Jeremiah 1:6

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 lament that they are as they are; cp. Joshua 7:7; 2 Kings 3:10. Jeremiah's position is thus different from that of Moses (Exodus 4:10). The latter pleaded inability, "Oh Lord, I am not eloquent," while the former acquiesces in the appointment, now announced to have been made so long before, deploring only youth and inexperience (cp. Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 3:15 ff.), and replies to the Almighty in the same spirit as Solomon at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 3:7).

Lord God lit. Lord Yahweh (Jehovah). When the Hebrew word Adônai(Lord), which was ordinarily used in reading as a substitute for Yahweh, immediately (as here) precedes that word, the latter was read as God (Elôhîm), and in such cases is printed in E.VV. in capitals.

I cannot speak meaning, I have not the powers necessary to win a hearing. For the prophet of those days eloquence, natural or acquired, was as necessary as it is for one who would be a popular preacher or prominent statesman now.

I am a child meaning, a very young man. The length of Jeremiah's ministry shews that he was very youthful at its commencement. So Isaiah must have been still a young man when he began to prophesy.