Jeremiah 1:2

King Josiah's father was Amon, an impious man. His grandfather was Manasseh, who had instructed Josiah's father in his impiety. Josiah, on the contrary, went the exact opposite of them, siding with the party of the godly. His children, however, showed no interest in their father's virtue and imitated their forefathers' godlessness. Knowing this in advance, therefore, the God of all elected the prophet in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign and commanded him to foretell the calamities that would befall both city and people.

Jeremiah, like Isaiah, is one of the major prophets, not of the minor, like the others from whose writings I have just given extracts. He prophesied when Josiah reigned in Jerusalem and Ancus Martius at Rome, when the captivity of the Jews was already at hand; and he continued to prophesy down to the fifth month of the captivity, as we find from his writings. Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, is put along with him, because he himself says that he prophesied in the days of Josiah; but he does not say till when. Jeremiah thus prophesied not only in the times of Ancus Martius but also in those of Tarquinius Priscus, whom the Romans had for their fifth king. For he had already begun to reign when that captivity took place.

God is ready at hand to do good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. Indeed, though He is able to bring punishment upon those condemned by Him in silence, without giving warning beforehand, He by no means does this; but even when He condemns, He speaks, since His purpose in speaking is that the one about to be condemned may turn back from the condemnation. Of these things one can take many examples from the Scriptures, but a few of those that fall to hand in the present suffice, so that we may also come to the aim of the passages set before us. For the Ninevites had become sinners and were condemned by God: "Yet three days, and Nineveh was about to be overthrown." God did not wish to condemn her in silence, but, giving them a place for repentance and conversion, He sent a Hebrew prophet, so that, when he had said, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," those who had been condemned might not be condemned, but, having repented, might obtain the mercy of God. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah had been condemned, as is clear from the words of God to Abraham; but nevertheless the angels did their own part, wishing to save those who did not wish to be saved, saying to Lot: "Are there for you here any sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters?"—not being ignorant that those men would not follow Lot, but doing what belonged to their own kindness and love for humanity, and at the same time to that of Him who sent them. You will find the like also in the matters concerning Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy is recorded, when it began and until when he prophesied. Then the one who reads, if he does not attend to the reading nor examine the intent of the passages written, will say that it is a mere narrative, and that it has been recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy and after how long a time of prophesying he ceased prophesying. What, then, is this narrative to me? I have read it, I have learned that he began to prophesy "in the days of Josiah the son of Amos, king of Judah, until the thirteenth year of his reign"; then "it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah," that he prophesied "until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah." And I have learned that his prophecy extended through three kings "until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month." What, then, are we taught…