Jeremiah study section

Jeremiah chapter summaries

A one-line summary of every chapter. Open any chapter for the full study.

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Chapter list

Chapters 1–25

Warnings to Judah

Jeremiah’s call and his sermons of judgment against a faithless, idolatrous Judah.

Chapter 1 (c. 627 BC): Jeremiah is called and appointed a prophet to the nations before birth, with visions of an almond branch and a boiling pot.
Chapter 2 (c. 627 BC): God indicts Israel for forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns.
Chapter 3 (c. 627 BC): A call to faithless, adulterous Israel and Judah to return to the LORD.
Chapter 4 (c. 627 BC): A call to circumcise the heart, and the vision of coming disaster from the north.
Chapter 5 (c. 620 BC): The people’s corruption invites judgment, for none is found who does justice.
Chapter 6 (c. 620 BC): The siege of Jerusalem foretold, as the people reject the ancient paths.
Chapter 7 (c. 609 BC): The temple sermon: trust in the temple is vain without repentance and justice.
Chapter 8 (c. 609 BC): The people cling to sin; “the harvest is past... and we are not saved.”
Chapter 9 (c. 609 BC): Jeremiah weeps over his people; boast not in wisdom or wealth but in knowing the LORD.
Chapter 10 (c. 609 BC): The folly of idols contrasted with the living God, the Maker of all.
Chapter 11 (c. 609 BC): The broken covenant, and a plot against Jeremiah’s life at Anathoth.
Chapter 12 (c. 609 BC): Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper, and the LORD answers and warns the nations.
Chapter 13 (c. 605 BC): The sign of the ruined loincloth, and a warning against pride before the exile.
Chapter 14 (c. 605 BC): Drought and famine, and the LORD’s command not to pray for the doomed people.
Chapter 15 (c. 605 BC): Jeremiah’s anguish, and the LORD’s promise to make him a fortified wall of bronze.
Chapter 16 (c. 605 BC): Jeremiah forbidden to marry as a sign of coming judgment, with a hint of restoration.
Chapter 17 (c. 605 BC): The deceitful heart, the blessing of trusting the LORD, and keeping the Sabbath.
Chapter 18 (c. 604 BC): The potter and the clay: God’s sovereign right over the nations.
Chapter 19 (c. 604 BC): The broken flask: Jerusalem’s irreparable judgment at Topheth.
Chapter 20 (c. 604 BC): Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks by Pashhur, and his bitter lament.
Chapter 21 (c. 588 BC): Zedekiah’s inquiry, and the LORD’s word that He Himself fights against Jerusalem.
Chapter 22 (c. 609 BC): Judgment on the kings of Judah — Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Coniah (Jehoiachin).
Chapter 23 (c. 605 BC): Woe to false shepherds, the promise of the righteous Branch, and against false prophets.
Chapter 24 (c. 597 BC): The vision of two baskets of figs: the good exiles and the bad who remain.
Chapter 25 (c. 605 BC): Seventy years of exile foretold, and the cup of God’s wrath for all the nations.

Chapters 26–29

Conflict and Letters

Clashes with false prophets and Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon.

Chapter 26 (c. 609 BC): Jeremiah threatened with death for the temple sermon, but spared.
Chapter 27 (c. 594 BC): The yoke of Babylon: submit to Nebuchadnezzar, whom God calls His servant.
Chapter 28 (c. 594 BC): Hananiah’s false prophecy of quick deliverance, and his death that year.
Chapter 29 (c. 597 BC): Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles: seek Babylon’s welfare, for God has plans to give a future and a hope.

Chapters 30–33

The Book of Consolation

Promises of restoration and the new covenant written on the heart.

Chapter 30 (c. 587 BC): The promise of restoration for Israel and Judah after the time of distress.
Chapter 31 (c. 587 BC): The New Covenant: God’s law written on the heart, and their sins remembered no more.
Chapter 32 (c. 588 BC): Jeremiah buys a field during the siege as a sign of future restoration.
Chapter 33 (c. 587 BC): The promise of healing, and the righteous Branch, “the LORD is our righteousness.”

Chapters 34–45

The Fall of Jerusalem

The siege, the city’s destruction, and its aftermath, amid Jeremiah’s own sufferings.

Chapter 34 (c. 588 BC): Zedekiah warned; the people break faith by re-enslaving the slaves they had freed.
Chapter 35 (c. 599 BC): The faithful Rechabites held up as an example against Judah’s disobedience.
Chapter 36 (c. 605 BC): Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah’s scroll, which is rewritten with more added.
Chapter 37 (c. 588 BC): Jeremiah imprisoned during the siege, and secretly consulted by Zedekiah.
Chapter 38 (c. 588 BC): Jeremiah cast into a muddy cistern and rescued by Ebed-melech.
Chapter 39 (586 BC): The fall of Jerusalem; Zedekiah captured and blinded, and Jeremiah spared.
Chapter 40 (586 BC): Gedaliah made governor of the remnant, and a plot brewing against him.
Chapter 41 (586 BC): Ishmael murders Gedaliah and others, and the frightened remnant flees.
Chapter 42 (586 BC): The remnant asks Jeremiah to pray, then rejects God’s word to stay in the land.
Chapter 43 (586 BC): The remnant flees to Egypt against God’s command, taking Jeremiah with them.
Chapter 44 (c. 585 BC): Jeremiah’s final warning against the idolatry the remnant practices in Egypt.
Chapter 45 (c. 605 BC): A word of comfort and warning to Baruch the scribe.

Chapters 46–52

Oracles Against the Nations

Judgment on Egypt, Babylon, and others, closing with Jerusalem’s fall.

Chapter 46 (c. 605 BC): Oracles against Egypt and its defeat at Carchemish.
Chapter 47 (c. 605 BC): An oracle against the Philistines.
Chapter 48 (c. 605 BC): An oracle against Moab and its pride.
Chapter 49 (c. 605 BC): Oracles against Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, and Elam.
Chapter 50 (c. 594 BC): An oracle against Babylon: her fall and the return of God’s people.
Chapter 51 (c. 594 BC): The complete destruction of Babylon foretold, and the word cast into the Euphrates.
Chapter 52 (586 BC): A historical appendix on the fall of Jerusalem, the exile, and Jehoiachin’s release.

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