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Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Jeremiah 1:6

Then said I, with some realization of the difficulty and danger of the divine commission. Ah! Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child, a young man below the age at which the Israelites took an active part in public work. The sensitive nature of Jeremiah shrank back from a position which would expose him to public criticism. The work of the ministry is a good work, 1 Timothy 3:1, but it is attended by difficulties which the average person appreciates only in rare instances. Well may a timid person shrink back from its ordeal.

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See also Jeremiah 1:6 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Jeremiah 1:6. _I CANNOT SPEAK_] Being very young, and wholly inexperienced, I am utterly incapable of conceiving aright, or of clothing these Divine subjects in suitable language. Those who are...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    There is no resistance on Jeremiah’s part, but he shrinks back alarmed. I CANNOT SPEAK - i. e., “I cannot prophesy,” I have not those powers of oratory necessary for success. The prophets of Israel w...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE, THE IMPENITENCE OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED CHAPTER 1 The Call of the Prophet _ 1. The introduction (Jeremiah 1:1) _ 2. The divin...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    THE PROPHET'S CALL. The account of this should be compared with similar accounts of the calls of other prophets (see Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1:1 to Ezekiel 3:3; Amos 7:12 ff.) and the characteristic differe...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    LORD GOD. Hebrew Adonai Jehovah. See App-4. BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. I CANNOT SPEAK, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 4:10). App-92. This is true of all God's messengers. A C...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The Prophet's call and its nature...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Jeremiah's call The passage will fall into four sections. (i) Jeremiah 1:4. The prophet's call and its nature. (ii) Jeremiah 1:11. The symbol of the almond tree, shewing that Jehovah is wakeful to p...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Jeremiah shews that the prophetic office was not one of his own seeking. _Ah_ Rather, ALAS! The word in the Hebrew expresses not so much an entreaty that things should be arranged otherwise, as a lame...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    II. THE CALL EXTENDED Jeremiah 1:4-10 TRANSLATION (4) Then the word of the LORD came unto me saying, (5) Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart; a proph...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. CHILD - the same word is translated "young man," . From the long duration of his office, from Josiah's time until at least the p...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE CALL OF JEREMIAH (13TH YEAR OF JOSIAH). FIRST PROPHECY 1-3. See Introduction....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    A CHILD] not probably in years, but in fitness. 'Who is sufficient for these things?'...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    AH, LORD GOD! — Better, _Alas, O Lord Jehovah!_ as answering to the Hebrew Adonai Jehovah. I CANNOT SPEAK. — In the same sense as the “I am not eloquent” of Moses (Exodus 4:10), literally, “a man of...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וָ אֹמַ֗ר אֲהָהּ֙ אֲדֹנָ֣י יְהֹוִ֔ה הִנֵּ֥ה ל

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER I THE CALL AND CONSECRATION IN the foregoing pages we have considered the principal events in the life of the prophet Jeremiah, by way of introduction to the more detailed study of his writin...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    COURAGE PROMISED TO A FEARFUL MESSENGER Jeremiah 1:1-19 God has a distinct purpose for each life, and our one aim should be to discover and work out His plan. See Psalms 139:16; Galatians 1:15. The...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The first three verses constitute a title page naming the author and giving the dates of the period during which he exercised his ministry. The Book opens with the account of Jeremiah's call, and at o...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Then said I, (i) Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I [am] a child. (i) Considering the great judgments of God which according to his threatening would come on the world, he was moved with a ce...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Ah. Hebrew ahah. Septuagint, "thou Being." Protestants, "Then said I: Ah, Lord God." (Haydock) --- He does not imitate a child. He might be above 30 years old, though some say (Calmet) only 14, (Tiri...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Reader! do not fail to remark, how humbling grace is in the soul. Before the Prophet was conscious of the work wrought in him, the blessed effects were made to appear, in a lowliness suited to the mer...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    After having spoken of his call, the Prophet adds, that he at first refused his office, and he states this for two reasons; first, that he might clear himself from every suspicion of rashness, for we...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    In chapter 1 the prophet is established in his office, to which he had been appointed by Jehovah, even before his birth, that he should carry His word unto the nations. But Jeremiah's fears are immedi...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THEN SAID I, AH, LORD GOD!.... The word אהה, "Ah", or "Ahah", is used in distress and grief, as Kimchi observes; and is expressive of mourning and complaint, as Jarchi notes; and shows that the prophe...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I [am] a child. Ver. 6. _Then said I, Ah, Lord God!_] _Verbum angustiae._ The old Latin hath it A, A, A, whereby is noted, say some, a threefold...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Then said I, Ah, Lord God_, &c. He modestly excuses himself from a consideration of the weight of the work, and the tenderness of his age, as in the next expression. _Behold, I cannot speak; for I am...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-10 Jeremiah's early call to the work and office of a prophet is stated. He was to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the neighbouring nations. He is still a prophet to the whole world, and...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    AH! an introductory interjection, making way for his excuse in a way of grief and complaint, endeavouring with all reverence to clear himself of undertaking such a work rashly, it being properly the s...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Jeremiah 1:6 said H559 (H8799) Ah H162 Lord H136 GOD H3069 cannot H3045 (H8804) speak H1696 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    JEREMIAH'S INITIAL CALL (JEREMIAH 1:4). YHWH's initial call assures Jeremiah that he had been chosen even before he was born, that he need not be afraid that he was still young and immature (around t...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Jeremiah 1:6 It is not improbable that Jeremiah was almost a child when he spoke these words. Considering the time to which he lived, he must have been young in the thirteenth year of Josiah, young en...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Jeremiah 1:1 I. (Jeremiah 1:4). The two great blessings of _election_and _mediation_are here distinctly taught. God did not speak to the nations directly, but mediationally. He created a minister who...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Jeremiah 1:1. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Ju...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Jeremiah's call and enduement. The sign of the almond rod and seething pot. CHARACTERS: God, Holy Spirit, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jehoiakim. CONCLUSION: God, by His special counsel and foreknowle...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Jeremiah 1:5. _Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee._ In the creation God knew the nature and designations of every creature, whether of plants, or of living beings. He assigned laws and abod...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee._ Seven points in Jeremiah’s life and call:-- 1. God knowing him. “I knew thee.” 2. God sanctifying him. “I sanctified thee.” 3. God ordaining him. “...

  • The children's great texts of the Bible by James Hastings

    THE SPEECH OF A CHILD I cannot speak: for I am a child. Jeremiah 1:6. These words were spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. God had called him to carry His message to the people of Judah, and Jeremiah fe...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JEREMIAH—NOTE ON JEREMIAH 1:1 Introduction. These verses introduce the book’s historical background (vv. Jeremiah 1:1), Jeremiah’s call and message (vv....

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.— 1. CHRONOLOGY. Jeremiah 1:1, penned _cir._ B.C. 578; Jeremiah 1:4, _sq._ B.C. 629. But the recently discovered Assyrian chronology would make the date of the “thirteen...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION AN ACCOUNT OF THE CALL AND CONSECRATION OF JEREMIAH TO THE PROPHETIC OFFICE, FOLLOWED BY TWO EXPRESSIVE SYMBOLS OF THE...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    At this time shall we turn in our Bibles to the book of Jeremiah. About sixty years after Isaiah died, God called Jeremiah to what I feel must have been the hardest task any minister has ever been cal...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Kings 3:7; Exodus 4:1; Exodus 4:10; Exodus 6:12; Exodus 6:30;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    JEREMIAH, THE WAILING PROPHET Jeremiah 1:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS The ten tribes of Israel had passed into captivity before God called Jeremiah. Judah was following hard in the path of her sister natio...

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