Jeremiah 1:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It came also Namely, the word of the Lord, as Jeremiah 1:2; in the days of Jehoiakim Called at first by Josiah, Eliakim, 2 Kings 23:34. It must be observed, that Jehoahaz, who reigned before him, (2 Kings 28:8,) and Jehoiakim, who succeeded him, are not mentioned here, because each of them reigned only three months, and could hardly be said to be established in the government. Unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah The meaning is, that he prophesied not only during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, but also during the whole reign of Zedekiah, which was eleven years: unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive That great event of which he had so often prophesied. He continued, indeed, to prophesy after that, (Jeremiah 40:1,) but the computation of the time is here made to end with that event, because it was the accomplishment of many of his predictions: and from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the captivity was just forty years. It is observed from Dr. Lightfoot, that as Moses was forty years a teacher of the Israelites in the wilderness, till they entered into their own land; Jeremiah was so long a teacher in their own land before they were sent into the wilderness of the heathen: and he thinks that therefore a special mark is set upon the last forty years of the iniquity of Judah, which Ezekiel bore forty days, a day for a year, because, during all that time, they had Jeremiah prophesying among them, which was a great aggravation of their impenitency.