PRINCIPLES AND QUALITIES OF GOD

Besides the above fulfillments, the book sets forth many principles and furnishes many illustrations revealing God’s qualities and his dealings with his people. The book stresses that formalism is of no value in God’s eyes, but that he desires worship and obedience from the heart. The inhabitants of Judah are told not to trust in the temple and its surrounding buildings, and are admonished: “Get yourselves circumcised to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your hearts.” (Jer. 4:4; 7:3-7; 9:25, 26) Jehovah’s great loving-kindness and mercy are exemplified in delivering a remnant of his people and in finally restoring them to Jerusalem, as prophesied by Jeremiah. God’s appreciation and consideration for those showing kindness to his servants and his being the Rewarder of those who seek him and show obedience are highlighted in his care for the Rechabites and for Ebed-melech and Baruch.—Jer. 35:18, 19; 39:16-18; 45:1-5.

Jehovah is brilliantly portrayed as the Creator of all things, the King to time indefinite, the only true God. He is the only one to be feared, the Corrector and Director of those calling on his name, and the one under whose denunciation no nation can hold up. He is the great Potter, in whose hand individuals and nations are as clay pottery, to work with or destroy as he pleases.—Jer. chaps. 10; 18:1-10; Rom. 9:19-24.

The book of Jeremiah reveals that God expects the people bearing his name to be a glory and a praise to him and that he considers them close to him. (Jer. 13:11) Those who prophesy falsely in his name, saying “Peace” to those with whom God is not at peace, have to account to God for their words, and they will stumble and fall. (Jer. 6:13-15; 8:10-12; 23:16-20) Those standing before the people as priests and prophets have great responsibility before God, for, as he told those in Judah: “I did not send the prophets, yet they themselves ran. I did not speak to them, yet they themselves prophesied. But if they had stood in my intimate group, then they would have made my people hear my own words, and they would have caused them to turn back from their bad way and from the badness of their dealings.”—Jer. 23:21, 22.

As in other books of the Bible, God’s holy nation is considered to be in relationship to him as a wife, and unfaithfulness to him is “prostitution.” (Jer. 3:1-3, 6-10; compare James 4:4.) Jehovah’s own loyalty to his covenants, however, is unbreakable.—Jer. 31:37; 33:20-22, 25, 26.

Many are the fine principles and illustrations in the book, upon which the other Bible writers have drawn for reference. And many other pictorial and prophetic patterns are found that have application and that have application and vital meaning to the modern-day Christian and his ministry.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction; Jeremiah appointed as prophet, thirteenth year of Josiah (Jer.1:1-19)

II. Proclamations delivered, for the most part, during King Josiah’s reign (2:1–20:18)

A. First proclamation (2:1–3:5)

1. Jerusalem’s early love as ’wife,’ Jehovah’s care; but she forsook him, defiled land, became worse than other nations, brought self into servitude (2:1-17)

2. Right vine becomes bad; Jerusalem prostitutes self; worships Baals; rejects discipline; unfaithful; bloodguilty (2:18-35a)

3. God enters into controversy with Jerusalem (2:35b–3:5)

B. Second proclamation (3:6–6:30)

1. Israel divorced, exiled; Judah more corrupt; but God lovingly calls Israel back, promises restoration and unity between Judah and Israel (3:6–4:2)

2. Circumcision of heart desired (4:3, 4; compare 9:26.)

3. Warning of Judah’s downfall (4:5-18)

4. Jeremiah severely pained, shaken at calamity he sees coming (4:19-31)

5. People are unfaithful and have denied Jehovah (5:1-13)

6. Destruction but not complete annihilation; foreign nation to overrun, take captives (5:14-19)

7. God to hold accounting with Jerusalem, for prophets, priests and people spiritually blind, stubborn-hearted, corrupt (5:20-31)

8. Jerusalem’s night of trouble near; siege warnings given (6:1-9)

9. No hearing ears; therefore old men, women, children to feel rage poured out (6:10-12)

10. Great and small false; saying “Peace,” when Jehovah is not at peace with them; their sacrifices of no pleasure to God; he turns them over to cruel nation from north (6:13-26; see 8:10, 11; 23:17.)

11. Jeremiah as a metal tester, people are as rejected metal (6:27-30)

C. Third proclamation, delivered in gate of temple (7:1–10:25)

1. Righteous dealings, not formal worship, desired (7:1-28)

2. Judah guilty of detestable things (7:29–8:12)

3. Shame, terror to come (8:13-22)

4. Jeremiah greatly saddened for his people; but desires to leave them because of their treacherousness (9:1-3a)

5. Their untrustworthiness and falsehood bring accounting, with desolation in view for Jerusalem, and scattering of her people (9:3b-24)

6. God to hold accounting with Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab (9:25, 26)

7. Gods of nations cannot compare with Jehovah (10:1-18)

8. Judah’s breakdown; appeal to Jehovah to direct, correct his people in judgment, pour out rage on enemy nations (10:19-25)

D. Fourth proclamation, to Judah and Jerusalem (11:1–12:17)

1. Curse on people because of disobedience; Judah’s gods “have become as many as [her] cities”; Jeremiah not to pray for them (11:1-15)

2. Judah like olive tree with broken branches (11:16, 17; compare Romans 11:17.)

3. Jeremiah like lamb brought to slaughter, with schemes plotted against him (11:18-20)

4. Men of Jeremiah’s hometown Anathoth oppose him; calamity will wipe them out (11:21-23)

5. Jeremiah asks why wicked continue to succeed (12:1-4)

6. He will see yet worse wickedness and opposition; even his own near relatives are against him (12:5, 6)

7. Judgment on nation for turning against God (12:7-13)

8. Restoration to come; for other nations also, but they must be obedient in midst of God’s people (12:14-17)

E. Fifth proclamation (13:1-27)

1. Jeremiah hides belt near Euphrates; ruined belt like Judah; close to hips, but became fit for nothing (13:1-11)

2. Judah to be made drunk and dashed to pieces (13:12-14)

3. Haughtiness to come down; shame to cover irreformable nation (13:15-27)

F. Sixth proclamation (14:1–17:18)

1. Drought causes mourning in Judah; Jeremiah prays for God to help (14:1-10)

2. Jehovah will not help, for prophets have lied; they and listeners will die (14:11-18)

3. Jeremiah acknowledges national sins; prays for sake of Jehovah’s name, throne and covenant (14:19-22)

4. Petitions to God will not save people now; Manasseh has caused nation to sin beyond recovery (15:1-9)

5. Jeremiah cries out because of enemies; Jehovah comforts him, but will let Judah be despoiled because of sins (15:10-14)

6. Jeremiah disclaims part with reproachers, yet he suffers great distress (15:15-18)

7. Jehovah strengthens Jeremiah to stand; He will deliver him (15:19-21)

8. Jeremiah commanded not to marry, because great distress is coming on all, including children; not to mourn, sympathize or banquet with people, whose sin will lead them into slavery (16:1-13)

9. Israel to be returned, but first must be punished for error and sins (16:14-21)

10. Sin of Judah deeply engraved, but the man trusting in Jehovah will prosper; God searches hearts (17:1-11)

11. Jeremiah recognizes Hope of Israel, prays for Jehovah’s support (17:12-18)

G. Seventh proclamation, delivered at gate of Jerusalem (17:19-27)

1. Warning to observe sabbath, which forefathers broke (17:19-23)

2. If obedient, Jerusalem to remain, otherwise to be destroyed (17:24-27)

H. Eighth proclamation (18:1-23)

1. Jehovah the Potter; disobedient Judah vessel for destruction (18:1-17)

2. Jeremiah prays God to judge his opponents (18:18-23)

I. Ninth proclamation (19:1–20:18)

1. Jeremiah breaks flask at Gate of Potsherds, just as Jehovah will break Jerusalem, making Hinnom a valley of slaughter (19:1-13)

2. Proceeds to temple, declares calamity (19:14, 15)

3. Pashhur strikes Jeremiah, puts him in stocks overnight (20:1-3a)

4. King of Babylon to take Jerusalem; Pashhur to die in Babylon (20:3b-6)

J. Jehovah and his word keep Jeremiah in service despite hardships (20:7-18)

1. Jeremiah, released from stocks, speaks of Jehovah’s permission of reproach on him; wants to quit speaking, but fire of God’s word impels him; Jehovah with him “like a terrible mighty one” (20:7-13)

2. Jeremiah cries out because of toil and grief (20:14-18; compare Job, chapter 3.)

III. Special prophecies of judgment (21:1–32:44)

A. Judgment on royal house (21:1–22:30)

1. King Zedekiah told Jerusalem will be given over to Nebuchadrezzar (Nebuchadnezzar); those falling away to Chaldeans will live (21:1-14)

2. Unless Judah repents she will become wilderness; exiled King Shallum (Jehoahaz) not to return (22:1-12)

3. King Jehoiakim condemned for injustice; his death without burial foretold (22:13-23)

4. King Jeconiah (Coniah) and his mother to go into exile, with none of his children occupying throne (22:24-30)

B. Judgment on priests, prophets, shepherds (23:1-40)

1. Sheep scattered, to be regathered (23:1-8)

2. Doom upon prophets whom Jehovah did not send; priests also polluted (23:9-40)

C. People compared to good and bad figs, to receive judgment (24:1-10)

1. Some exiles to return (24:1-7)

2. Others, including Zedekiah, to be removed from off ground (24:8-10)

D. Jehovah’s controversy with the nations (25:1-38; see also chapters 46 to 49.)

1. Nebuchadnezzar to desolate Judah; it and surrounding nations to serve Babylon for seventy-year period (25:1-11)

2. Babylon, in turn, to be made permanent desolation (25:12-14)

3. Jeremiah to hand wine cup of rage to nations; slain to be from one end of earth to other, not lamented (25:15-38)

E. Warning of calamity, delivered in gate of temple (26:1-24)

1. Priests, prophets want judgment of death for Jeremiah; he defends self (26:1-15)

2. Princes and others step in, save Jeremiah (26:16-24)

F. Judgments against Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon (27:1-22)

1. Nebuchadnezzar to rule them (27:1-10)

2. Those peoples, including Jews, submitting to Babylon will live (27:11-14)

3. False prophets mislead; temple utensils all to go to Babylon (27:15-22)

G. Judgment on false prophet Hananiah (28:1-17)

1. Hananiah breaks wooden yoke; prophesies yoke of king of Babylon to be broken within two years (28:1-11)

2. Jeremiah foretells iron yoke and Hananiah’s death, which occurs that year (28:12-17)

H. Jeremiah’s letter to exiles in Babylon (29:1-32)

1. Exiles to build houses, have children, seek peace of Babylon (29:1-9)

2. Return from exile after seventy years (29:10-14)

3. Judgment on false prophets in Babylon (29:15-32)

IV. Restoration prophecies (30:1–33:26)

A. Israel and Judah to be returned to land (30:1-10)

B. Nations oppressing Jerusalem to be destroyed; Jerusalem to suffer, then to be rebuilt (30:11-24)

C. Jehovah to bring and plant his scattered people; then each one will answer only for his own sins (31:1-30)

D. The new covenant; never will entire seed of Israel be rejected (31:31-40)

E. During siege, Jeremiah’s cousin visits him imprisoned in Courtyard of the Guard; Jeremiah, as repurchaser, buys paternal uncle’s field in Anathoth; symbolic of certainty of restoration (32:1-44)

F. Jerusalem to be healed and an exultation; righteous sprout of David’s line will execute justice over seed of Abraham (33:1-26)

V. Further prophecies during reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (34:1–36:32)

A. Zedekiah told of capture, peaceful death in Babylon (34:1-7)

B. When Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, Zedekiah and princes free their Hebrew servants, according to Law (34:8-10)

C. Princes turn and again enslave their brothers; therefore Jehovah gives liberty to sword, pestilence, famine (34:11-22)

D. Rechabites prove faithful under test; used as example to faithless Jerusalem; Jehovah covenants they will have man to stand before him always (35:1-19)

E. As commanded in fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah dictates to Baruch, who twice writes book of all Jehovah’s words given him to date (36:1-32)

1. Baruch reads scroll at temple during a fast day held in ninth month of fifth year (36:4-10)

2. Words reported to Jehoiakim; princes have private audience with Baruch; Jeremiah, Baruch hide from king’s search for them (36:11-19, 26)

3. Jehudi reads scroll, Jehoiakim burns it (36:20-25)

4. Jehoiakim condemned; Jeremiah rewrites scroll, with additions (36:27-32)

VI. Events of Jerusalem’s last days (37:1–45:5)

A. During temporary withdrawal of Babylonians, Jeremiah is arrested as he tries to go to Anathoth; put in house of fetters, transferred by Zedekiah to Courtyard of the Guard (37:1-21)

B. Jeremiah thrown into cistern, delivered by Ebedmelech; taken to Courtyard of the Guard; counsels Zedekiah to submit to Babylon (38:1-28)

C. Fall of Jerusalem; King Zedekiah blinded; city burned (39:1–40:12)

1. Ebed-melech promised survival (39:15-18)

2. Jeremiah released by order of Nebuchadnezzar; remains under Gedaliah (39:11-14; 40:1-10)

3. Jews from many lands return (40:11, 12)

D. Baalis, king of Ammon, sends Ishmael to murder Gedaliah the governor; Ishmael follows through and also kills Gedaliah’s men, but is put to flight by Johanan; people prepare to go into Egypt (40:13–41:18)

E. Jeremiah counsels against going to Egypt, but people go, forcibly taking Jeremiah (42:1–43:7)

F. In Tahpanhes, Egypt, Jeremiah prophesies Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Egypt and calamity for Jews there; people assert they will continue to make sacrifices to “queen of the heavens”; Pharaoh Hophra’s defeat foretold (43:8–44:30)

G. Jehovah warns Baruch not to keep seeking great things for himself, and he comforts him with promise of deliverance (45:1-5)

VII. Prophecies against the nations (46:1–51:64)

A. Pharaoh Necho defeated at Carchemish; Egypt to fall into hands of Nebuchadnezzar (46:1-28)

B. Philistines to fall before Pharaoh (47:1-7)

C. Moab has put on airs against Jehovah and has ridiculed; his god Chemosh and his priests and princes will go into exile; yet captives of Moab will later be gathered (48:1-47)

D. Ammon, who took Israelite cities, will be desolated; his god Malcham will go into exile; but the captive ones of Ammon will later be gathered (49:1-6)

E. Edom to become like Sodom and Gomorrah (49:7-22)

F. Damascus to suffer defeat (49:23-27)

G. Kedar and Hazor to fall to Nebuchadnezzar (49:28-33)

H. Elam to be shattered, but captives later to be gathered (49:34-39)

I. Babylon and her gods to go into captivity (50:1–51:64)

1. Sons of Israel to be released to return to Zion (50:1-9, 19, 20)

2. Chaldea to be desolate wilderness never inhabited because she exulted when pillaging Israel, would not let captives go (50:1-13, 33-39)

3. A people from north, adept with bow and javelin, will devastate Babylon as Sodom and Gomorrah (50:14-32, 40–51:5)

4. Command to flee out of Babylon; she has made other nations drunk; now she will not be healed (51:6-10)

5. Medes, Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz summoned against Babylon (51:11-29)

6. Bars of Babylon will be broken, city captured at every end (51:30-33)

7. God conducts Zion’s legal case for Babylon’s bloodguilt against her (51:34-58)

8. Jeremiah writes Babylon’s calamities on one book, it is taken to Babylon, read and thrown into Euphrates by Seraiah (51:59-64)

VIII. Epilogue (52:1-34)

A. Siege of Jerusalem, from tenth month, ninth year of Zedekiah to ninth day, fourth month, eleventh year; Jerusalem falls (52:1-7)

B. Temple burned, walls pulled down, on tenth day, fifth month of Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year; Zedekiah blinded, taken to Babylon, people exiled, lowly ones left (52:8-16)

C. Inventory of temple valuables taken to Babylon (52:17-23)

D. Chief priest and other leading men executed at Riblah (52:24-27)

E. Recapitulation of all exiles taken by Nebuchadnezzar in his seventh, eighteenth and twenty-third years (52:28-34)

F. In the thirty-seventh year of his exile, Jehoiachin released from prison, but kept in Babylon (52:31-34)

See the book “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial,” pp. 124-130.

JEREMOTH

(Jerʹe·moth) [swollen, tall].

1. A descendant of Benjamin through his son Becher.—1 Chron. 7:6, 8.

2. A Benjamite head of a family that lived in Jerusalem; one of Beriah’s “sons.”—1 Chron. 8:14-16, 28.

3. Son of Mushi and grandson of Merari in the tribe of Levi. The paternal house founded by this person, whose name is also spelled “Jerimoth,” was included in David’s rearrangement of the Levitical service organization.—1 Chron. 23:21, 23; 24:30, 31.

4. A son of Heman in the Levitical branch of Kohathites. During David’s reign, Jeremoth (Jerimoth) was selected by lot to head the fifteenth of the twenty-four divisions of sanctuary musicians.—1 Chron. 6:33; 25:1, 4, 8, 9, 22.

5, 6, 7. Three Israelites, of the sons of Elam, Zattu and Bani respectively, who sent away their foreign wives and sons in Ezra’s day.—Ezra 10:25-27, 29, 44.

JERIAH

(Je·riʹah) [founded of Jehovah; Jehovah sees].

Son or descendant of Kohath’s son Hebron. (1 Chron. 23:12, 19) Jeriah and/or his paternal house is mentioned in connection with David’s organization of the Levites (1 Chron. 24:23, 30, 31) and, when appointed over territory E of the Jordan, is called the head of the Hebronites. In this instance his name is spelled “Jerijah.”—1 Chron. 26:31, 32.

JERIBAI

(Jerʹi·bai) [Jehovah contends].

One of David’s mighty men; son of Elnaam.—1 Chron. 11:26, 46.

JERICHO

(Jerʹi·cho) [perhaps, moon city, or, place of fragrance].

The first Canaanite city W of the Jordan to be conquered by the Israelites. (Num. 22:1; Josh. 6:1, 24, 25) It is identified with Tell es-Sultan about fourteen miles (c. 23 kilometers) NE of Jerusalem. Nearby Tulul Abu el-ʽAlayiq is considered to be the site of first-century Jericho. Lying over 800 feet (c. 240 meters) below sea level in the Jordan Valley, Jericho has a subtropical climate. Today oranges, bananas and figs are cultivated in the area and, as anciently, palms still thrive there.

FIRSTFRUITS OF ISRAEL’S CONQUEST

At the end of their forty years of wandering in the wilderness the Israelites came to the plains of Moab. There, opposite Jericho, Moses ascended Mount Nebo and viewed the Promised Land, including Jericho, “the city of the palm trees,” and its plain.—Num. 36:13; Deut. 32:49; 34:1-3.

After Moses’ death Joshua sent two spies to Jericho. Concealed by Rahab, they avoided detection and afterward escaped from the city by means of a rope through the window of her house situated atop Jericho’s wall. For three days the two men hid themselves in the nearby mountainous region, after which they forded the Jordan and returned to the Israelite camp.—Josh. 2:1-23.

Great must have been the fear of Jericho’s king and its inhabitants as they heard about or witnessed the miraculous damming up of the flooding Jordan,