Hi James and Ellen,
The Jeremiah Book was compiled from forty or so years of annotations that were made by an Israelite people group prophet whose name was Jeremiah. Jeremiah – who is said to be one of the greatest Israelite/Jewish/Hebrew prophets, was born into a family of priests. Jeremiah grew up in a Benjamin tribal clan town called Anathoth – a town that was located about two and a half miles northeast of the city of Jerusalem. After acquiescing to God’s telling him that He wanted him to be an Israelite people group prophet, Jeremiah began prophesying in 626 B.C. to God’s specially chosen guys and gals who lived in the land of Judah. Josiah was in his thirteenth year in 626 B.C. as king ruling over the Israelite people group guys and gals who lived in Israel’s southern kingdom – which was called Judah. The city of Jerusalem was the Israelite people group’s southern kingdom’s principal city. The Israelite people group guys and gals who lived in Israel’s northern kingdom – which was called Israel, had the country of Assyria’s army do a devastating number on them in 722 B.C. – which was nearly 100 years earlier. Jeremiah – whose name means ‘Jehovah finds’ or ‘Jehovah exalts’, was given the moniker of ‘weeping prophet’. Because of God assuring him that He would give him the ability to do whatever task that He wanted him to do, Jeremiah began his prophesy ministry while he was a young guy. Five Israelite people group southern kingdom kings had Jeremiah in their faces during the years that they reigned over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah. Jeremiah began his prophet vocation during a time of a spiritual reawakening. Josiah had instituted reforms that were giving hope to Israelite people group guys and gals who were living throughout the southern kingdom – the land of Judah, which included the city of Jerusalem. When Josiah’s tenure as king over the guys and gals who lived in the Israelite people group’s southern kingdom came to an untimely end by a country of Egypt’s archer’s arrow in 609 B.C. – after he unwisely decided to take on the country of Egypt’s king – whose name was Neco, and Neco’s Egyptian army, Jeremiah’s prophet role changed from mentoring a king to meddling in the lives of the next four kings. Even though Jeremiah knew that what he was doing and saying was ‘putting his head on a chopping block’, Jeremiah continued to over and over again in his Jeremiah Book’s 52 chapters warn of an impending doom as well as to predict that God because of His divine grace would in due time intervene to put a new covenant in place – which guys, gals and kids are to let be inscribed permanently on their hearts versus continuing to comply with God’s original covenant which could only be kept through obediently observing the laws and regulations that He gave to Moses when He met with Moses on Mount Sinai to pass on to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals.
Jeremiah lived through a very tumultuous time during the history of the Israelite people group guys and gals. Jeremiah was up in years when Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army began a siege of the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had to have personally seen Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army leave the city of Jerusalem with the initial contingent of Israel’s southern kingdom people group guys and gals to be exiled in the country of Babylonia. When Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army were putting together in 586 B.C. another assembly of Israelite southern kingdom people group guys and gals to take to the country of Babylonia to live as exiles, Jeremiah was given the option to remain in the city of Jerusalem or join his Israelite people group compatriots who were being taken to the country of Babylonia. Jeremiah opted to remain with the common guys and gals who Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army decided to leave in the city of Jerusalem. When Gedaliah – who was the puppet governor who Nebuchadnezzar left in charge of the city of Jerusalem’s affairs, was assassinated during a civil unrest in the city of Jerusalem, the remaining Israel’s southern kingdom guys and gals fled to the country of Egypt – making Jeremiah go with them. Jeremiah died a couple of years later in the country of Egypt. Because the Jeremiah Book was not edited chronologically, your grandpaa thinks that there could be a probability that the Jeremiah Book was actually compiled by someone else other than Jeremiah who used Jeremiah’s notes, writings, memorandums, etc. to put together a personalized, informative, poignant document that would become known as the Jeremiah Book.
Jeremiah’s oracles that God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, inspired him to record for posterity intrigues your grandpaa. God – as God the Father, did not mince words as He had Jeremiah chronicle the judgments that He was going to mete out against the guys and gals who lived in the countries and lands of Egypt, Palestine, Moab, Ammon and Edom and in the cities of Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam and Babylon. Because Jeremiah was in a place under Josiah’s rule to watch the demise of Israel’s people group southern kingdom’s guys and gals because of a push for an upsurge in nationalism that led to usurping having a hunger for a religious revival, Jeremiah knew that the same demoralizing fate that his fellow Israelite people group guys and gals were going to have happen to them was going to happen to the guys and gals who inherently despised them. What is happening today in the United States mirrors what took place when Jeremiah was living on planet Earth over 2,600 years ago.
Jeremiah