Jeremiah (1) jer-e-mi'-a
(a) yirmeyahu, or
(b) shorter form, yirmeyah, both differently explained as "Yah establishes (so Giesebrecht), whom Yahweh casts," i.e. possibly, as Gesenius suggests, "appoints" (A. B. Davidson in HDB, II, 569a), and "Yahweh looseneth" (the womb); see BDB:
The form (b) is used of Jeremiah the prophet only in Jeremiah 27:1, Jeremiah 28:5, Jeremiah 28:6, Jeremiah 28:10, Jeremiah 28:11, Jeremiah 28:12 b,15; 29:1; Ezra 1:1, Daniel 9:2, while the other is found 116 times in Jeremiah alone. In Ezra 1:28, Esdras 2:18, English Versions of the Bible has "Jeremy," so the King James Version in 2Macc 2:1,5,7, Matthew 2:17, Matthew 27:9; in Matthew 16:14, the King James Version has "Jeremias," but the Revised Version (British and American) in 2 Maccabees and Matthew has "Jeremiah."
(1) The prophet. See special article. Of the following, (2), (3) and (4) have form (a) above; the others the form (b).
(2) Father of Hamutal (Hamital), the mother of King Jehoahaz and King Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:31, 2 Kings 24:18 parallel Jeremiah 52:1).
(3) A Rechabite (Jeremiah 35:3).
(4) In 1 Chronicles 12:13 (Hebrew 14), a Gadite.
(5) In 1 Chronicles 12:10 (Hebrew 11), a Gadite.
(6) In 1 Chronicles 12:4 (Hebrew 5), a Benjamite(?) or Judean. (4), (5) and (6) all joined David at Ziklag.
(7) Head of a Manassite family (1 Chronicles 5:24).
(8) A priest who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:2), probably the same as he of 12:34 who took part in the procession at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem.
(9) A priest who went to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel from exile and became head of a priestly family of that name (Nehemiah 12:1).
David Francis Roberts