Dating Jeremiah

The prophecies of Jeremiah appear in nothing remotely resembling chronological order. The text supplies no explanation for this, but it’s definitely the case. I am confident there is an intentionality in the Holy Spirit’s arrangement of his word, but whatever it may be, his logic defies easy analysis.

Speculations inevitably ensue. Reader suggestions include scribal error, editorial accident, literary device, arrangement by topic or theme, ordering by length of message and even multiple authors.

Reasons That Aren’t Reasons

Believers in the inspiration of scripture will naturally be obligated to reject several of these suggested explanations.

Other suggested reasons for the order of the prophecies are observably not the case. On the issue of thematic or topical arrangement, careful analysis shows the narrative often jumps from judgment to blessing and back within the same dated oracles, as is also the case with other prophets like Isaiah. It also jumps across time. One obvious example: the famous prophecy concerning the millennial blessings associated with David’s Righteous Branch in chapter 23 is sandwiched right between warnings to present-day evil shepherds and adulterous prophets. Some very scholarly commentators have made ingenious and carefully researched attempts to demonstrate thematic connections I just don’t see for myself. You can find the best of these here.

On the issue of possible arrangement by length of message, to the best of my knowledge ordering from longest to shortest is a Greek device relevant to NT book order. I’m not aware Hebrews ever used it, and to my knowledge no historic order of the OT books has ever been based on it. It is certainly not the case with the length of Jeremiah’s prophecies. There is no such pattern.

In the end, no explanation for the order of prophecies in Jeremiah that I’ve come across yet fully satisfies me.

Five Kings and Forty Years

Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of the last five Judean kings and into the Babylonian captivity, a period of over forty years that included the last forty years of Judah’s nationhood:

King	Reigned	Duration
Josiah	640-608	31 years; Jeremiah started in year 13
Jehoahaz	608	3 months
Jehoiakim	608-597	11 years
Jehoiachin	597	3 months
Zedekiah	597-586	11 years; Jeremiah continued thereafter

The Dated Prophecies of Jeremiah in Order

I count 25 prophecies either dated precisely or linked to events that can be dated more broadly but still placed in some kind of order. Twenty prophecies date to reigns of kings: thirteen to the reign of Zedekiah, six to Jehoiakim, and one lengthy prophecy to the reign of Josiah. Only a small number of these are consecutive. The remaining five date to the period after the fall of Jerusalem. These are consecutive.

3:6  Josiah, after thirteenth year: Judah worse than Israel; prophecies of Judah’s desolation and Israel’s restoration.

26:1  Jehoiakim, beginning of reign (608 BC): Repent, or the Lord will make the temple like Shiloh.

35:1  Jehoiakim, sometime during his 11-year reign: Blessing on the Rechabites; disaster on Judah.

46:1  Jehoiakim, prior to fourth year: Nebuchadnezzar to defeat Pharaoh Neco and strike Egypt; also prophecies against Moab, Gaza, Ammonites, Edom, Syria, Kedar and Elam.

25:1  Jehoiakim, fourth year: Seventy years of captivity; destruction of Babylon; judgment of Egypt, Uz, Philistines, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, etc.

45:1  Jehoiakim, fourth year: To Baruch, when he complained while writing the book the first time, a promise that he would have his life as a prize of war.

36:1  Jehoiakim, fourth year: The scroll with the message delivered in fifth year, ninth month, which included all the words spoken against Israel, Judah and the nations from the days of Josiah to that date, 23 years’ worth of prophecies burned by Jehoiakim.

24:1  Zedekiah, just after Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon: Exiles to be treated well; rebels to suffer and die.

29:1  Zedekiah, just after Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon: To the surviving exiles in Babylon, settle down there and seek the welfare of Babylon; repeat of the seventy years; judgment on the false prophets.

27:1  Zedekiah, beginning of reign (597 BC): To Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, then to Zedekiah, serve Nebuchadnezzar or be punished; the remaining vessels in the temple will be taken away.

37:1  Zedekiah, beginning of reign (597 BC), prior to Jeremiah’s imprisonment: Pharaoh’s army will go home and the Chaldeans will come back.

51:59  Zedekiah, fourth year, when he visited Babylon: All the contents of chapters 50 and 51 concerning the utter destruction of Babylon.

28:1  Zedekiah, fourth year, fifth month: The death of Hananiah the false prophet.

21:1  Zedekiah, at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s war against him, probably in his ninth year, tenth month (39:1): Famine, sword and pestilence; surrender to the Chaldeans or be consumed; behave justly or be judged; prophecies concerning the three previous kings of Judah; the Righteous Branch and restoration; condemnation of the prophets.

32:1  Zedekiah, tenth year: The city to fall; Zedekiah to be taken; Jeremiah ordered to buy a field in Benjamin to confirm Israel’s return to the land; Israel to be gathered and returned.

33:1  Zedekiah, tenth year: The fortunes of Israel to be restored; the eternal covenant with David to be fulfilled.

34:1  Zedekiah, tenth year: The city to be burned; Zedekiah to go to Babylon and die in peace.

34:6  Zedekiah, tenth or eleventh year, when Nebuchadnezzar had temporarily withdrawn from siege: Judgment on those who failed to free their Hebrew slaves as ordered; Nebuchadnezzar to return and burn the city; Judah to be a desolation.

37:11  Zedekiah, after Jeremiah’s imprisonment: Zedekiah to go to Babylon.

38:14  Zedekiah, after Jeremiah’s imprisonment: Surrender and Zedekiah’s family will live and the city will not be burned; keep fighting and you will not escape, and the city will be burned.

39:2  Post-Zedekiah, but dated to his eleventh year, fourth month: Prophecy of blessing to Ebed-melech in verse 15.

40:1  Post-Zedekiah, after fourth month but prior to Gedaliah’s murder: Not clear what the exact content of the word of the Lord was that came to Jeremiah, but perhaps it had to do with the remnant of Judah staying in the land and being blessed.

41:1  Post-Zedekiah, seventh month dates a prophecy to Johanan about not going to Egypt; those who go will die of sword, famine and pestilence.

43:8  Post-Zedekiah, in Egypt: Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Egypt.

44:1  Post-Zedekiah, in Egypt: The remnant of Judah to be consumed; Pharaoh Hophra to be given into the hand of his enemies just as Zedekiah was.

Notes:

1. Jeremiah’s prophecies are undated from 7:1 through 21:1. These may have occurred during the reigns of any of these five kings, though no prophecy ties specifically to either Jehoahaz or Jehoiachin, possibly due to the brevity of their reigns. It’s even possible many of these messages were proclaimed during the eighteen years of Josiah’s reign during which Jeremiah prophesied. None of what appears in these fourteen undated chapters is inconsistent with the harsh invective Jeremiah employed during the comparatively good times when Josiah ruled (3:6 through 6:30). Though Josiah was a godly man and great king, it seems evident his reforms were largely top-down. They did not last after his death, strongly suggesting the people’s hearts remained corrupt despite the imposition of godly behavior. Godly leadership alone does not a godly people make.
2. When you put all the prophecies of Jehoiakim’s reign in order, we may note that God had nothing more to say to him after he burned 23 years’ worth of the prophetic word. That’s disturbing but fair. He heard 18 years of prophecies to his father’s generation and had a least five specific messages directed to him personally. Jeremiah made more prophecies in Zedekiah’s reign than in Jehoiakim’s, but nobody got a fairer shake than Jehoiakim.