Jeremiah 1:6

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

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. Child - the same word is translated "young man," 2 Samuel 18:5.

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 sigh of one that hath too great a weight upon his shoulders. I cannot speak; not dumb, as Zacharias, ,22, nor stammering, as Moses, ,14; but not with that becoming gravity and commanding majesty as is suitable to a prophet; he modestly excuseth himself, from a consideration of the weight of the work, and the tenderness of his age, as in the next expression. I am a child; either, 1. In years, and so not ripe or apt for the declaring of great things, and that to princes and nobles. Or, 2. In experience, being altogether unskilful in such affairs, not having been used to prophesy, and therefore in neither respect likely to be much regarded.

Jeremiah 1:6 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 defect - scil., of age, of knowledge, and of eloquence; but that is more subtle than solid. True worth is ever modest; and the more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation, the less he thinketh hinlself; forwardness argueth insufficiency. Behold, I cannot speak.] Heb., I know not to speak, i.e., aright, and as I ought. Tanto negotio tam instructum oratorem me non agnosco. Jeremiah was an excellent speaker, as well appeareth by these ensuing homilies of his, which show that he was suaviter gravis, et graviter suavis (as one saith of Basil), a grave and sweet preacher, one that could deliver his mind fitly, and dared to do it freely. Hence some of the Jews judged our Saviour to have been Jeremiah propter dicendi agendique gravitatem et parrhesian, for his gravity and freedom of speech. Nevertheless Jeremiah, in his own opinion, "cannot speak"; that is, was no way fit to speak. So Moses is at it with his "Who am I?," whereas none in all Egypt was comparably fit for such an embassy. It was a usual saying of Luther, Etsi iam senex, et in concionando exercitus sum, &c. Although I am now an old man, and an experienced preacher, yet I tremble as oft as I go up into the pulpit. For I am a child.] Epiphanius saith that Jeremiah was not even over fourteen or fifteen when he began to prophesy. Samuel also, and Daniel, began very young. So did Timothy, Origen, Cornelius Mus, a famous preacher, say his fellow Jesuites, at eleven years of age. Archbishop Ussher was converted at ten years old, preached early, and so continued to do for sixty years, or nearly so. Mr Beza was likewise converted at sixteen years old (for the which, as for a special mercy, he giveth God thanks in his last will and testament), and lived a preacher in Geneva to a very great age. His Life and Death, by Dr Bern.

(6) 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 words,” i.e., have no gifts of utterance. I am a child.—Later Jewish writers fix the age of fourteen as that up to which the term rendered “child” might be used. With Jeremiah it was probably more indefinite, and in the intense consciousness of his own weakness he would naturally use a word below the actual standard of his age; and there is accordingly nothing against assuming any age within the third hebdomad of life. In Genesis 34:19 it is used of a young man old enough for marriage. The words are memorable as striking a note common to the lives of many prophets; common, also, we may add, to most men as they feel themselves called to any great work. So Moses draws back: “I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Exodus 4:10). So Isaiah cries, “Woe is me! for . . . I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5); and Peter, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Something of the same shrinking is implied in St. Paul’s command to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:12). In tracing the whole course of Jeremiah’s work, we must never forget the divine constraint by which he entered on them. A necessity was laid upon him, as afterwards on St. Paul (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Verse 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 really called of God to the sacred ministry are such as have been brought to a deep acquaintance with themselves, feel their own ignorance, and know their own weakness. They know also the awful responsibility that attaches to the work; and nothing but the authority of God can induce such to undertake it. They whom God never called run, because of worldly honour and emolument: the others hear the call with fear and trembling, and can go only in the strength of Jehovah. "How ready is the man to go, Whom God hath never sent! How timorous, diffident, and slow, God's chosen instrument!"

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.

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.

6. I am a child — Moses said, (Exodus 4:10, margin,) “I am not a man of words;” but Jeremiah, overwhelmed with the greatness of his work, cries out, “I am a child!” The original word, na’ar, (ðòø,)