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Jeremiah.

Jeremiah prophesies for over forty years in Judah's last generation before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Called as a young man with the assurance that God had known him "before I formed you in the womb," he preaches a message no one wants to hear — that Judah's sin will bring catastrophe and that surrender to Babylon is God's will. He is imprisoned, beaten, lowered into a cistern, dragged to Egypt. His promise of a new covenant (31:31–34) is one of the great Old Testament prophecies.

Timeline

• Called as a youth, knew before formed in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5)
• Forty years of unheeded preaching
• Imprisoned for treason (Jeremiah 37–38)
• Lowered into a cistern (Jeremiah 38)
• Witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52)
• Carried off to Egypt against his will (Jeremiah 43)

Key verses

• Jeremiah 1:5 →
• Jeremiah 29:11 →
• Jeremiah 31:31-34 →

Why Jeremiah matters

Jeremiah's new-covenant prophecy is foundational to the New Testament — Hebrews 8 quotes it at length to argue that Christ's death establishes precisely the new covenant Jeremiah anticipated. The book of Lamentations (traditionally Jeremiah's) is the Bible's sustained witness to grief. His suffering — innocent prophet rejected by his own people, accused of treason, weeping over his city — is read in Christian tradition as a type of Christ's own ministry.

Related tools

• All 29 figuresThe full index
• Bible verse lookupAny reference, ESV
• Trivia categoryProphet