The book of Jeremiah purports to be the words of Jeremiah ben Hilkiah, who is identified as one of the priests who lived in Anathoth in Benjaminite territory. He is represented as being active in the period when the Assyrian imperial power was waning and Babylon was emerging as the new imperium in the ancient Near East. The book presents the downfall of the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE in terms of the work and sayings of Jeremiah. Presented at certain points in the book as a prophet, Jeremiah emerges as a counterpoint to the collapse of Judaean culture. - Introduction.