Jeremiah Chapter 1 verse 6 Holy Bible
Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child.
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Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words, for I am a child.
read chapter 1 in BBE
And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
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Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
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read chapter 1 in WBT
Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child.
read chapter 1 in WEB
And I say, `Ah, Lord Jehovah! lo, I have not known -- to speak, for I `am' a youth.'
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 6. - Ah, Lord God! rather, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! It is a cry of alarm and pain, and recurs in Jeremiah 4:10; Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 32:17. I am a child. I am too young to support such an office. The word rendered "child" is used elsewhere of youths nearly grown up (comp. Genesis 34:19; Genesis 41:12; 1 Kings 3:7).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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 (1Timothy 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 (1Corinthians 9:16). . . .
