Timeline of the prophet Jeremiah’s life

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Timelines

One of the most popular posts on the Bible Tales website is “Joseph: Timeline and family tree”, which presents a timeline of Joseph’s life, prepared as part of my research for the novel “Joseph, Rachel’s son”. Since it has been so popular, I decided to create a similar timeline of the prophet Jeremiah’s life.

This sounds  easy, but so many things about Jeremiah we don’t know – at least, not exactly. Continue reading

Sandals in the Bible

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Sandals in the Bible

For most of us, shoes are surprisingly important.  I say ‘surprisingly’ because most of us would think them less important than various other items of clothing.  Yet badly-fitting shoes, or shoes that do not protect against stones or thorns quickly leave us unable to continue walking.  An ill-fitting shirt causes much less trouble!

While researching what footwear Jeremiah may have worn, I came across some interesting references to shoes or sandals in the Bible.  Writing biblical fiction has frequently led me to fascinating information and this was no exception. Continue reading

A parable and “A lamb set aside”

By Mark Morgan | Miscellaneous

A Bible Tales post with a difference! A parable about preparation and a then poem, “A lamb set aside”, to remind us of what Jesus did for us as the lamb of God.

A parable…

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Armour-bearers

By Mark Morgan | Jehoshaphat

Armour-bearers

The Bible mentions armour-bearers several times. Their job title gives the impression that all they did was carry armour, but that’s a long way from the truth.

We are never given a full job description for an armour-bearer in the Bible.  As far as we can tell, they were special bodyguards for important people such as kings, princes or commanders. Continue reading

Jeremiah’s family and genealogy

By Mark Morgan | Family trees , Jeremiah

Jeremiah’s family / Jeremiah’s genealogy

Jeremiah was a prophet, but he was also a priest.^[1]Jeremiah 1:1  What do we know about Jeremiah’s genealogy?  At the start of his book, he is described as the son of Hilkiah,^[2]Jeremiah 1:1 and we know that there was a High Priest called Hilkiah at that time.  Was Jeremiah the son of the High Priest? Hilkiah is called “Hilkiah the priest”^[3]2 Kings 22:10, 12, 14; 23:24 and “Hilkiah the High Priest”,^[4]2 Kings 22:4, 8; 23:4 but his father’s name is not mentioned.  Listing the name of a man’s father name was commonly used to distinguish between people with the same name. Yet it is only when we look in the genealogy of the high priests that we find Hilkiah’s father was called Shallum. This consistent use of the name “Hilkiah” without saying who his father was suggests that saying he was a priest was enough to uniquely identify him. Continue reading

Why is Jeremiah out of order?

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The book of Jeremiah is not in chronological order.

Many books of the Bible tell us of events that happened during certain years, and sometimes this is refined to the month and day or even the time of day. Other events, however, are reported with very little to locate them in time. The book of Jeremiah includes some passages that are anchored to particular days, while others are not located in time at all. By itself, this would make it hard enough to work out exactly when things happened in Jeremiah’s life, but the situation is worse than that: even the passages with dates are not in order! Continue reading

Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The end of the siege

Putting the events of the final siege in chronological order can be done with reasonable confidence from the time the Chaldean army surrounds the city until Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem. The list of events in descriptive point form in chronological order follows. For some of these, we know exact dates, but for most we do not, we only know the order:

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Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem brought utter destruction

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem – the final siege

In our previous article, we listed the three times when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and then looked in some detail at the second siege. In this article, we look at Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem, the best known and the most devastating attack, that resulted in the complete destruction of the city.[1] By that time, Nebuchadnezzar was reigning over a large empire, yet he dedicated almost two years to the conquest of Judah (during the 17th-19th years of his reign[2]). Continue reading

Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack on Jerusalem

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Nebuchadnezzar’s Attacks on Jerusalem

Before we look specifically at Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack on Jerusalem, let’s remember that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem three times:

1. In the 3rd/4th year of Jehoiakim/Eliakim (the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar).[1]
2. From the 11th year of Jehoiakim/Eliakim until the 3rd month of Jeconiah/Jehoiachin (the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar).[2]
3. In the 9th-11th year of Zedekiah/Mattaniah[3] (17th-19th year of Nebuchadnezzar[4]).  This is the most well-known attack by Nebuchadnezzar and resulted in the complete destruction of Jerusalem.[5]

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Habakkuk’s Questions – Prayer and Violence

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

Habakkuk’s questions (Complaints!)

One of Habakkuk’s questions was a simple question we might often have asked ourselves: did God listen to his prayers? But that wasn’t the end if it. Would God answer him? And did Habakkuk want to hear the answers anyway? You see, Habakkuk’s questions weren’t just questions, they were more like complaints.

Habakkuk’s first complaint to God

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Polluting the land – spiritual pollution

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Can a land be unclean?

When I was growing up, my family followed a Bible reading chart to make sure that we read all of God’s word and not just the parts that seem initially to be more interesting.  After a while I started to recognise that there were some fascinating details in unexpected places – including God’s opinion of what moral or spiritual pollution is.

As a teenager, I noticed that there were several times during the year when we read of various things that made the land of Israel unclean. But was it the physical earth of the land that was meant or did it mean something else?

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The prophet Habakkuk

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

Habakkuk the prophet

Habakkuk was a prophet in ancient Judah.  We do not know exactly when his visions took place, but in some ways it doesn’t matter, since his questions are universal and the answers can be easily applied to any time.

God chose people to be his prophets and they delivered his messages.  False prophets chose themselves and delivered whatever messages they wanted – probably often whatever would get them the most popularity and power.  God criticises them often (Lamentations 2:14; Ezekiel 13:9, 22:28; Jeremiah 5:31), particularly towards the end of the life of the nation of Judah.

This was the time when Habakkuk prophesied.

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