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,