Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 1:6

"Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child." — Jeremiah 1:6 (ASV)

Ah, Lord God! — A better rendering is, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! as it corresponds to the Hebrew Adonai Jehovah.

I cannot speak. — This is meant in the same sense as Moses’ statement, “I am not eloquent” (Exodus 4:10), literally, “a man of words,” i.e., he had no gift for public speaking.

I am a child. — Later Jewish writers set fourteen as the maximum age for which the term translated “child” could be used. With Jeremiah, the term was probably more indefinite. In the intense awareness of his own weakness, he would naturally use a word that suggested an age younger than he actually was. Therefore, there is nothing to prevent us from assuming he was in his late teens or early twenties. In Genesis 34:19, the term is used for a young man old enough for marriage.

These words are memorable because they strike a note common to the lives of many prophets and, we might add, to most men when they feel themselves called to any great work.

Thus, Moses drew back, saying, “I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Exodus 4:10). Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! for ... I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). And Peter exclaimed, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Something of the same reluctance is implied in St. Paul’s command to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:12). In tracing the entire course of Jeremiah’s work, we must never forget the divine compulsion by which he undertook his tasks. As it was later for St. Paul, a necessity was laid upon him (1 Corinthians 9:16).