How old was Jeremiah IN THE Old Testament when he died?

Answer 1

The Bible doesn't record Jeremiah's death. His written account ends with the captivity of the Jews who were taken to Babylon... but he was given his freedom to go wherever he thought best, to complete his commission set by God.

"Now I am going to take off your chains and let you go. If you want to come with me to Babylon, you are welcome. I will see that you are well cared for. But if you don't want to come, you may stay here. The whole land is before you - go wherever you like." (Jer.40:4 NLT New Living Translation)

"So Jeremiah returned to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at MIZPAH and lived with the few who were still left in the land." (verse 6)

By this time, Jeremiah had only completed the FIRST PART of what God had commissioned him to do:

"'Today I appoint you to stand up against NATIONS and KINGDOMS. You are to UPROOT some and TEAR THEM DOWN, to DESTROY and OVERTHROW them. You are to BUILD OTHERS UP and PLANT THEM.'" (Jer.1:10 NLT)

Jeremiah went to his people, the Jews, and warned them of their impending destruction. And their refusal to repent resulted in their UPROOTING and DESTRUCTION... and the OVERTHROW of the THRONE OF DAVID from Jerusalem: which never again returned there to this day.

The last part of Jeremiah's commission was to BUILD and PLANT something... something that was just "uprooted" and [apparently] "destroyed." And that was "DAVID's THRONE!" God promised:

"IF YOU OBEY ME, there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here IN JERUSALEM..." (Jer.22:4 NLT).

So, when the Jews refused to "obey" God's laws... David's throne disappeared from Jerusalem [uprooted, destroyed and overthrown]. The two royal families who would have ruled Jehoiachin and Zedekiah -- CEASED TO BE!

"This is what the Lord says: Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was CHILDLESS, for NONE OF HIS CHILDREN WILL EVER SIT ON THE THRONE OF DAVID to rule Judah. His life will amount to nothing." (Jer.22:30 NLT)

"...the king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as ALL HIS SONS WERE KILLED; they also killed all the other leaders of Judah. Then they gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison for the rest of his life." (Jer. 52:10-11 NLT)

David's throne [the throne that Jesus Christ is returning to earth to SIT UPON - "...He will rule forever with Fairness and Justice from the throne of His ancestor David..." - Isa.9:7 NLT & "...the Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David." - Luke 1:32 NLT] disappeared from world view during Jeremiah's strange commission. After which, Jeremiah himself disappeared into history.

All we know from his written account in God's Word is that following the uprooting and destruction of Jerusalem... Jeremiah went to "Mizpah" where the KING'S DAUGHTERS were.

"Ishmael made captives of the KING'S DAUGHTERS and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah's care in Mizpah..." (Jer.41:10 NLT).

"In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king's daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah. Also included were the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch." (Jer.43:6 NLT)

And so... following an episode of treachery and intrigue... Jeremiah, together with the "king's daughters" [and others] disappeared from the pages of the Bible and world history.

Jeremiah lived on after his recorded account in the Bibleto "complete his commission" to "replant" David's throne... not in Jerusalem... but:

"...David will Forever have a descendant sitting on the throne of ISRAEL... If you can break My covenant with the day and the night so that they do not come on their usual schedule, only then will My covenant with David, My servant, be broken. Only then will he no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne..." (Jer.16:17-21 NLT).

The "ten lost tribes" of the House of ISRAEL had disappeared some 130 years before Jeremiah was born, when he, then, had to deal with the House of JUDAH and its uprooting. And now, he was to take the "king's daughters" to "ISRAEL" [wherever they had migrated to and resettled], to replant David's throne in the "abased" side of the Jewish descendants who never realized their royal lineage because of an ancient breach-birth.

"... she had twin sons. As they were being born, one of them reached out his hand, and the midwife tied a scarlet thread around the wrist of the child who appeared first... But then he drew back his hand, and the other baby was actually the first to be born... he was called Perez. Then the baby with the scarlet thread on his wrist was born, and he was called Zerah." (Gen.38:28-30 NLT)

It was the [high] "Perez" line of Judah through whom Jewish royalty descended, through whom David was born... and whose descendants were cut off from continuing to sit on David's throne in Jerusalem during Jeremiah's commission.

And it was the [lowly] "Zerah" line of Judah [who had disappeared somewhere in the world, with the House of Israel 130-plus years previously], to whom Jeremiah took the "king's daughters" to "heal the ancient breach" and to complete his royal commission:

"The people of Jerusalem will think it is a mistake... but the king of Babylon will remind the people of their rebellion. Then he will attack and capture them... Take off your jeweled crown, says the Sovereign Lord. The old order changes - now the LOWLY ARE EXALTED, and the MIGHTY ARE BROUGHT LOW. Destruction! Destruction! I will surely destroy the kingdom. And IT WILL NOT BE RESTORED until the One appears who has the Right to Judge it [Christ]. Then I WILL HAND IT OVER TO HIM." (Ezek.21:23-27 NLT)

[same passage, KJV]: "...Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more [overturned], until He come whose Right it is; and I will give it Him."

Jeremiah "healed the breach" in the Jewish royal lineage through the marriage of the "king's daughters" of the Perez line with a "son" of the Zerah line, living somewhere in Israel, sometime after Judah went into Babylonian captivity.

David HAS TO HAVE a throne somewhere on the earth for Christ to inherit! And it was the final part of Jeremiah's commission to "replant" David's throne in "Israel."

The Bible doesn't tell us of Jeremiah's death... or how old he was when he died... because God had more work for him to do Behind the Scenes of world history long after his written biblical account of the Perez royalty's uprooting and destruction in Jerusalem had come to its ignominious end.