Week 29 Jeremiah 1
The introduction to Jeremiah says: the word of the Lord came to (Jeremiah) in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah.
When I read that a couple of days ago I did some homework looking for extra details about when Jeremiah’s kings were kings. This is what I found:
Josiah (639-609 BC)
Jehoahaz (609 BC)
Jehoiakim (608-597 BC)
Jehoiachin (597 BC)
Zedekiah (597-586 BC).
Jeremiah started to prophecy during Josiah’s 13th year (~626 BC) and he continued until Zedekiah’s 11th – and last – year (~586 BC). The time span from 626-586 BC is roughly 40 years. That’s what I discovered last Monday – Jeremiah was a prophet for 40 years.
Anyway today I started reading chapter 25 and it said that those events occurred: in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah. So right away I looked back at Monday’s homework notes and calculated that from Josiah’s 13th year (~626BC) to Jehoiakim’s 4th year (~604BC) is roughly 22 years. But it turned out I didn’t need to run those numbers because Jeremiah says two verses later: for twenty-three years – from the thirteenth year of Josiah…until this very day – the word of the Lord has come to me. So by the time I arrive at Jeremiah 25 Jeremiah is 23 years into his long stretch of prophesying.
Note: quotes from Jeremiah 1:2-3 & 25:1 3 (NIV)