Jeremiah, Book Of

William Smith's Bible Dictionary

"There can be little doubt that the book of Jeremiah grew out of the roll which Baruch wrote down at the prophet's mouth in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. ch. (Jeremiah 36:2) Apparently the prophets kept written records of their predictions, and collected into larger volumes such of them as were intended for permanent use."-Canon Cook. In the present order we have two great divisions:- I. Chs. 1-45. Prophecies delivered at various times, directed mainly to Judah, or connected with Jeremiah's personal history. II. Chs. 46-51. Prophecies connected with other nations. Looking more closely into each of these divisions, we have the following sections:


• Chs. 1-21, including prophecies from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the fourth of Jehoiakim; ch. 21; belongs to the later period.

• Chs. 22-25. Shorter prophecies, delivered at different times, against the kings of Judah and the false prophets. Ch. (Jeremiah 25:13,14) evidently marks the conclusion of a series of prophecies; and that which follows, ch. (Jeremiah 25:15-38) the germ of the fuller predictions in chs. 46-49, has been placed here as a kind of completion to the prophecy of the seventy years and the subsequent fall of Babylon.

• Chs. 26-28. The two great prophecies of the fall of Jerusalem, and the history connected with them.

• Chs. 29-31. The message of comfort for the exiles in Babylon.

• Chs. 32-44. The history of the last two years before the capture of Jerusalem, and of Jeremiah's work int hem and in the period that followed.

• Chs. 46-51. The prophecies against foreign nations, ending with the great prediction against Babylon.

• The supplementary narrative of ch. 52.

William Smith's Bible Dictionary

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