5. Jeremiah, Book of. Arrangement: "The absence of any chronological order in the present structure of the collection of Jeremiah's prophecies is obvious at the first glance; and this has led some writers (Blayney, Pref. of Jeremiah) to the belief that, as the book now stands, there is nothing but the wildest confusion—'a preposterous jumbling together' of prophecies of different dates. Attempts to reconstruct the book on a chronological basis have been made by almost all commentators on it since the revival of criticism; and the result of the labors of the more recent critics has been to modify the somewhat hasty judgment of the English divine (Blayney). Whatever points of difference there may be in the hypothesis of Movers, Hitzig, Ewald, Bunsen, Nagelsbach, and others, they agree in admitting traces of an order in the midst of the seeming irregularity, and endeavor to account, more or less satisfactorily, for the apparent anomalies. The conclusion of the three last-named is that we have the book substantially in the same state as that in which it left the hands of the prophet, or his disciple Baruch." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 1261.)
5. Jeremiah: "The author of the prophecies of this book was the son of Hilkiah, a priest, and a native of the priestly city of Anathoth, situated three miles north of Jerusalem. He was early called to the prophetic office (chap. i: 6), and began his career as a prophet in his native place. This he soon left, to prosecute his calling in Jerusalem; and here, in the exercises of it, he spent the greater part of his life. His ministry commenced seventy years after the close of Isaiah's, and extended from the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign to the eleventh of Zedekiah's, i. e., from 629 to 588 B. C., thus embracing a period of forty-one years. It was a life-long protest against the iniquity and folly of his countrymen, and conceived in bitter foreboding of the hopeless ruin they were bringing down upon their heads." (Bagster's Bible Helps, p. 37.)
6. Jeremiah and His Contemporaries: "Jeremiah was contemporary with Zephiniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Daniel. None of these, however, are in any remarkable way connected with him, except Ezekiel. The writings and character of these two eminent prophets furnish many very interesting points both of comparison and contrast. Both, during a long series of years, were laboring at the same time and for the same object. The representations of both, far separated as they were from each other, are in substance singularly accordant; yet there is at the same time a marked difference in their modes of statement, and a still more striking diversity in the character and natural disposition of the two. No one who compares them can fail to perceive that the mind of Jeremiah was of a softer and more delicate texture than that of his illustrious contemporary. His whole history convinces us that he was by nature mild and retiring." (Cycl. of Biblical Literature, Vol. II, p. 83.)
LESSON XIV.
SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE—NOTE 3.
THE PROPHETIC BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. (Continued.)
| ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
| I. Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Captivity.
1. Prophecies against Jerusalem and the Nation, chaps. i-xxiv. 2. Prophecies of the Restoration of Israel, chaps. xxv-xxxix. 3. Visions of the Reconstruction of the Temple, chaps. xl-xlviii. 4. Prophecy of the Resurrection, chap. xxxvi: 1-14. | Book of Ezekiel. All the Dictionaries, Bible Helps, Bible Treasury, Kitto's Biblical Literature previously quoted, Art. "Ezekiel." Note 1. |
| II. Daniel, Book of
1. Historical--i-vi. 2. Prophetical--the Rise and Fall of Empires, vii-xii. | Book of Daniel I-XII. All the above Dictionaries and Bible Helps, Encyclopaedias, etc. above cited. Art. "Daniel." Church History Vol. I, Introduction, pp. xxxvi-xl. Note 2. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."—EZEKIEL.
NOTES.
1. Ezekiel: "The author of this book was a native of Jerusalem, and, like Jeremiah, of priestly descent, a member of a family of some standing in the city. When, as would appear, about twenty-five years of age, and after he had seen some service as a priest, he was carried away captive to Babylon along with Jehoiachin and other noble Jews in 599 B. C., and before the destruction of Jerusalem (II Kings xxiv: 15). He must have been a witness of the plundering of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in II Kings xxiv: 13, and his prophecies give evidence of a familiar acquaintance with its structure (chap. viii: 5-16, etc.) His place of banishment was Tel-Abib, on the banks of the river Chebar, about 200 miles north of Babylon. Here he settled with his family, and here he established himself as the prophet of the captivity, his house being the rendezvous of all who mourned over the dispersion and sought for the restoration of Israel." (Bagster Bible Helps, p. 39.)