Jeremiah the Prophet
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Jer 1:1; Matt 2:17; 16:14 and elsewhere) - the second of the so-called major prophets, son of Hilkiah the priest of Anathoth. Jeremiah's prophetic ministry embraced the darkest period of Judean history. He was called to it in early youth, at the age of fifteen according to the source, in the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah, and continued under Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah for nearly forty-five years. He probably lived chiefly in the city of his birth, Anathoth, for Jeremiah 11:21 speaks of the men of Anathoth as seeking the prophet's life.
Yet because that city, known in the source's day as Anata, lay only three miles from Jerusalem, the Jerusalem temple was undoubtedly the place where the voice of God's prophet was heard most often. He proclaimed God's word in the temple, at the city gates, in the king's house, in public squares, and in private dwellings, striving with all his strength to avert the storm about to break over a people obstinate in sin (Jer 2-6). 'Rising early' (Jer 25:3), he preached the word of God and thereby brought upon himself daily reproach and derision (Jer 20:8).
His own family forsook him (12:6), his fellow citizens persecuted him with hatred (11:21), and they mocked him, asking, 'Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now' (17:15). Nor was he spared profound inward sorrow. The lawlessness around him crushed him (12:1-2); he heard people watching for his fall and threatening, 'Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him' (20:10); at times doubt assailed him, and he felt that his ministry had made him an object of ridicule and mockery (20:7).