JEREMIAH
(Answers)
Updated 01/2024
Chapter 1
- Jeremiah received the word
from God from the thirteenth year of King Josiah through Jehoiakim, to the
eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah, kings of Judah. This is
approximately forty years.
- God ordained Jeremiah, a son
of the priests, to be a prophet before he was even conceived.
- Jeremiah felt he was to young
to speak. God touched his mouth and put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth.
- The almond tree was the first
tree to bloom in season. Not
only did it show Jeremiah was ready to prophesy but God was ready to begin
His plans with Israel.
- The boiling pot is the
calamity that is coming from the north against Judah.
- Jeremiah was not to show
dismay on his face before the kings, princes, priests, and people. God had
made him a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall before all of
them.
- The people will fight against
Jeremiah but they will not prevail for God will be with Jeremiah.
Chapter 2
- Nations between Cyprus and
Kedar worshiped false gods but did not change gods. Israel had the true
God but left Him for worthless gods.
- Israel was turning to Egypt
and Assyria for help instead of God.
- Israel did not fear God
anymore.
- In a time of trouble Israel
will call on God but He will not help them for they have transgressed Him
and did not repent when He chastened them.
Chapter 3
- The people had the mind of a
harlot. They were not ashamed of what they were doing.
- Israel did evil and was
taken captive. Judah saw God’s judgment on Israel but yet did not repent
from all their spiritual adultery and harlotry. Therefore they are the
more guilty and less righteous.
- At that time (Millennial
kingdom) when Israel and Judah are rejoined and all the nations are
gathered together God will dwell on His throne in Jerusalem.
- God heals their backsliding
through forgiveness and then will bless once again those who return to
Him.
Chapter 4
- The lion from the north is
the Babylonian conquest.
- God has not deceived His
people. He has promised on many occasions and through several prophets to
protect His people, their city, and His temple but it was on the condition
that they wash their heart from wickedness. Then they will be saved.
- Our own wicked ways and
evil doings bring calamities on us.
- The land of Judah will be
as in the beginning of the earth without form, void, and no light.
Chapter 5
- When calamity befalls us we
should look to see if our own sins and iniquities have brought it upon us.
- The fear of God will open up
our eyes and hears to understanding. Fearing God's wrath, judgment, and
supremeness will open us to understanding and obeying Him.
- The prophets were telling
lies and the priests were leading by their own power. They were using
their own wisdom and agenda.
Chapter 6
- The people refuse to hear
the ways and purity of God. The covering that should be removed was still
on their ears. His word was a reproach to them.
- The people had not heeded
God’s word or His law. They were so far from God their sacrifices and
offerings meant nothing to Him.
Chapter 7
- We must completely and
thoroughly change our ways and obey His commandments to be pleasing to
God. (This is something we must work on all our lives.)
- The people would come to
the temple to make sacrifices and offerings thinking it delivered them
from their sins so they could continue to do their abominations.
- When Israel had fallen so
far from God and violated the temple God allowed the Philistines to defeat
Israel, kill the two sons of Eli (Hophni and Phinehas), and capture the
Ark of The Covenant (1 Samuel 4:1-11).
Chapter 8
- Jerusalem was in a perpetual
backsliding. They held fast to deceit and would not return to God.
- No one in Jerusalem repented
of his wickedness.
- The scribes prided
themselves on their work in the law. They were to make copies of the law
and to teach and explain the law. Yet, the law was not fully practiced and
followed by the people or priests thus making their work false (or in
vain).
Chapter 9
- Jeremiah wanted to get away
from his people because they were all adulterers and treacherous men.
- The people would have a
bitter judgment. Calamity and destruction would come upon them. They would
be scattered among the Gentile nations and consumed by the sword.
- If one has great wisdom,
strength, and wealth but does not know and understand God it will be
useless at the judgment of God. The circumcised will be punished with the
uncircumcised. (If one were to gain the whole world yet lose his soul,
what does it profit him? Matthew 16:26)
Chapter 10
- The Jews were seeking
prophetic signs of the times in the sky as the Gentiles were doing
- The idols had no power.
They had to be carried anywhere, they could not speak; they could do no
good, and could do no evil.
- The gods who have not made
the heavens or the earth shall perish. In the time of their punishment all
the false gods of the people would perish.
- Jerusalem would suffer
tribulation and devastation.
Chapter 11
- The faithful to God were
regarded as a green olive tree that produced good fruit. The olive tree
produced fruit for many uses for the people. It symbolized prosperity and divine
blessing. The people were meant to be useful for God and a blessing to
Him. Instead, they brought Him disappointment and would suffer for it.
- The people did not want to
hear the words of Jeremiah the prophet. His own people (Anathoth Jer 1:1)
plotted to destroy him and his words.
Chapter 12
- Jeremiah wanted God to pluck
up the wicked people and destroy them.
- God made Jeremiah realize he
was wearied and challenged in the easier battle so how could he contend in
the greater battle to come?
- The surrounding nations that
caused Judah to sin and who harmed them in any way would be plucked from
their land.
- The surrounding nations
would later be given the opportunity to learn the ways of God’s people and
to swear by His name. If they did then they would dwell with God's people.
If they did not then they would be destroyed.
Chapter 13
- The sash was Israel who was
attached to God but they ruined their relationship with Him by pursuing
other gods. God will ruin their great pride by putting them away from Him
in captivity. They would dwell with the foreign nations and their gods and
be profitable for nothing.
- The full wine bottles
symbolized the full wrath of God. It would be an intoxicating
judgment.
- Pride and the greatness of
their iniquity led to their captivity. Pride, their stubborn refusal to
obey, kept them from repentance to God.
Chapter 14
- God was not a stranger or
an overnight traveler who could not help Israel. He dwelled with them
continually. He is their only real help in time of trouble.
- The prophets were telling
the people they will have peace, no famine or sword would come upon them.
Chapter 15
- There would be death,
famine, the sword, and captivity upon God’s people.
- When God becomes weary of
relenting His punishment then all this destruction will come upon the
people.
- God told Jeremiah to remain
strong, not to come down to the level of the faithless but bring them up
to faith. He would make Jeremiah like a bronze wall and deliver him from
the wicked (Jer 1:18-19).
Chapter 16
- The people walked after,
worshiped, and served false gods. Therefore, God is bringing disaster on
them.
- Their forefathers sinned
and repented. This generation completely forsook God. They never repented
but followed the dictates of their heart.
- The fisherman and hunters
are the Babylonian conquest that God would use to punish His people and
take them into captivity.
- The Gentiles would come to
know God as the true God during Israel’s captivity.
Chapter 17
- A man who trusts in human
strength has forsaken God. He will suffer loss of blessings and the loss
of his soul (written in the earth).
- Those who trust in the Lord
will receive blessings from God and peace in times of trouble. They will
continue to be fruitful even in times of trouble.
- No work shall be done on
the Sabbath but only to hallow the Sabbath.
Chapter 18
- The Lord can build us up or
break us down as a potter does a clay pot when forming it. We should fear
and heed God because we are the clay in His hands.
- If a nation repents of their
evil ways God will relent of the disaster He has planned for it.
- The people attack Jeremiah
with the tongue. They contended with him on all he was saying. They
supported what the priest, the wise man, and their prophets were saying.
They also plotted to kill him.
Chapter 19
- The people will eat the
flesh of their sons and daughters and their friends in desperation to
survive.
- The broken flask
represented the brokenness of Israel from the catastrophe God would bring
upon them because of their sins. The flask (Israel) was irreparable and
would have to be reformed from scratch.
Chapter 20
- Passhur, after hearing the
words of Jeremiah, struck him and put him in stocks.
- Passhur and all his family
and friends to whom he prophesied falsely will go to Babylon in captivity
and would die there
Chapter 21
- There was no reason for
Jerusalem to fight against the king of Babylon because God Himself was
against King Zedekiah and the people. He has set His face against the city
for adversity and not for good.
- The King was admonished to
do justice or be destroyed.
Chapter 22
- Those who knew God did
justice and righteousness and helped the poor and needy.
- The remaining kings will
all face destruction, desolation, and unglorified deaths. [Jeremiah likely
spoke these words after King Josiah’s death and after the reigns of each
of the sons (Jehoahaz - a son; Jehoiakim - a son; Jehoiachin - a
grandson). This time period of the sons took eleven and a half years. It
is possible Jeremiah speaks this during the reign of Zedekiah
(Jehoiachin's uncle, Jehoiakim’s brother) as a reminder to the people of
the finality of God’s previous judgment on these kings. (2 Ki 23:31-37; 2
Ch 36:1-14).]
Chapter 23
- Jesus is the branch of
righteousness to come.
- The priest and the prophets
were profane. They misled and did not correct the people making them
worthless and sinful before God.
- Because of the profaneness
of the priests, the false oracles of the prophets, and the evil hearts of
the people God is going to utterly forget and forsake them and cast them
from His presence.
Chapter 24
- The good figs are those
taken in the first captivity. They were taken for their own good and would
find repentance there. God would bring them back and build them up. The
bad figs represent those left in the city with King Zedekiah. They are to
be driven into all the surrounding land and be consumed until none of them
are left.
Chapter 25
- The people would be in
captivity for seventy years.
- If God punishes His own
people how could the other nations expect to go unpunished?
Chapter 26
- Jeremiah prophesied against
the house of the Lord and the city. The people wanted to keep him from
speaking these words.
- Certain elders of the land
and Ahikam helped Jeremiah. (They were of the good figs that would not be
killed with the sword.)
Chapter 27
- They would serve under
three generations of kings, Nebuchadnezzer, his son, and his son’s son.
- Babylon would be taken over
by other nations and serve them after God finished using them against
Israel.
- The rest of the vessels not
taken during the first wave of Babylon against the city will also be taken
to Babylon. They will remain there until God allows them to be returned.
Chapter 28
- Hananiah prophesied
(falsely) that all the captives and all the vessels of the Lord's house
would return to Jerusalem within two full years.
- If the things a prophet
says comes true then that prophet was truly sent by God.
- Jeremiah prophesied
Hananiah would die that year. He died two months later.
Chapter 29
- Jeremiah sent his letter to
the captives in Babylon by the messengers of King Zedekiah who were
reporting to the king of Babylon.
- Jeremiah told the people to
multiply and live in peace in their captivity so they would not be
diminished. They would be captive for seventy years.
- At the end of the seventy
years when the people came back to their land if they sought God with all
their heart, prayed to Him, and called upon Him God would listen to them.
- Shemaiah wrote to Zephaniah
the priest that Jeremiah was a demented man who thought he was a prophet.
He should be stopped from writing and saying the things he was saying. He
should be locked up and put in stocks.
- Shemaiah would die in
Babylon and he would have no descendants.
Chapter 30
- Jeremiah wrote a book to
record and to remind the people of all that God has spoke to them through
Jeremiah once they come out of captivity.
Chapter 31
- God will guide His people
by His spirit and through godly priests and other followers, as a father
will guide his son.
- God will return His people
from their enemies and captivity to freedom in their own land. Those who
will return have been redeemed through the punishment and deaths of those
God allowed to die during the Babylonian siege and captivity. The ransom
is God allowing Babylon to benefit from Israel’s captivity. (God will
redeem and ransom all people through Jesus from the bonds of Satan.)
- The descendants of Rachel
have been carried away captive by Babylon. When Jesus is born, King Herod
will kill all the young children two years and under to destroy Jesus.
Rachel is said to be weeping here too.
- God will send forth His
Spirit for all men to be put in their hearts and minds to guide them into
righteousness by Him in all things.
Chapter 32
- Zedekiah put Jeremiah in
jail because he did not like the words spoken to him by Jeremiah warning
him of the coming calamity to Judah and his own impending capture by the
Chaldeans.
- Jeremiah bought the field
now in a time of trouble as a sign that God would bring His people back
again to their own land to be blessed and dwell freely. “Houses, fields,
and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.”
Chapter 33
- The voice of gladness, joy,
and the sacrifice of praise will return to Jerusalem.
- Jesus would become the
Branch of Righteousness who would save Israel.
- Jerusalem will be
identified with the Messiah, The Lord Our Righteousness.
Chapter 34
- King Zedekiah would be
taken captive to Babylon and die there. He would not die by the sword. (In
2 Kings 25:7 we find that Zedekiah was taken before Nebuchadnezzar and had
to watch his sons be killed before him and then had his eyes put out by
the Chaldeans. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah of King Zedekiah in
Jer 32:2-5).
- King Zedekiah tried to
enforce the law concerning the release of slaves in the seventh year of
their service.
- The people turned back and
made their released slaves return and put them once again in subjection.
This was in direct contrast, a corruption, and a defilement of the word of
God.
Chapter 35
- The Rechabites were
descendants of the Kenites (1 Ch 2:55; the people of Moses’ father-in-law
– Judges 1:16) who dwelled with Israel and followed the instructions and
practiced the purity of their forefathers. They did not drink wine, build
houses for themselves, sow seed, or plant vineyards. Jehonadab the son of
Rechab, went with Jehu when Jehu slew all the house of King Ahab (2 Kings
10:15-17).
- God wanted the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to know they should obey Him as
strictly as the Rechabites had obeyed the instruction of their father.
- The Rechabites will never
lack a descendant to stand before the Lord.
Chapter 36
- God hoped the people would
fear the things coming against them and therefore repent and turn back to
Him. He would then forgive their iniquities and relent of the calamities
He was going to send against them.
- Jehoiakim cut the scroll
up and through it in the fire. He did not want to here the words of
Jeremiah.
Chapter 37
- Jeremiah was imprisoned in
the dungeon of the house of Jonathan the scribe for they had made that the
prison.
- Jeremiah was moved to the
court of the house of Jonathan and was given a piece of daily bread until
it was all gone in the city.
Chapter 38
- The princes of Judah had
Jeremiah put in a mire filled deep dungeon to die a slow death (from
starvation, exposure, or disease).
- Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian
eunuch in the king;s house, spoke to the king and convinced him to get
Jeremiah out of the mire pit and back into the court of the prison.
- Zedekiah knew God was with
Jeremiah. He wanted to know what was the word of the Lord. He did not want
the people or princes to hear their conversation lest they come against
him for confiding in Jeremiah (the people despised Jeremiah for his words
against them).
Chapter 39
- Zedekiah did not heed the
words of Jeremiah. Therefore, his sons were killed before his eyes and
then his eyes were put out. He was carried off in fetters to Babylon.
- The poor were left in the
land and given vineyards and fields.
- Jeremiah was released from
his chains to dwell freely with the people.
- Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian
eunuch who saved Jeremiah from the mire pit was spared his life and not
taken to Babylon.
Chapter 40
- Gedaliah was put in charge
over the remnant of Judah. Gedaliah was the son of Ahikam, the son of
Shaphan the scribe to King Josiah and who found the book of the law in the
temple. Ahikam, his son was sent with others to the prophetess Huldah to
inquire of the words of the book (2 Kings 22:9-14).
- Gedeliah was warned that
the king of the Ammonites planned to murder him.
Chapter 41
- Ishmael killed Gedaliah
and all the Jews who were with him and the Chaldeans who were there.
- Ishmael killed seventy of
the eighty men from Shiloh who had come to mourn at the house of the Lord.
- Johanan and all the
captains of the forces came to rescue the people from Ishmael.
- The people were afraid the
Chaldeans would take revenge because Ishmael had killed Gedeliah who they
put as governor and also killed some officers of Babylon in his murderous
rampage.
Chapter 42
- The rescued remnant of
Johanan was advised to stay in the land of Judah and trust God. He would
protect them. They were not to go to Egypt or they would die by the sword,
famine, and pestilence.
- They wanted Jeremiah’s
blessing from God but they were determined to go to Egypt.
Chapter 43
- Johanan and the people
chose to dwell in the land of Egypt.
- The king of Babylon will
come to Egypt and set up his royal pavillion there and strike the land of
Egypt with death, the sword, and captivity
Chapter 44
- The people soon began to
worship the gods of the land of Egypt.
- The king of Egypt will be
handed over to his enemies and those who seek his life.
Chapter 45
- God would bless Baruch
(the writer of the book for Jeremiah (Jer 36:4) by sparing his life
wherever he may go during the desolation and captivity of Judah.
Chapter 46
- The people of Judah were
returning to Egypt (where they started) for a better life and to escape
Babylon yet Egypt would be destroyed and come under the rule of Babylon.
Chapter 47
- The attack by Egypt was
only the beginning of a greater enemy to come. Babylon is the flood that
is coming.
- The Philistines will be
plundered.
- Babylon will not stop
until God stops them.
Chapter 48
- The nation who God sends
to desolate Moab will be cursed if they do not complete the work.
- Moab trusted in their
works and treasures and in their God Chemosh along with their exceeding
pride, arrogance, and haughtiness against the Lord was their downfall.
Chapter 49
- Ammon, Edom, Damascus
(Syria), Kedar, Hazor, and Elam would suffer God’s wrath for their own
sins, idolatry, and their contentions against Israel.
Chapter 50
- Babylon has become
prideful and rejoiced in their devouring of God's people. They do not
acknowledge God or His will.
- Babylon will be destroyed
by another nation. No one will ever dwell in his or her city again.
- Israel and Judah will come
back to Zion and seek to join themselves with the Lord.
- The king of Assyria and
the king of Babylon were the first and the last to scatter Israel.
Chapter 51
- We must pull ourselves out
of sin, covetousness, and forms of idolatry so we will not be part of the
sins of the world. Babylon represents this sinfulness. We must physically
and spiritually remove ourselves from anything or anyone that does not
conform to the ways of God.
- A mountain could signify
what people followed or worshiped. It also represented a power nation.
Babylon was a powerful nation that devastated and corrupted the nations
they conquered. They did not acknowledge God and worshiped idols. Babylon
destroyed people’s lives and led others into their sins and idolatry.
- A confederation of nations
under the empire of the Medes would come against Babylon to end that
nation.
- God’s people, Judah, have
been severly bruised and trodden on by Babylon like grain on the threshing
floor.
- The sea and springs
represent the source of growth, wealth, and power of the nation. Babylon’s
power will be exhausted and there would be no inhabitants in the land
forever.
Chapter 52
- Jerusalem was under siege
approximately two years and six months.
- Nebuzaradan burned down
the house of the Lord and carried away all the valuable utensils, items,
and fixtures used in the service to the Lord.