Michelangelo immortalized Jeremiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican:
The image is a great place to start talking about the mission of Jeremiah. An amazing and relentless prophet, Michelangelo’s Jeremiah seems depressed and sullen. More than any other prophet, his message is one of “doom and gloom” for Jerusalem. He was tireless in preaching the word, but his message was depressing, “Jerusalem will be destroyed by Babylon.” Both he and his message were rejected but at what cost? The very Jewish nation was at stake; Jeremiah was prophesying the end of the king, the end of the city, the end of the temple, the end of the Jews as an independent nation.
Chronology of the Book of Jeremiah
| Kings of Judah | 2 Kings | Jeremiah | 2 Chronicles | 1 Nephi and Jer |
|
Josiah
(640-609 BC)
|
2 Kgs. 22:1-2 | 2 Chron. 34:1-7 | ||
| Jer. 1-3 | 2 Chron. 34:8-19 | |||
| 2 Kgs. 22:3-20 | Jer. 11 | 2 Chron. 34:20-33 | Jer. 7-8 | |
| 2 Kgs. 23:21-23 | 2 Chron. 35:1-19 | Jer. 4-6 | ||
| 2 Kgs. 23:24-28 | 2 Chron. 35:20-27 | |||
| 2 Kgs. 23:29-30 | Jer. 9-10 | |||
| Jehoahaz or Shallum | 2 Kgs. 23:31-35 | 2 Chron. 36:1-4 | Jer. 22-23 | |
|
Jehoiakim or Eliakim
(609-598 BC)
|
2 Kgs. 23:36-37 | Jer. 12-13, 26, 25, 35-36, 45-49 |
2 Chron. 36:5-8
|
|
| 2 Kgs. 24:1-7 | Jer. 15-20 | |||
| Jehoiachin or Coniah | 2 Chron. 36:9-10 | |||
| 2 Kgs. 24:8-16 | Jer. 24 | |||
|
Zedekiah
(598-587 BC)
|
2 Kgs. 24:17-20 | 2 Chron. 36:11-16 | 1 Ne. 1, Jer. 27-31, 21, 37-38 | |
| 2 Kgs. 25:1-3 | Jer. 32, 14, 33-34 | |||
| 2 Kgs. 25:4-21 | 2 Chron. 36:17-21 | Jer. 39, 52:1-30, 40 | ||
| 2 Kgs. 25:22-26 | Jer. 41-44, 50-51 | |||
| 2 Kgs. 25:27-30 | Jer. 52:31-34 |
(Jeremiah chapters 11, 14, and 50-51 are placed based on content rather than chronology in an effort to match current events with Jeremiah’s prophecies. The prophecies may have been given either earlier or later.)