Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 1

The first three verses contain the title prefixed to the collection of prophecies by some later editor. This title would seem, from its unusual fullness, to have received one or more additions—Jeremiah 1:1 giving the general title, Jeremiah 1:2 the commencement of Jeremiah’s prophetic work, and Jeremiah 1:3 the period of his chief activity and its conclusion. Strictly speaking, indeed, we see from the book itself that his work continued after the beginning of the captivity.

The words of Jeremiah. —The more usual title of prophetic books is “the word of the Lord by the prophet,” but the title of Amos (Amos 1:1) is in the same form as this. The Hebrew for “words” has a somewhat wider connotation than the English and is translated “acts” in 1 Kings 11:41 and 2 Chronicles 33:18.

Hilkiah. —Possibly the high priest of that name (2 Kings 22:4; 2 Kings 23:4). See Introduction.

Anathoth. —In the tribe of Benjamin, one of the cities assigned to the priests, apparently to the house of Ithamar, to which Abiathar belonged (1 Kings 2:26; Joshua 21:18; 1 Chronicles 6:60).

That were in Anathoth. —There is no verb in the Hebrew, and the description belongs to Jeremiah individually, not to the priests.

In the thirteenth year of his reign. —If we take the data of 2 Kings 22:0, Josiah was at that time in his twentieth or twenty-first year, having grown up under the training of Hilkiah. His active work of reformation began five years later. The images of Baal and Asherah (the groves) were thrown down, and the high places desecrated.

The near coincidence of the commencement of Jeremiah’s work as prophet with that of the king must not be forgotten. As Josiah reigned for thirty-one years, we have to place eighteen years of the prophet’s ministry as under his rule.

It came also ... —The short reigns of Jehoahaz (three months) and Jehoiachin or Jeconiah (three months also) are passed over, and mention is made of the more conspicuous reigns of Jehoiakim (eleven years) and Zedekiah (also eleven). Assuming Jeremiah to have been about twenty when the prophetic call came to him, he was sixty or sixty-one at the time of the captivity.

The word of the Lord came unto me. —The words imply obviously a revelation, the introduction of a new element into human consciousness. In many cases, such a revelation also implied the spiritual tension of an ecstatic or trance-like state, a dream, or an open vision. It almost presupposed previous training, outward or inward, a mind troubled by intense thoughts and mourning over the sins of the people.

Here, there is no mention of dream or vision, and we must, therefore, assume a distinct consciousness that the voice he heard in his inmost soul was from Jehovah. For the thought of pre-natal calling, see Isaiah 49:1.

I knew thee. — With the force that the word often has in Hebrew, as implying not foreknowledge only, but choice and approval (Psalms 1:6; Psalms 37:18; Amos 3:2).

I sanctified thee. — i.e., consecrated you, set you apart as hallowed for this special use.

Ordained. — Better, I have appointed, without the conjunction, this verb referring to the manifestation in time of the eternal purpose.

Unto the nations. — i.e., to the outlying Gentile nations. This was the distinguishing characteristic of Jeremiah’s work. Other prophets were sent to Israel and Judah, with occasional parentheses of prophecies that affected the Gentiles. The horizon of Jeremiah was to extend more widely. In part his work was to make them drink of the cup of the Lord’s fury (Jeremiah 25:15–17); but in part also he was a witness to them of a brighter future (Jeremiah 48:47; Jeremiah 49:39). It is as though he had drunk in the Spirit of Isaiah, and thought of the true prophet as one who was to be a light of the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6).

In this way, seemingly abrupt, yet probably following on a long process of divine education, was the youthful Jeremiah taught that he was to act a part specially appointed for him in the drama of his nation’s history. He could not see a chance in the guidance that had led him so far. The call that now came to him so clearly was not the echo of his own thoughts. All his life from infancy had been as that of one consecrated to a special work. Could he stop there? Must he not, like Saint Paul, think of the divine purpose as prior to the very germ of his existence (Galatians 1:15)?