Jeremiah, Son of Hilkiah: The Prophet They Struck, Seized and Lowered into a Dungeon

Who He Is and When He Lived

Jeremiah is a prophet, son of Hilkiah (Jeremiah 1:1), and by the reckoning of Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he was active 629 BC to 586 BC, in the era of the divided kingdom. His name carries 124 verses across 40 passages, the great mass of them in the book that bears his name (115), with four in 2 Chronicles, three in Matthew, one in Ezra and one in Daniel. The first place Scripture names him is 2 Chronicles 35:25.

A Name at the Head of the Word

A large share of his mentions are not scenes at all. His name stands at the opening of section after section, where the word comes and he carries it (Jeremiah 1:11; 7:1; 11:1; 14:1; 18:1; 21:3; 24:3; 25:1-2; 25:13). Reading him honestly means admitting that much of his footprint is this: a man named as the one through whom God speaks, with no narrative attached.

The Scenes: Struck, Seized, Imprisoned

Where there are scenes, they are almost all collisions. "Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in Yahweh's house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in Yahweh's house. On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, 'Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib'" (Jeremiah 20:1-3). Released, and still speaking.

In the temple the crowd turns on him: "The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in Yahweh's house. When Jeremiah had finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, 'You shall surely die! Why have you prophesied in Yahweh's name, saying, "This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant?"' All the people were crowded around Jeremiah in Yahweh's house" (Jeremiah 26:7-9). The chapter continues with his answer and its outcome (Jeremiah 26:12; 26:20; 26:24), and elsewhere plots against him are recorded (Jeremiah 18:18; 19:14).

Against Hananiah he does not shout. "Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and broke it. Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, 'Yahweh says: "Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from off the neck of all the nations within two full years."' Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then Yahweh's word came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying," (Jeremiah 28:10-12). He walks away and waits for the word. See also Jeremiah 28:5-6 and 29:29-30.

The arrest at the gate is flatly told: "then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the middle of the people. When he was in Benjamin's gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 'You are defecting to the Chaldeans!' Then Jeremiah said, 'That is false! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans.' But he didn't listen to him; so Irijah seized Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days," (Jeremiah 37:12-18).

Then the dungeon (Jeremiah 38:6-7), and the rescue: "'My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon. He is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.' Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, 'Take from here thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he dies.' So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, 'Now put these rags and worn-out garments under your armpits under the cords.' Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the dungeon; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard" (Jeremiah 38:9-17). The rest of that day and after is recorded at Jeremiah 38:19-20 and 38:27-28, with his release and later movements at Jeremiah 39:14-15 and 40:1-2, and further scenes at Jeremiah 32:1-2; 36:4-5; 36:26-27; 42:4-5; 43:1-2; 51:59-61.

The Failure Named Is Not His

The dossier's scenes record sin, but it belongs to those around him. "But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to Yahweh's words, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 'Pray now to Yahweh our God for us.' Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put him into prison" (Jeremiah 37:2-4). Ask for prayer, refuse the word: that is the pattern, and 2 Chronicles 36:12 names it again. Priests strike him, princes strike him, a crowd demands his death, a prophet breaks the bar off his neck. No scene in this dossier shows Jeremiah himself sinning; it would be dishonest to invent one, and dishonest to pretend the record is therefore gentle.

What We Do Not Know

No children of Jeremiah are named. No tribe or people is given for him. The only family the record supplies is his father, Hilkiah (Jeremiah 1:1). Beyond the passages listed, his end is not carried here. His word outlives him: he is named in 2 Chronicles 36:21-22, Ezra 1:1 and Daniel 9:2.

Named in Matthew

The line into the New Testament runs through three verses, and only three: Matthew 2:17, Matthew 16:14 and Matthew 27:9. The dossier lists the references without their text, so the honest thing is to point and not to paraphrase. Go and read them. The prophet who was struck, seized, imprisoned and lowered into a dungeon is a name the first Gospel keeps reaching for, once when crowds guess who Jesus is, and twice when the evangelist reaches for a fulfilled word.