- published: 18 Oct 2012
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The Book of Jeremiah (Hebrew: ספר יִרְמְיָהוּ) is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve. (The order is somewhat different in the Christian Old Testament). It derives its name from, and records the visions of, Jeremiah, who lived in Jerusalem in the late 7th and early 6th centuries BC during the time of king Josiah and the fall of the Kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians. The book is written in a complex and poetic Hebrew (apart from verse 10:11, curiously written in Biblical Aramaic).
Parts of the Book of Jeremiah have also been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in cave 4 in Qumran. These texts, in Hebrew, correspond both to the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint Text. This discovery has shed much light on the differences between the two versions; while it was previously maintained that the Greek Septuagint (the version used by the earliest Christians) was only a poor translation, professor Emanuel Tov, senior editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls' publication, wrote that the Masoretic edition either represents a substantial rewriting of the original Hebrew, or there had previously been two different versions of the text. Most scholars hold that the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint version is older than the Masoretic text and that either the Masoretic evolved either from this vorlage or from a closely related version.
Jeremiah ( /dʒɛrɨˈmaɪ.ə/;Hebrew:יִרְמְיָה, Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yah exalts", also called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah is traditionally credited with authoring the Book of Jeremiah, 1 Kings, 2 Kings and the Book of Lamentations with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.
Judaism considers the Book of Jeremiah part of its canon, and regards Jeremiah as the second of the major prophets. Islam also considers Jeremiah a prophet, and he is listed as a prophet in all the collections of Stories of the Prophets.[citation needed]Christianity also regards Jeremiah as a prophet and he is quoted in the New Testament. It has been interpreted that Jeremiah “spiritualized and individualized religion and insisted upon the primacy of the individual’s relationship with God.”
According to the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was a kohen (Jewish priest), from a landowning family. It is mentioned that he had a joyful early life, however, the difficulties in Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations have prompted scholars to refer to him as "the weeping prophet". Jeremiah was called to prophetic ministry in c. 626 BC, about a year after King Josiah of Judah had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather. Jeremiah’s job was to reveal the sins of the people and explain the reason for the impending disaster (destruction by the Babylonian army and captivity), “And when your people say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'"