Jeremiah 1:1-10

Common English Bible

Introduction

1 These are the words of Jeremiah, Hilkiah’s son, who was one of the priests from Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. ²The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son, ³and throughout the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

Call of Jeremiah

⁴The Lord’s word came to me:

⁵“Before I created you in the womb I knew you;
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I made you a prophet to the nations.”
⁶“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak
    because I’m only a child.”
⁷The Lord responded,
    “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’
        Where I send you, you must go;
        what I tell you, you must say.
⁸Don’t be afraid of them,
    because I’m with you to rescue you,”
        declares the Lord.
⁹Then the Lord stretched out his hand,
    touched my mouth, and said to me,
    “I’m putting my words in your mouth.
¹⁰This very day I appoint you over nations and empires,
    to dig up and pull down,
    to destroy and demolish,
    to build and plant.”