Several prophets, such as Isaiah, Hosea, and Joel, prophesied prior to the exile of the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Others, including Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah, spoke after the exile. Jeremiah and Ezekiel delivered their messages during the period of captivity; Jeremiah in Judah and Ezekiel in Babylon. Jeremiah commenced his prophetic ministry as a youth in the thirteenth year of King Josiah, son of Amon, and continued for nineteen years under him, eleven years under Jehoiakim, and another eleven years under Zedekiah, the final king of Judah, until the fall of Jerusalem in the fifth month when it was overtaken by the Babylonians.
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This period also includes the brief reigns of Jehoahaz and Jechoniah, each lasting three months, with Jehoahaz being taken to Egypt and Jechoniah and his mother deported to Babylon. From the start of his prophecy until the Jerusalem captivity, during which he himself was captured, Jeremiah prophesied for a total of forty-one years, with the exception of the time spent in Egypt where he also delivered prophecies in Tafnis, as recorded in Jeremiah 43:8. The Septuagint utilizes the phrase "the word of God which was to Jeremiah," emphasizing that Jeremiah's messages are indeed the words of the Lord. Jeremiah belonged to a priestly lineage residing just north of Jerusalem in the village of Anathoth. It is a remarkable act of divine mercy that even as the threat of captivity loomed, with Jerusalem surrounded by the Babylonian forces, the Lord called out for repentance, preferring to redeem those who turned back to Him rather than condemn the sinful. Instead of the term "exile," which is commonly translated, the Septuagint employs the term "captivity." In the thirty-fifth year after Jeremiah began his ministry, Ezekiel started to prophesy in Babylon to his fellow captives.
THEOSIS