Jeremiah, Baruch, and Lamentations

Biographical Data

• This book contains more biographical data than any other

• Jeremiah = The Lord Exults

• Born 627, begins ministry 643 – 16 yrs old (1:4-10)

• Ministers under Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah

• Hometown: Anathoth (3 miles NE of Jerusalem)

• Ministers in Jerusalem• 40 years of Ministry

Context• Reign of Josiah

– Finding of the Scroll of the Law in the Temple and religious reform (2 Kings 22:3 – 23:5)

• Last years of the existence of Judah

• 597 – Siege of Jerusalem: Jehoiachim dies, and Jehoiachin assumes throne

• Zedekiah deposes Jehoiachin, sends many political elite into exile

• Attempt at revolt by Zedekiah results in disaster

• 586 – Jerusalem falls• A very few Israelites remain

behind, Jeremiah among them• Fearing indiscriminate reprisal,

they flee to Egypt after the governor Gedaliah and soldiers put in place by Babylon are murdered.

The Weeping Prophet• Personal Persecution

– Conspiracy of the men of Anathoth (11:9-12:6)

– Attacks against other prophets

– Placed in Stocks by Pashur (20:1-6)

– Threats of Death and Imprisonment (Chap. 38 NB. v.15)

– Release by Babylon (Chap. 40)

– Exile (Chap. 43)

The Loincloth - Jer. 13:1-11

The Yoke - Jer. 27-28

Overall Purpose of Jeremiah

• Call People to repentance in view of God’s Judgment on Judea which would come from an army in the North

• Judgment would come because people had forsaken God and turned to idols

• There is a future for Israel if only you will repent

• (After it is clear that they will not repent) Unconditional surrender to Babylon

• Judgment on those who would harms God’s chosen people

Lamentations

Context

• Obviously written during or shortly after the time of the siege of Jerusalem

• In the Christian Bible, the book follows Jeremiah because it has been traditionally attributed to him

• Great deal of dissimilarity between the images and language of the Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations

Literary Features

• Five Poems of Lament• Raw emotions• No rhetorical movement

from hope to grief unlike the Psalms (cf. Ps. 60)

• Poetic meter gives sense of sentences broken off in grief

• The first four chapters are all acrostic – attempt to give structure to the chaos around them

Baruch

Context

• Friend and Scribe for Jeremiah (Jeremiah 45)

• Egypt v. Babylon – where did he go?• Deuterocanonical• Many believe the book was written

much later (ca 200-60 BC)

Literary Features

• Mostly consists of other pieces of the scriptures copied or paraphrased (ancient form of Scriptural interp.)

• Three major parts– 1:1-3:8 – corporate confession of sins– 3:9-5:9 – Two poems, one to wisdom and

one a rhetorical address to Jerusalem– 6ff: Letter attributed to Jeremiah written

for those about to be taken into exile