Holy Prophet Jeremiah

Life

Born six hundred years before Christ in the village of Anathoth, not far from Jerusalem. He began to prophesy in his fifteenth year, in the time of King Josiah. He prophesied repentance to the king and the nobles and the false prophets and the priests; and in the time of that King Josiah he barely saved his life from the murderous hand of the embittered nobles. To King Jehoiakim he prophesied that his burial would be like the burial of a donkey — that is, he would be cast out dead beyond Jerusalem, and his body would be dragged along the ground for a long time without burial. Because of this, Jeremiah was thrown into prison. Being unable to write in prison, Jeremiah summoned Baruch, who stood by the small window of the prison while Jeremiah dictated to him. When this prophecy was read to the king, the angry king seized the document and cast it into the fire. The Providence of God saved Jeremiah from prison, and upon Jehoiakim the prophetic word was fulfilled. To King Jeconiah he prophesied that he would be led away to Babylon with his entire family and would die there — all of which soon came to pass. Under King Zedekiah, Jeremiah placed a yoke upon his own neck and walked through Jerusalem, prophesying the fall of Jerusalem and slavery under the yoke of the Babylonians. He wrote to the Jewish captives in Babylon not to hope for a return to Jerusalem, for they would remain in Babylon for seventy years — which indeed came to pass. In the Valley of Topheth, below Jerusalem, where the Jews offered their children as sacrifices to idols, Jeremiah took a whole vessel in his hands and shattered it before the people, prophesying the imminent destruction of the Kingdom of Judah. Soon the Babylonians seized Jerusalem, slew King Zedekiah, plundered and destroyed the city, and cut down a vast number of Jews in the Valley of Topheth, at the very place where children had been slaughtered as sacrifices to idols, and where the prophet had shattered this vessel. Jeremiah, together with the Levites, took the Ark from the Temple and carried it to Mount Nebo, where Moses had died, and there hid it in a cave. The fire from the Temple he hid in a deep well. He was compelled by certain Jews to go with them to Egypt, where he lived for four years, and was then stoned to death by his own countrymen. To the Egyptians he had prophesied the destruction of their idols and the coming to Egypt of the Virgin with the Child. There is a tradition that Alexander the Great himself visited the tomb of the Prophet Jeremiah. By the command of Alexander, the body of Jeremiah was transferred and buried in Alexandria.

From the Hymn of Praise

Jeremiah, virgin and prophet,God's will he proclaims unto menWhen in sin the people had rottedAnd trampled God's laws underfoot.