t have not
sought Jahveh nor inquired after Him. Hold thy peace at the presence
of the Lord Jahveh; for the day of Jahveh is at hand; for Jahveh hath
prepared a sacrifice, He hath sanctified His guests."

* Zephaniah gives his own genealogy at the beginning of his
prophecy (i. 1), though, it is true, he does not add the
title "King of Judah" after the name of his ancestor
Hezekiah.

"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of
wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against
the fenced cities, and against the high battlements. And I will bring
distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they
have sinned against Jahveh: and their blood shall be poured out as dust,
and their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be
able to deliver them in the day of Jahveh's wrath; but the whole land
shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy; for He shall make an end,
yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land." During this
same period of stress and terror, there came forward another prophet,
one of the greatest among the prophets of Israel--Jeremiah, son of
Hilkiah. He was born in the village of Anathoth, near Jerusalem, being
descended from one of those priestly families in which the faith had
been handed down from generation to generation in all its original
purity.*

* The descent and birthplace of Jeremiah are given at the
beginning of his prophecies (i. 1). He must have been quite
young in the thirteenth year of Josiah, as is evident from
the statement in i. 6. We are told in chap, xxxvi. that in
the fourth year of Jehoiakim he dictated a summary of all
the prophecies delivered by him from the thirteenth year of
Josiah up to the date indicated to his servant Baruch, and
that later on he added a number of others of the same kind.

When Jahveh called him, he cried out in amazement, "Ah, Lord God!
behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." But Jahveh reassured him, and
touching his lips, said unto him, "Behold, I have put My words in thy
mouth: see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over
the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to
overthrow, to build and to plant." Then the prophet perceived a seething
cauldron, the face of which appeared from the north, for the Eternal
de