Jeremiah ירמיהו
The book of the prophet who warned of destruction for forty years and outlived it.
Yirmeyahu is called very young — «I do not know how to speak, for I am a boy» — and serves some forty years, through the destruction of the Temple and beyond. His prophecy is largely made of warnings no one wishes to hear: he stands at the Temple gate against the belief that the building itself will save the city, and walks with a yoke on his neck to show that submission to Babylon is the lesser evil. For this he is thrown into a pit, tried as a traitor and imprisoned.
The same book holds the warmest words about the bond between God and the nation: «I remember the devotion of your youth… how you followed Me in the wilderness». It contains the prophecy of seventy years of exile, which became the calendar of return, and the promise of a covenant written on the heart.