Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ² 

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 16:3

16:3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to ³  the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 52:1

The Fall of Jerusalem

52:1 ⁵ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem ⁶  for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal ⁷  daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

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¹ tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

³ tn Heb “For thus says the Lord concerning…”

⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in the place and concerning their mothers who give them birth and their fathers who fathered them in this land.”

⁵ sn This final chapter does not mention Jeremiah, but its description of the downfall of Jerusalem and exile of the people validates the prophet’s ministry.

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Some textual witnesses support the Kethib (consonantal text) in reading “Hamital.”