Jeremiah (1-31) 1:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Anathoth was a small town or a large village some three miles north-east of Jerusalem. But it was a priests’ village, and by in large, apart from servants, only priests occupied it. So there is no doubt that Jeremiah himself was a priest, descended from a priest, and here we read of his calling by the Lord. ‘The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: ² To whom the word of the LORD came’, unmistakably. We don't know quite how God spoke to him. Maybe it was audibly at first, in an extraordinary way, but there was no question about it: God summoned him and called him.‘The word of the Lord came’, in the days of Josiah first of all, and the text mentions the thirteenth year of his reign, and we recall that Josiah's reforms, his great work of reformation in Judah, began in the twelfth year of his reign. So, the year after the commencement of the reforms of Josiah to purify the worship in the land, comes this call to a young priest who is made a prophet. That is unusual actually. Priests, prophets: both offices found in the same person – but Jeremiah held both offices. This is call comes at a strategic time. The Lord is working. The people will reject the reforms of Josiah. They will comply with them, but not in their hearts. All the evidence will be that the people are almost as obdurate and rebellious and idolatrous as ever; their obduracy simply goes underground. However God provides not only a king to enact reforms, but a prophet to teach and to warn at the same time. So the people will be responsible for their failure to follow the reforms. Jeremiah began to prophesy in 627 BC, the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Two other kings are mentioned, sons of Josiah: Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Each one reigned for eleven years, and Jeremiah was prophesying right up until ‘the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month’ of that final year of Zedekiah, 586 BC. So altogether his ministry of prophecy lasted more than forty years.