Jehoiachin
(whom Jehovah has appointed), son of Jehoiakim, and for three months and ten days king of Judah. (B.C. 597.) At his accession Jerusalem was quite defenseless, and unable to offer any resistance to the army which Nebuchadnezzar sent to besiege it. ( 2 Kings 24:10 , 11 ) In a very short time Jehoiachin surrendered at discretion; and he, and the queen-mother, and all his servants, captains and officers, came out and gave themselves up to Nebuchadnezzar, who carried them, with the harem and the eunuchs, to Babylon. ( Jeremiah 29:2 ; Ezekiel 17:12 ; 19:9 ) There he remained a prisoner, actually in prison and wearing prison garments, for thirty-six years, viz., till the death of Nebuchadnezzar, when Evilmerodach, succeeding to the throne of Babylon, brought him out of prison, and made him sit at this own table. The time of his death is uncertain.
Jehoiakim
(whom Jehovah sets up), called Eliakim, son of Josiah and king of Judah. After deposing Jehoahaz, Pharaoh-necho set Eliakim, his elder brother, upon the throne, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, B.C. 608-597. For four years Jehoiakim was subject toi Egypt, when Nebuchadnezzar, after a short siege, entered Jerusalem, took the king prisoner, bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon, and took also some of the precious vessels of the temple and carried them to the land of Shinar. Jehoiakim became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar after his invasion of Judah, and continued so for three years, but at the end of that time broke his oath of allegiance and rebelled against him. ( 2 Kings 24:1 ) Nebuchadnezzar sent against him numerous bands of Chaldeans, with Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, ( 2 Kings 24:7 ) and who cruelly harassed the whole country. Either in an engagement with some of these forces or else by the hand of his own oppressed subjects Jehoiakim came to a violent end in the eleventh year of his reign. His body was cast out ignominiously on the ground, and then was dragged away and buried “with the burial of an ass,” without pomp or lamentation, “beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” ( Jeremiah 22:18 , 19 ; 36:30 ) All the accounts we have of Jehoiakim concur in ascribing to him a vicious and irreligious character. ( 2 Kings 23:37 ; 24:9 ; 2 Chronicles 36:5 ) The reign of Jehoiakim extends from B.C. 609 to B.C. 598, or, as some reckon, 599.
Jehudi
(a Jew), son of Nethaniah, a man employed by the princes of Jehoiakim’s court to fetch Baruch to read Jeremiah’s denunciation, ( Jeremiah 36:14 ) and then by the king to fetch the volume itself and read it to him. vs. ( Jeremiah 36:21 , 23 ) (B.C. 605.)
Jerahmeel
(mercy of God). First-born son of hezron, the son of Pharez, the son of Judah, ( 1 Chronicles 2:9 , 25-27 , 33 , 42 ) and founder of the family of Jerahmeelites. ( 1 Samuel 27:10 ) (B.C. before 1491.) A Merarite Levite, the representative of the family of Kish, the son of Mahli. ( 1 Chronicles 24:29 ) comp. 1Chr 23:21 (B.C. 1014.) Son of Hammelech, who was employed by Jehoiakim to make Jeremiah and baruch prisoners, after the had burnt the roll of Jeremiah’s prophecy. ( Jeremiah 36:26 ) (B.C. 505.)
Jeremiah
Seven other persons bearing the same name as the prophet are mentioned in the Old Testament:— Jeremiah of Libnah, father of Hamutal wife of Josiah. ( 2 Kings 23:31 ) (B.C. before 632.) 2,3,4. Three warriors—two of the tribe of Gad— in David’s army. ( 1 Chronicles 12:4 , 10 , 13 ) (B.C. 1061-53.) One of the “mighty men of valor” of the transjordanic half-tribe of Manasseh. ( 1 Chronicles 5:24 ) (B.C. 782.) A priest of high rank, head of the second or third of the twenty-one courses which are apparently enumerated in ( Nehemiah 10:2-8 ; 12:1 , 12 ) (B.C. 446-410). The father of Jazaniah the Rechabite. ( Jeremiah 35:3 ) (B.C. before 606.) (whom Jehovah has appointed) was “the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Anathoth.” ( Jeremiah 1:1 ) History.—He was called very young (B.C. 626) to the prophetic office, and prophesied forty-two years; but we have hardly any mention of him during the eighteen years between his call and Josiah’s death, or during the short reign of Jehoahaz. During the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, B.C. 607-598, he opposed the Egyptian party, then dominant in Jerusalem, and maintained that they only way of safety lay in accepting the supremacy of the Chaldeans. He was accordingly accused of treachery, and men claiming to be prophets had the “word of Jehovah” to set against his. ( Jeremiah 14:13 ; 23:7 ) As the danger from the Chaldeans became more threatening, the persecution against Jeremiah grew hotter. ch. 18. The people sought his life; then follows the scene in ( Jeremiah 19:10-13 ) he was set, however, “as a fenced brazen wall,” ch. ( Jeremiah 15:20 ) and went on with his work, reproving king and nobles and people. The danger which Jeremiah had so long foretold at last came near. First Jehoiakim, and afterwards his successor Jehoiachin, were carried into exile, 2Kin 24 ; but Zedekiah, B.C. 597-586, who was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was more friendly to the prophet, though powerless to help him. The approach of an Egyptian army, and the consequent departure of the Chaldeans, made the position of Jeremiah full of danger, and he sought to effect his escape from the city; but he was seized and finally thrown into a prison-pit to die, but was rescued. On the return of the Chaldean army he showed his faith in God’s promises, and sought to encourage the people by purchasing the field at Anathoth which his kinsman Hanameel wished to get rid of. ( Jeremiah 32:6-9 ) At last the blow came. The city was taken, the temple burnt. The king and his princes shared the fate of Jehoiachin. The prophet gave utterance to his sorrow in the Lamentations. After the capture of Jerusalem, B.C. 586, by the Chaldeans, we find Jeremiah receiving better treatment; but after the death of Gedaliah, the people, disregarding his warnings, took refuge in Egypt, carrying the prophet with them. In captivity his words were sharper and stronger than ever. He did not shrink, even there, from speaking of the Chaldean king once more as “the servant of Jehovah.” ( Jeremiah 43:10 ) After this all is uncertain, but he probably died in Egypt. Character.—Canon Cook says of Jeremiah, “His character is most interesting. We find him sensitive to a most painful degree, timid, shy, hopeless, desponding, constantly complaining and dissatisfied with the course of events, but never flinching from duty...Timid in resolve, he was unflinching in execution; as fearless when he had to face the whole world as he was dispirited and prone to murmuring when alone with God. Judged by his own estimate of himself, he was feeble, and his mission a failure; really, in the hour of action and when duty called him, he was in very truth ’a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land.’ ch. ( Jeremiah 1:18 ) he was a noble example of the triumph of the moral over the physical nature.” (It is not strange that he was desponding when we consider his circumstances. He saw the nation going straight to irremediable ruin, and turning a deaf ear to all warnings. “A reign of terror had commenced (in the preceding reign), during which not only the prophets but all who were distinguished for religion and virtue were cruelly murdered.” “The nation tried to extirpate the religion of Jehovah;” “Idolatry was openly established,” “and such was the universal dishonesty that no man trusted another, and society was utterly disorganized.” How could one who saw the nation about to reap the awful harvest they had been sowing, and yet had a vision of what they might have been and might yet be, help indulging in “Lamentations”?—ED.)
Jeremiah, Book Of
“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.