In Jeremiah we have an illustrious example of one whose reputation after death became as high and lasting, as the reproach which he endured before death was deep and protracted.  The men of his generation could not appreciate his worth.  His messages they treated with scorn, and him with contumely.  Through a long life of faithful labor it was his lot to endure reproach and calumny.  But neither their unbelief, nor the burning of the roll of his prophecies by Jehoiakim could hinder the fulfilment of his words.  When the captivity had come, as he had predicted, and especially when God’s promise through him that it should end after seventy years had been fulfilled, he was honored as among the greatest of the prophets, and from that day onward his name became as ointment poured forth.  The history of Jeremiah is also peculiarly encouraging to God’s faithful servants who labor on for years amid difficulties and discouragements, and see no fruits of their toils.  When he died it seemed as if all his solemn messages had been wasted upon that ungodly generation.  But they were not lost to the Jews who lived to witness the fulfilment of his predictions in their captivity.  In connection with the labors of Ezekiel and Daniel they contributed greatly to bring about that change for the better which took place during the exile.  Through them, moreover, God provided a treasury of instruction and comfort for his people in all coming ages.  How forcible a comment are his life and labors upon the apostolic declaration made many centuries afterwards:  “Let us not be weary in well-doing:  for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”

12.  Of the prophecies of Jeremiah some are without date, and where the date is given the chronological order is not always observed.  In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the prophet, by God’s direction, dictated to Baruch, and he wrote in a roll of a book all the prophecies which God had communicated to him from the days of Josiah to that time (36:1-4).  When the king had destroyed this roll, he was directed to prepare another containing the same prophecies, and “there were added besides unto them many like words” (36:27-32).  Whatever use may have been made of this manuscript in the compilation of our present book, it is plain that it has not come down to us in its original form as a constituent part of Jeremiah’s prophecies; since in these, as we now have them, there is an intermingling of messages before and after the fourth year of Jehoiakim.  We cannot tell the origin of the present order, nor is it a matter of importance, so far as the instructions to be derived from Jeremiah’s writings are concerned.  Following the Hebrew order (see below) we have the following general divisions: 

(1.) Prophecies addressed to Judah, with which are connected many notices of Jeremiah’s personal history, and at the close of which stands a message to Baruch.  Chaps. 1-45.

(2.) Prophecies against foreign nations.