The Book of Jeremiah

Jeremiah was a Levite from Anathoth, a town that lay a few miles northeast of Jerusalem in the tribal territory of Benjamin. He labored in his prophetic calling from the reign of King Josiah through that of King Zedekiah, approximately forty years. He was contemporary with the prophets Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Lehi, and others (see the chart “The Kings and the Prophets of Israel and Judah,” pp. 232–35). Jeremiah predicted and then lived through the kingdom of Judah’s fall to Babylon.

Sydney B. Sperry wrote: “Jeremiah … found idolatry, hill-worship, and heathen religious practices rampant among his people. Heathen idols stood in the temple [Jeremiah 32:34], children were sacrificed to Baal-Moloch (7:31; 19:5; 32:35), and Baal was especially invoked as the usual heathen deity. … The corruption of the nation’s religious worship was, of course, accompanied by all manner of immorality and unrighteousness, against which the prophet had continually to testify. The poor were forgotten. Jeremiah was surrounded on all sides by almost total apostasy” (The Voice of Israel’s Prophets [1952], 153).

Jeremiah, like Mormon, was called to labor among a people for whom there was little hope because they refused to repent. “Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them” (Jeremiah 11:11; see also Mormon 2:15).

As the world becomes more wicked and the Second Coming draws closer, the prophecies concerning our day have a similar message: Follow the prophet and repent or be destroyed (see Revelation 9:20–21; 16:9, 11; D&C 1:11–16; 43:22–27).

Book of Mormon prophets Lehi and Nephi had access to some of Jeremiah’s prophecies, which were recorded on the brass plates (see 1 Nephi 1:4; 5:13).

• Jeremiah 1–19

• Jeremiah 20–29

• Jeremiah 30–33

• Jeremiah 34–52