Jeremiah 1:2

Jer 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Ver. 2. Unto whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah.] Woe be to the world because of the word! The Lord keepeth count what preachers he sendeth, what pains they take, and how long, to how little purpose they preach unto a people. He saith that it was "The word of the Lord," for authority sake, and that none might despise his youth, since he was sent by the "Ancient of days."

In the thirteenth year of his reign.] Eighteen years then he prophesied under good Josiah, who was to blame, doubtless, in not sending to advise with this or some other prophet before he went forth against Pharaohnecho; sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:2-3 Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin are both missing from this list of kings. Neither of them reigned for longer than three months.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This is spoken to confirm his vocation and office, forasmuch as he did not presume of himself to preach and prophesy, but was called thereunto by God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jehoiakim . . . Josiah . . . Zedekiah--Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin are omitted for they reigned only three months each. The first and last of the kings under whom each prophet prophesied are often thus specified in the general title. See on these kings, and Jeremiah's life, my Introduction.

thirteenth . . . of his reign-- (Jer 25:3).

fifth month-- (Kg2 25:8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He begins in the second verse to speak of his calling. It would have, indeed, been to little purpose, had he said that he came forth and brought a message; but he explains, in the second verse, that he brought nothing but what had been delivered to him by God, as though he had said, that he faithfully declared what God had commanded him. For we know that the whole authority belongs entirely to God, with regard to the doctrine of religion, and that it is not in the power of men to blend this or that, and to make the faithful subject to themselves. As God, then, is the only true teacher of the Church, whosoever demands to be heard, must prove that he is God’s minister. This is, then, what Jeremiah is now carefully doing, for he says that the word of Jehovah was given to him.

He had before said, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah; but any one of the people might have objected and said, “Why dost thou intrude thyself, as though any one is to be heard? for God claims this right to himself alone.” Hence Jeremiah, by way of correction, subjoins, that the words were his, but that he was not the author of them, but the minister only. He says, then, that he only executed what God had commanded, for he had been the disciple of God himself, before he undertook the office of a teacher.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) In the thirteenth year of his reign.—If we take the data of 2 Kings 22, Josiah was at that time in his twentieth or twenty-first year, having grown up under the training of Hilkiah. His active work of reformation began five years later. The images of Baal and Asherah (the groves) were thrown down, and the high places desecrated. The near coincidence of the commencement of Jeremiah’s work as prophet with that of the king must not be forgotten. As Josiah reigned for thirty-one years, we have to place eighteen years of the prophet’s ministry as under his rule.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. in the days of, etc.] See introductory note.

in the thirteenth year of his reign] c. b.c. 626. The period included in these two verses is one of 40 years, viz. the latter part of Josiah’s reign = 18 years; that of Jehoahaz = 3 months; that of Jehoiakim = 11 years; that of Jehoiachin = 3 months; that of Zedekiah = 11 years. The omission of the names of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin is probably due to the shortness of their reigns.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah,.... This was the beginning of the prophecy of Jeremiah, so that he prophesied long after Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah; for this king was

the son of Amon king of Judah, which Amon was the son of Manasseh; the Septuagint and Arabic versions wrongly call him Amos; and Jeremiah began to prophesy

in the thirteenth year of his reign: in the twenty first of Josiah's age, for he began to reign when he was eight years old, and he reigned eighteen years after, for he reigned in all thirty one years; and it was five years after this that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the high priest, Kg2 22:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Came - literally, was (and in Jer 1:4); the phrase implies that Jeremiah possessed God’s word from that time onward, not fitfully as coming and going, but constantly.

The thirteenth year of his reign - According to the ordinary reckoning, this would be 629 b.c., but if the Ptolemaic canon be right in putting the capture of Jerusalem at 586 b.c., it would be two years later, namely 627 b.c. However, according to the Assyrian chronology, it would be 608 b.c. It was the year after that in which Josiah began his reforms.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The word of the Lord; either that commission from God that did authorize him to his prophetical work, as it may probably be taken, Joh 10:35, was actually given unto him, Jer 1:10; or, command of God, as it is used, 1Ki 12:24; or rather, the materials of which his prophecies were to consist, for the space of forty-one years successively, in Judea, viz. from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, besides the time that he prophesied in Egypt. See Jer 43; Jer 44, as Isa 2:1.

In the days of Josiah, i.e. during his reign and reformed state of religion.

Amon; who corrupted again that religion by those idolatries that his father Manasseh had in the latter part of his reign so well reformed by rooting of them out, 2Ch 33:21-23. In the thirteenth year; by which it appears that Jeremiah prophesied the last eighteen years of Josiah’s reign; for he reigned thirty-one years, 2Ki 22:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2, 3. To whom the word of the Lord came — To whom the spirit of prophecy was imparted.

In the days of Josiah — The sixteenth king of Judah after the separation from it of the kingdom of Israel.

Thirteenth year of his reign — From “the thirteenth year” of Josiah to the eleventh year of Zedekiah was about forty years; namely, eighteen remaining of Josiah’s reign, eleven of Jehoiakim’s and eleven of Zedekiah’s. The closing years of Jeremiah’s life, spent amid the ruins of his own land and in Egypt, are not here included. Josiah, the great reformer, stands out in his line of kings “faithful among the faithless.” Five years after the commencement of Jeremiah’s official career he led the people in a formal renewal of their covenant with Jehovah, and celebrated the occasion by a passover feast perhaps more remarkable and imposing than any other ever celebrated at Jerusalem. Eight years later, when Pharaoh-Necho was on his way to the memorable battle of Carchemish, Josiah went out against him, and being mortally wounded at Megiddo, (2Ki_23:29-30; 2Ch_35:22-24,) died before reaching Jerusalem. For him Jeremiah made public lamentation, “and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day.” 2Ch_35:24-25. Jehoiakim was made king by Pharaoh-Necho, who had deposed his younger brother after a three months’ reign, and carried him in fetters to Riblah. As the Egyptian king was at this time making his expedition against Babylon, he charged his vassal Jehoiakim with the work of collecting a tribute of about $200,000, which he levied on the Jewish people. But Pharaoh met his Waterloo at Carchemish, and the king of Babylon seized upon Palestine as the natural fruit of his victory. He besieged and captured Jerusalem, made the king prisoner, and carried away to Babylon many of the principal inhabitants and some of the sacred vessels of the temple. Among these prisoners were Daniel and his three friends. Jehoiakim, having been subsequently reinstated, remained tributary to the king of Babylon for three years, and then, against the advice and warnings of Jeremiah, rebelled. The Babylonish king being at that time occupied with an Asiatic expedition, sent against the Jews an army composed from several of his allied and tributary peoples, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who cruelly harassed the country. The misery of the land was extreme. Jehoiakim finally came to a violent and ignominious death, and the greatest dishonour was done to his body, for it was dragged away “beyond the gates of Jerusalem,” and buried “with the burial of an ass.” The times of Jehoiakim were characterized by gross and general corruption. The sacred places became altars of lust. The holy city and even the very temple were filled with abomination. See Ezekiel 8. The character of this most corrupt and foolish of all the kings of Judah is concentrated into two inspired phrases, “his abomination which he did,” (2Ch_36:8,) and “he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood.” 2Ki_24:4. As in the time of Josiah the zeal and faith of the prophet were stimulated and developed, so in that of Jehoiakim he must have been burdened and alarmed by the general and outbreaking wickedness of the people. Jehoiachin, who succeeded his father Jehoiakim, having, after a brief reign of three months, been carried away to Babylon with ten thousand other captives Zedekiah, his uncle, was made king, 599 B.C. He was a fitting successor of Jehoiakim, showing the same characteristics of weakness and wickedness. “He humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet… from the mouth of the Lord.” 2Ch_36:12. The cup of Judah’s wickedness was now full, and God’s judgments came swiftly and terribly. Jerusalem was taken and pillaged; the temple burned; the sacred vessels, what remained of them, were taken away; the glory of Jerusalem, as a political capital, finally extinguished, and the captivity fully inaugurated.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The word - That commission from God that authorized him to his prophetic work, for the space of forty-one years successively in Judea, viz. from the 13th year of Josiah to the 11th year of Zedekiah, besides the time that he prophesied in Egypt. In the days - During his reign. Thirteenth - By which it appears that Jeremiah prophesied the last eighteen years of Josiah's reign; for he reigned thirty-one years, 2 Kings xxii, 1.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

To whom the word of the Lord came Upon whom the Shechinah commenced to rest at that time.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.