Jeremiah 1:1

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah,.... This is the general title of the whole book, and includes all his discourses, sermons, and prophecies; and designs not his own words, but the words of

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: The General Title or Introduction (Jeremiah 1:1-3); probably prefixed by Jeremiah when he

CHAPTER 1 The pedigree, time, and calling of Jeremiah; confirmed against his excuses, Jeremiah 1:1-10. His visions of an almond rod and a seething pot, Jeremiah 1:11-14. His heavy message against Judah, Jeremiah 1:15,16. God promiseth him his assistance, Jeremiah 1:17-19. The words, i.e. sermons or prophecies, which he received from God, (as being his mouth to declare them unto the people,) and comprised all in the volume of this book going under his name, as the matter and substance of them. See Poole "Isaiah 2:1". The son of Hilkiah: as this serves to distinguish him from other priests, so his being of Anathoth ranks him among the common priests; not that high priest mentioned 2 Kings 22:8, under whose progeny Jeremiah is not named, 1 Chronicles 6:13; who, it is probable, would have been named, being one of so much note, and who always lived at Jerusalem, not at Anathoth, which was a city three miles from Jerusalem, lotted out of the tribe of Benjamin for the priests, Joshua 21:18. Of an ordinary teacher he was made a prophet, not so the rest. In the land of Benjamin, i.e. that part of Canaan that fell to Benjamin's share.

Jeremiah 1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that [were] in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: Ver. 1. The words of Jeremiah.] Piscator rendereth it Acta Ieremiae, The Acts of Jeremiah, as we say, "The Acts of the Apostles," which book also, saith one, might have been called in some sense The Passions of the Apostles, who were for the testimony of Jesus "in deaths often." And the same we may safely say of Jeremiah, who, although he were not omnis criminis per totam vitam expers - which yet great Athanasius affirmeth of him - that is, free from all fault, for he had his outbursts, and himself relateth them, yet he was Iudaeorum integerrimus - as of Phocion it is said that he was Atheniensum integerrimus - a man of singular sanctimony and integrity; good of a little child, a young saint, and an old angel; an admirable preacher, as Keckerman rightly calleth him, and propoundeth him for a pattern to all preachers of the gospel. Nevertheless, this incomparable prophet proved to be a man of many sorrows, πολυπαθεστατος, as Isidor Pelusiot, a most calamitous person, as appeareth by this book, and one that had his share in sufferings from, and fellow sufferings with, his ungrateful countrymen, as much as might be. Nazianzen saith most truly of him, that he was the most compassionate of all the prophets; witness that pathetical wish of his, Jeremiah 9:1-3, "Oh that my head were waters," &c.; and that holy resolve, Jeremiah 13:17, "But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord’ s flock is carried away captive." It was this good man’ s unhappiness to be a physician to a dying state - “ Tunc etenim docta plus valet arte malum. ” Long time he had laboured among this perverse people, but to very small purpose, as himself complaineth, after Isaiah, whom he succeeded in his office as a prophet, some scores of years between, but with little good success. For as in a dying man his eyes wax dim, and all his senses decay, till at length they are utterly lost, so fareth it with commonwealths, quando suis fatis urgentur, when once they are ripe for ruin; the nearer they draw to destruction, the more they are overgrown with blindness, madness, security, obstinace, such as despiseth all remedies, and leaveth no place at all for wholesome advice and admonition. Lo, this was the case of those improbi et reprobi - "reprobate silver shall men call them" - with whom our prophet had to do. Moses had not more to do with the Israelites in the wilderness than Jeremiah had with these "stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears," as good at "resisting the Holy Ghost" as ever their fathers were.

I. (1-3) The first three verses contain the title prefixed to the collection of prophecies by some later editor. This title would seem, from its unusual fulness, to have received one or more additions—Jeremiah 1:1 giving the general title, Jeremiah 1:2 the commencement of Jeremiah’s prophetic work, Jeremiah 1:3 the period of his chief activity and its conclusion. Strictly speaking, indeed, we see from the book itself that his work continued after the beginning of the captivity. The words of Jeremiah.—The more usual title of prophetic books is “the word of the Lord by the prophet,” but the title of Amos (Amos 1:1) is in the same form as this. The Hebrew for “words” has a somewhat wider connotation than the English, and is translated “acts” in 1 Kings 11:41; 2 Chronicles 33:18. Hilkiah.—Possibly the high priest of that name (2 Kings 22:4; 2 Kings 23:4). See Introduction.Anathoth.—In the tribe of Benjamin, one of the cities assigned to the priests, apparently to the house of Ithamar, to which Abiathar belonged (1 Kings 2:26; Joshua 21:18; 1 Chronicles 6:60). That were in Anathoth.—There is no verb in the Hebrew, and the description belongs to Jeremiah individually, not to the priests.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH Chronological notes relative to the commencement of Jeremiah's prophesying -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3375. -Year from the Deluge, according to the generally received Hebrew text, conferred with Acts 7:4, 1719. -Fourth year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad. -Year from the building of Rome according to the Varronian account, 125. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 629. -Twelfth year of Ancus Martius, the fourth king of the Romans: this was the one hundred and twentieth year before the expulsion of the Tarquins. -Nineteenth year of Phraortes, the second king of Media. -Twenty-third year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. -Sixteenth year of Eurycrates II., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. -Third year of Sadyattes, king of Lydia, which was the eighty-second year before the conquest of this kingdom by Cyrus. -Twelfth year of Philip, the sixth king of Macedon, or the two hundred and ninety-third before the commencement of the reign of Alexander the Great. -Thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah. -Epoch of the building of Cyrene by Battus, according to some chronologers. CHAPTER I General title to the whole Book, 1-3. Jeremiah receives a commission to prophesy concerning nations and kingdoms, a work to which in the Divine purpose he had been appointed before his birth, 4-10. The vision of the rod of an almond tree and of the seething pot, with their signification, 11-16. Promises of Divine protection to Jeremiah in the discharge of the arduous duties of his prophetical office, 17-19. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse. 1. - 3. The words of Jeremiah] These three verses are the title of the Book; and were probably added by Ezra when he collected and arranged the sacred books, and put them in that order in which they are found in Hebrew Bibles in general. For particulars relative to this prophet, the times of his prophesying, and the arrangement of his discourses, see the introduction. Eleventh year of Zedekiah] That is, the last year of his reign; for he was made prisoner by the Chaldeans in the fourth month of that year, and the carrying away of the inhabitants of Jerusalem was in the fifth month of the same year.

Ch. Jeremiah 1:1-3. Title The Title is a composite one: Jeremiah 1:2 probably was intended simply to date the prophet’s call, while Jeremiah 1:3 was added later to indicate that his activity was continued during subsequent reigns (though some of his utterances were delivered after the breaking up of the kingdom, see Intr. i. § 17). The first verse then is the general title of the Book or of some substantial part of it.

The words of Jeremiah - The usual title of the prophetic books is “the Word of the Lord,” but the two books of Amos and Jeremiah are called the words of those prophets, probably because they contain

1. Words — Speeches or discourses. — Most of the prophetical books commence with the title “The word of God;” but those of Jeremiah and Amos are called the “words” of these prophets.