The Modern Reader's Bible Prophecy Series Jeremiah UNIVERSITY OF REFERENCE LIBRARY OF THE LINDEN KENT MEMORIAL SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE THE MODERN READER'S BIBLE A SERIES OF WORKS FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURES PRESENTED IN MODERN LITERARY FORM JEREMIAH EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A. (Camb.), PH.D. (PENN.) UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1904 All rights reserved BS 195 .M6 V.14 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped March, 1897. Reprinted September, F THE NIVERSIT Norwood Press J. 8. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. INTRODUCTION THE Book of Jeremiah needs little in the way of introduction. Its most important interest is also that which lies most upon the surface, the personality of the prophet himself. There is no other of the sacred authors who has taken us with such intimacy into his life, both public and private. We know not only the discourses of Jeremiah, but also the details of their reception; we hear the prophet's bursts of despondency, his secret communings with God; he is not only influenced by the history of his time, but also helps to make it. We must of course not assume that the successive portions of the book stand exactly in the order of their composition: there are places - for example, Book VI — where obviously chronology is subordinated to similarity of subject-matter. Such cases, however, cause no real difficulty; and, broadly viewed, the Book of Jeremiah is a prophetic autobiography. - Here, however, an important distinction must be taken. It is customary to think of the prophets of Israel as the preachers of their times, — preachers and statesmen, since they ministered among a people with whom the modern distinction of sacred and secular had no legitimate place. This was no doubt their most general function. But |