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Jeremiah 1:1–3, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Jeremiah 1:1–3
Jeremiah's Superscription Spans Josiah to Exile
The book names a priest-town prophet and a span that ends in exile
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 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. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
A superscription is a frame, not a full history of how every speech, sign, lament, and narrative reached the book's final form. Anathoth keeps the speaker on Benjaminite priestly ground. The named reigns run from Josiah's thirteenth year through Jehoiakim to Zedekiah's eleventh year and the fifth-month deportation. The heading does not settle which ancient edition is earlier.
Josiah to the fifth month is the claimed horizon, not a modern code
The reader is asked to hear these words across a generation of reform, resistance, siege, and captivity. Kings, a priest town, and Jerusalem's carrying away locate the book in late-monarchic Judah, not in a later capital by default.
Later communities may read along, but they do not replace the first setting. The title lines are not a deed to a modern nation, church, or crisis calendar.
How this should shape us
Read Jeremiah as a word first spoken from Anathoth across named reigns to exile. Do not use the heading to freeze every editorial theory, and do not treat the date-span as a script for your country's next disaster.
Teach it back
Explain Jeremiah 1:1–3 in your own words. Name its place in Jeremiah, one source-controlled observation, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Jeremiah 1:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 1:1–3
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Summary, Outline, Background, and Introductory Issues: call, early preaching, temple sermon, and laments; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 1 study guide, pp. 1-6: composition, Josianic setting, temple sermon, and imperial context; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Supports: Controls the shorter and differently ordered Old Greek Jeremiah, Qumran Hebrew evidence, and competing edition-history proposals without making one reconstruction certain.
Cook, 'The text-critical and exegetical value of the Dead Sea Scrolls,' section 'The books of Jeremiah (4QJerd),' HTS 72.4 (2016), article pp. 3-4; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Jeremiah 1:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2; fixed commit
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 1:1–3
Open the fixed Hebrew Jeremiah file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jeremiah with Translator, Textual, and Study Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; official eBible PDF distribution, NET Bible Second Edition; official PDF accessed 2026
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Open the official NET Jeremiah PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Jeremiah: Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Themes, and Bible in the World
Terence E. Fretheim and Michael Chan
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current public course accessed 2026
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Summary, Outline, Background, and Introductory Issues: call, early preaching, temple sermon, and laments; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Open the Enter the Bible Jeremiah course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Jeremiah Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 1 study guide, pp. 1-6: composition, Josianic setting, temple sermon, and imperial context; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗peer reviewed open access text critical article
The Text-Critical and Exegetical Value of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Johann Cook
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 72.4, article a3280, 2016
Supports: Controls the shorter and differently ordered Old Greek Jeremiah, Qumran Hebrew evidence, and competing edition-history proposals without making one reconstruction certain.
Exact location: Cook, 'The text-critical and exegetical value of the Dead Sea Scrolls,' section 'The books of Jeremiah (4QJerd),' HTS 72.4 (2016), article pp. 3-4; applied to Jeremiah 1:1–3
Open Cook on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Jeremiah ↗