 29:8-23. = 49:7-22. 30:12-16. = 49:23-27. 30:6-11. = 49:28-33. 25:14-18. = 49:34-39. 27:1 -to- 28:64. = 50:1 -to- 51:64. 52:1-34. = the same. 1:1 -to- 25:13. = the same.
The Style of Jeremiah
He is marked by abrupt transitions which, while involving a certain ruggedness and unevenness, yet contribute not a little to the charm of his prophecies. We cannot do more here than indicate certain points which it will repay the student to examine.Symbolic actions:
Chapters 13, 18, 19.Allusions to the composition of his prophecies:
Jeremiah 25:13, 30:2, 36:2, 36:32.The action of God on the prophets:
Jeremiah 36:18, 42:7.Symbolic visions:
Jeremiah 1:11-18, 24:1-10.Sudden changes of the speaker:
Jeremiah 3:22, 14:20-22.Prayers:
The most exquisite prayers are often suddenly interjected into the midst of his discourses, cf. Jeremiah 3:22-25, 14:8-9, 15:15-18, 16:18, 17:13-18, 20:7-18, 32:17-25.Many of his striking expressions have passed into ordinary speech; cf. such passages as: Jeremiah 2:13, 6:30, 8:20, 8:22, 11:19, 12:5, 13:23, 20:14, 20:18, 22:24-30, 23:23-29, 25:16, 29:12-13, 31:3, 31:29, 48:44.
The Rabbins called Jeremiah "the Prophet of desolation," but this term only conveys a half truth. It was indeed his mission "to root up, to pull down, and to destroy," but no one of the Prophets, not even excepting Isaiah, has left us such gems of consolation. Thus the Isaianic doctrine of "the Remnant" fills a large place in Jeremiah prophecies: Jeremiah 5:18, 6:9, 9:24, 15:11, 29:12, 42:19, and all of chapters 30 and 31.
And though there is no such section as the "Comfort ye" of Isaiah, yet the doctrine of the Messiah and of a Messianic kingdom is insisted on again and again: Jeremiah 3:17-19, 14:8-9, 17:13, 17:24-26, 22:4, 23:5, 30:9-24, 31:22, 32:37-44, 33:6-26, 46:27-28.
References to the Davidic King
These should be noted also:Jeremiah 30:9, 33:15, 33:21;
References to the Chosen People:
Jeremiah 30:22, 31:1, 31:7;References to the divine Fatherhood:
Jeremiah 3:19, 31:9;References to the existence of a written law
This may be argued from such passages as:Jeremiah 8:8, 31:7, 18:18, 26:4, 31:33.
Jeremiah and Deuteronomy
The Prophet is steeped in the spirit of Deuteronomy, and its phraseology is often on his lips, cf. for example, Jeremiah 7:4, 32:34.And compare:
Jeremiah 2:6 with Deuteronomy 32:10, Jeremiah 5:15 with Deuteronomy 28:49, Jeremiah 7:3 with Deuteronomy 28:26, etc.
Modern critics claim that we have here a proof that Deuteronomy was composed, not merely discovered, in the time of Jeremiah, but the fact that it was discovered at that time is quite sufficient explanation of Jeremiah's familiarity with Deuteronomy. Indeed the Prophet's familiarity with other portions of the Bible has never received adequate attention from Biblical critics; in the following parallels it is not always easy to say where the priority lies:
Jeremiah 23:5-6 and 33:15, cf. Isaiah 4:2, 11:2;
Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51, cf. Isaiah 13 and 47;
Jeremiah chapter 48, cf. Isaiah 15;
Jeremiah 10:3-5, cf. Isaiah 40:19-20 and 41:7;
Jeremiah 14:10, cf. Osee 8:13;
Jeremiah 10:25, cf. Psalm 78:6;
Jeremiah 10:13, cf. Psalm 134:7;
Jeremiah 49:7-16, cf. Abdias 1:1-8.
by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.
_____________________________
NIHIL OBSTAT
FR. R. L. JANSEN, O.P.
S. THEOL. LECT.; SCRIPT. S. LICENT. ET PROF.
FR. V. ROWAN
S. THEOL. LECT.; SCRIPT. S. LICENT. ET VET. TEST. PROF. AGGREG.
IN UNIV. FRIBURGENSI (HELVET).
IMPRIMATUR
FRANCISCUS CARDINALIS BOURNE
ARCHIEPISCOPUS WESTMONAST.
NIHIL OBSTAT
FR. R. L. JANSEN, O.P.
S. THEOL. LECT.; SCRIPT. S. LICENT. ET PROF.
FR. V. ROWAN
S. THEOL. LECT.; SCRIPT. S. LICENT. ET VET. TEST. PROF. AGGREG.
IN UNIV. FRIBURGENSI (HELVET).
IMPRIMATUR
FRANCISCUS CARDINALIS BOURNE
ARCHIEPISCOPUS WESTMONAST.