Josiah 13^th year

1:1, 25:3

Jeremiah started prophesying as a young man (Josiah was 21)

Josiah 13^th year

1:4-10

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah followed by conversation.  God touched his mouth.

Josiah 13^th year

1:11-12

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. He saw an almond rod.  Confirmation that what he saw was right.

Josiah 13^th year

1:13-19

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time.  He saw a pot.  Explanation of the meaning.

Josiah 13^th year

2:1-3:5

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  “Just now called to me” may refer to Josiah’s reformation, started in the 12^th year of his reign or maybe some earlier reformation.

In the days of Josiah

Assume 13^th year?

3:6-10

The Lord said to Jeremiah.

Israel apostate and sent away for defiling the land.

Josiah 13^th year?

3:11-4:2

The Lord said to me.  Message to Israel (the north) with a brief closing message to Judah.  Delivered in cities of Israel?  Closing message to Judah.  May have been delivered when Josiah was travelling through Israel cleansing the land after his 12^th year and before the 18^th year.

Josiah 16^th year

4:3-4

The Lord says to Judah and Jerusalem.  Change or else.

Josiah 18^th year?

7:1-8:3

The Lord said to Jeremiah.

Amend ways and Judah can stay.  Do not pray for this people – I will not listen.  They will not listen to Jeremiah’s message, either.  Topheth.  Bones. Scribes have practiced deceit.  Punishment.

Allows for repentance and Judah staying in the land (7:5-7).

Josiah 18^th year?

8:4-9:26

You shall say to them.  Probably not a separate section from 7:1-8:3. Perpetual apostasy.  Discussion with God.

Josiah’s 18^th year during celebrations of Passover or soon after?

16:1-13;

16:14-17:4

The word of the Lord came to me.  Don’t marry.  Don’t join in mourning, or rejoicing with them.  They will ask: What have we done wrong?  God will send them to other lands and be famous for recalling them from those lands.  Their sin is written on their hearts.

Josiah 18^th-20^th year – up to 2 years after book of law found?

11:1-17

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord to be delivered in the cities of Judah (11:6).  Hear the words of the covenant (11:2, 6).  Judah must keep the covenant made with God.

1 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35 speak of the “Book of the Covenant”

11:9-10 “A plot” “they have turned back to the iniquities of their fathers”.

Josiah’s 21^st year?

17:5-18

Thus says the Lord: Cursed is he who trusts in man.  Heart is deceitful.  Conversation with God which suggests current persecution of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah asks God to bring the day of evil on them.

Somewhere between 18^th and 28^th years of Josiah with preference for later times?

17:19-27

Thus said the Lord:  Go and stand in all the gate of Jerusalem and give them a message about keeping Sabbath.  Repentance is still possible (17:24-26) else destruction.  Does not seem to follow on directly from 17:5-18, but it may do so.  Mentions “kings” so maybe subsequent kings were there to listen also.  That would make a later date more likely.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

48:1-47

The word of the Lord of hosts.  Punishment coming to Moab, but God will restore them.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

49:1-6

So says the Lord.  Punishment to Ammonites, but God will restore them.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

49:7-22

So says the Lord of hosts.  Permanent destruction of Edom.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

49:23-27

Destruction of Damascus/Syria.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

49:28-33

Concerning Kedah and Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed  (KJV “shall smite” ie. future).  This comment was probably added afterwards because later it says that Nebuchadnezzar has made a plan (future) to destroy.  So says the Lord about the destruction of kingdoms of Kedar and Hazor. 49:29 “Terror on every side!”  Could be at the same time as others around it or any time up to when the destruction occurred.  We don’t know when that was.

Before 4^th year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:9,13)

49:34-39

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah.  Punishment of Elam, but God will restore.

Before Pharaoh struck Gaza (ie. from south):  guess to be in the time of Josiah 27^th year

47:1-7

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Destruction coming from north to punish Philistines.  (NB: “north”, so this did not refer to Pharaoh’s destruction of Gaza).  Pharaoh did not leave Egypt again after return from Carchemish (2 Kings 24:7-8)

Jehoiakim (at start of reign)

22:1-12

So says the Lord.  Go to the king’s house and speak to him.  Do justice and righteousness and forgiveness is still possible (22:3-4).  (King was a son of Josiah (22:15), and Jehoiakim is referred to (22:18)).  Shallum (Jehoahaz) had been taken away and would die in captivity.

Jehoiakim 1^st year?

11:18-23

No introduction.  Plot to kill Jeremiah.

Jehoiakim 1^st year?

26:20-23

Reporting of earlier killing by Jehoiakim of the prophet Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim after he fled to Egypt and was brought back in the “beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim”.

Jehoiakim 1^st year

18:1-23

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah.  Go to potter’s house and watch.  Potter reshaped pot.  God can do the same.  Speak to people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Starts with option of reversing promised punishment which would be appropriate for start of Jehoiakim’s reign.  Plot against Jeremiah followed.  (May just follow on from chapter 17.  See also Ezekiel 17/18 with very similar wording – but that would be in the time of Zedekiah.)

Beginning of reign of Jehoiakim

26:1-24

The word of the Lord given to Jeremiah.  Jeremiah gave God’s message in the temple.  Priests, prophets and people tried to have him killed, but he did not back down and was released.

Jehoiakim 3^rd year when they knew Babylonians were coming?

5:1-6:30

No introduction.

Jeremiah having conversation with God?  Possibly chapter 6 is a separate section at much the same time, but if so, it also has no introduction.  6:25 “terror is on every side”

(Probably not Jehoahaz’ time because Jeremiah 1:3 does not mention God speaking to Jeremiah in Jehoahaz’ reign at all.)

Jehoiakim 3^rd year (before invasion by Nebuchadnezzar)

19:1-20:18

So says the Lord.  Buy a potter’s earthen jar.  Get elders.  Break jar before them.  God will break the city and its people in the same way.  Jeremiah followed instructions, then went to the court of the house of the Lord and said God would bring evil on the city.  Pashhur son of Immer, chief officer in temple struck Jeremiah and put him in the stocks. Freed him the next day.  Jeremiah prophesies terror on every side for him.  Jeremiah complains to God. 20:3, 10 “Terror [is] on every side!”

Beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (majority of Hebrew manuscripts): assume 3^rd year of Jehoiakim.

27:1-11

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Make yoke and wear it.  Messages for foreign kings who had come for a meeting (with Zedekiah in Hebrew text) about the threat of Nebuchadnezzar. NB: LXX does not include 27:1 and most Hebrew manuscripts say “Jehoiakim”, although some say "Zedekiah".  LXX omits Zedekiah in 27:3.  27:12 may just refer to message being repeated to Zedekiah.

Jehoiakim 4^th year

25:1-3; 4-38

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah warning of 70 years banishment followed by punishment of Babylon.  God’s cup of wrath.  23 years of prophecies have been ignored.  All nations around will be judged. Cup of wrath for Egypt, Uz, Philistines, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, etc.  Then Babylon.

Jehoiakim 4^th year

46:1-12

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Message to Pharaoh Neco after battle of Carchemish.  46:5 “terror on every side!”

Jehoiakim 4^th year

36:1-8

Jeremiah dictated all the words God had said and Baruch wrote them on a scroll.

Jehoiakim 4^th year

45:1(-5)

After/while  Baruch wrote all of Jeremiah’s words from God on a scroll.  Baruch told he would escape the destruction of Judah with his life.

Jehoiakim 4^th year just before invasion by Nebuchadnezzar?

4:5-31

Declare in Judah.  May be linked with 4:3-4.

Invaders have set off and are coming.  Vision of destruction.

Since invaders have set off (assuming this to be literal), this must have been near the battle of Carchemish as Neco went to help Assyria against Babylon in 605BC.

Jehoiakim: after 3^rd/4^th year (ie 1^st year of Nebuchadnezzar)

35:1-19

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Rechabites refuse to drink wine.  Only staying in Jerusalem because of the threat of Nebuchadnezzar (which came in 3^rd/4^th year of Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1)).

Jehoiakim 3^rd/4^th year?

14:1-22

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah about the drought.  Assume a drought and famine when or immediately after Nebuchadnezzar invaded since Jehoiakim resisted despite Jeremiah’s instructions (see 27:8).

(14:17 virgin daughter broken with a great blow.  14:18 go out into the field and see those pierced by the sword.)

Jehoiakim 5^th year, 9^th month

36:9-26

All the people of Jerusalem and all the people who came in from the cities of Judah proclaimed a fast before the Lord.  Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll first to the people, then to some rulers who were concerned by its contents, and then to the king who cut it up and burned it.

Jehoiakim 5^th year, 9^th month

36:27-32

The Lord told Jeremiah to write the scroll again and give a message to Jehoiakim that he would have no one to continue to reign in Jerusalem and that his corpse would be thrown out.  The scroll was written again and much more added to it.

Jehoiakim 9^th year?

13:1-5

Thus says the Lord to me.

Hide a loincloth near Euphrates.

Jehoiakim (near end of reign)

22:13-23

No introduction.

Jehoiakim will have the burial of a donkey, dragged out of the gates of Jerusalem and thrown out.

Jehoiachin?

13:6-27

The Lord said to me.

Collects ruined loincloth.

Say to king and queen mother (v18) (see 22:26 and 29:2)

Jehoiachin

22:24-30

As the Lord lives, Coniah will be given into hands of those seeking his life: Nebuchadnezzar.  Childless: not prosper, none of his seed will sit on throne of David and rule any more in Judah.

Jehoiachin?

23:1-40

No introduction, so it probably follows on from 22:30.  Regathering, good shepherd, David.  Prophets, priests evil.  God will forsake them.

Jehoiachin 3^rd month

52:28

3,023 Jews into captivity (probably including Ezekiel)

Note that 2 King 24:14-16 refers to 10,000.  The 3,023 may have been men taken from outside the city and sent to Babylon separately.

Zedekiah 1^st year

52:1

21 when he became king

Zedekiah start

24:1-10

The Lord made me see good figs (those in captivity); bad figs (Zedekiah and those remaining).

After Jeconiah taken away

29:1-32

Jeremiah sent a letter (with Gemariah and Elasah the son of Shaphan) to the exiles saying there would be 70 years of exile, then people would be brought back.  Includes “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.”  Messages to false prophets and bad priest/prophet.  Mentions “vile figs” (v17) but uses different word from “bad figs” in 24:8.

Continuing after Jeconiah was taken away?

30:1-31:40

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Write all the words I have spoken to you in a book.  God will punish and revive.  Regather.  New covenant.  City will be built.  Refers to yoke being broken.

Zedekiah 4^th year

51:59-64

The word which Jeremiah commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah the son of Maaseiah when he went with Zedekiah to Babylon.  Jeremiah sends letter/scroll to Babylon.

Beginning of reign of Zedekiah - 4^th year before 5^th month

27:12-22

Same year as 28:12.  Spoke same message (as 27:1-11) to Zedekiah.  Submit to king of Babylon’s yoke.  Ignore false prophets.  Vessels of the temple will go to Babylon until God calls for them.

Zedekiah  4^th year, 5^th month (spoken of as the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah – same year as 27:12)

28:1-16

False prophet Hananiah prophesied in the name of the Lord that Babylon would be broken in 2 years.  God said he would die that year.

Zedekiah 4^th year, 7^th month

28:17

False prophet Hananiah dies in 7^th month.

Zedekiah’s 6^th year, 6^th month or later.

12:1-15

No introduction.  Starts with the words of Jeremiah.

12:6 “even your brothers and the house of your father” More than one brother and father dead?  Assume Hilkiah died in 20^th year of Josiah (620BC).

I have forsaken my house.  Ezekiel 8-11 (Zedekiah, 6 year, 6 month)

The whole land is a desolation (12:11)

Neighbours attacking (12:14).

Zedekiah’s 8^th/9^th year?

34:1-10

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.  Nebuchadnezzar attacking.  Rich people make a covenant to free Hebrew slaves.

Zedekiah 8^th or early 9th year – some time before 10^th month of 9^th year

37:1-16

The word of the Lord told Jeremiah to tell Zedekiah that Pharaoh’s army which had come to help would return to Egypt and then Jeremiah tries to leave Jerusalem to receive inheritance.  Arrested, beaten, imprisoned.

Zedekiah’s 9^th year?

34:11-22

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  People had gone back on their covenant and God condemns them for this.

Zedekiah 9^th year, 10^th month

(10^th day)

39:1

Nebuchadnezzar returns and lays siege to Jerusalem

Zedekiah 9^th year, 10^th month

(10^th day)

52:4

Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to Jerusalem

Zedekiah 9^th or 10^th year

21:1-14

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah when Pashur son of Malchiah (38:1) and Zephaniah the priest were sent to Jeremiah by Zedekiah to ask about the results of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem.  God’s answer is that he is against them and that punishment and death are coming.

Zedekiah 10^th year

(Neb’s 18^th year)

32:1-44

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah.  Nebuchadnezzar besieging Jerusalem.  Jeremiah in the court of the guard (32:2).  Jeremiah bought land in Anathoth from Hanamel, son of Shallum.  He then asks God to explain why.  Final answer is that buying and selling will again take place.

Zedekiah 10^th year

(Neb’s 18^th year)

52:29

832 more Jews taken into captivity.

Zedekiah’s 10^th year?

10:1-25

Hear the word of the Lord.

Idols are useless.

You who live under siege (10:17).

Zedekiah 10^th/11^th year

33:1-26

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still shut up in the court of the guard (33:1).

Zedekiah 11^th year?

38:1-28

Jeremiah thrown into the mire by Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah (see Jehucal in 37:4) and Pashhur the son of Malchijah (21:1).  Taken out of the mire by Ebed-melech.  Speaks to Zedekiah.  No more bread in the city (38:9).  Stayed in court of the guard until the city was taken (38:28).

Zedekiah 11^th year, 4^th month,

9^th day

39:2-14

Zedekiah captured, Jerusalem defeated.  Jeremiah taken out of the court of the guard.

Zedekiah 11^th year, 4^th month,

9^th day

52:5-11

Jerusalem defeated, Zedekiah captured and his sons were killed before he was blinded and taken to Babylon.

Zedekiah 11^th year

39:15-18

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in court of the guard.  Message to Ebed-melech.

After end of Zedekiah’s reign

40:1-5

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah (probably the content of Jeremiah 15, since there is no message in Jeremiah 40:1-5).  After Jeremiah was taken to Ramah and then freed from among exiles being taken to Babylon.  Offered the choice of where to go, he was given food and a  reward and freed.  Jeremiah 15 probably follows this passage.

After capture of Jerusalem (see 40:5-6) or maybe just before?

15:1-21

The Lord said to me.

Where shall we go?  To death, sword, famine, captivity.

15:7 sift with fork in gates of land (Riblah)

15:8 widows numerous

15:11 Jeremiah freed for good (by Babylonians)

15:14 fire is kindled (“is” like 17:4 not “will be” as in 17:27; 21:14; 43:12; 49:27; 50:32)

15:19-20 Jeremiah to be restored as a prophet.

Zedekiah 11^th year, 5^th month,

10^th day

52:12-27

Temple and every important building in Jerusalem destroyed.  Temple equipment, furnishing and decorations taken away.  All rulers, chief priests (Seraiah and Zephaniah), other leaders killed (as prophesied).

After end of Zedekiah’s reign

40:6-16

Gedaliah sets up government in Mizpah.  Army leaders warn Gedaliah about Ishmael the son of Nethaniah.  He does not believe them.

After end of Zedekiah’s reign

39:14

Jeremiah handed over to Gedaliah.  Free to go in and out (see 40:6).

Zedekiah 11^th year, 7^th month

41:1-18

Gedaliah and Chaldean soldiers and various others killed.  Ishmael runs to Ammonites.  People want to go to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians, but wait at the inn of Chimham (42:17) near Bethlehem.

After destruction of Jerusalem

50:1-51:58

The word that the Lord spoke.  Destruction to Babylon.  Speaks of destruction of Judah as having already happened (50:7, 11).

After 7^th month (take it as 1^st month of next year because it suits me that way for Jeremiah’s birthday).

42:1-43:13

Leaders ask for direction from God, but then ignore it.  They go to Egypt and take Jeremiah and others with them.

After end of Zedekiah’s reign

44:1-30

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah.  Messages to the Israelites in Egypt.

After end of Zedekiah’s reign

46:13-26

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.  Nebuchadnezzar will come to Egypt.  Then Egypt will be inhabited as in the past.

46:27-28

Judah/Israel will return but not unpunished.

Nebuchanezzar 23^rd year

(5 years after Jerusalem destroyed)

52:30

745 more Jews taken into captivity.

Jehoiachin’s exile 37^th year

(26 years after Jerusalem destroyed)

52:31-34

Jehoiachin freed from prison.