Jeremiah 1

¹The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

²To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his rule.

³And it came again in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah; till Jerusalem was taken away in the fifth month.

⁴Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations.

⁶Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words, for I am a child.

⁷But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you orders to say, you are to say.

⁸Have no fear because of them: for I am with you, to keep you safe, says the Lord.

⁹Then the Lord put out his hand, touching my mouth; and the Lord said to me, See, I have put my words in your mouth:

¹⁰See, this day I have put you over the nations and over the kingdoms, for uprooting and smashing down, for destruction and overturning, for building up and planting.

¹¹Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond-tree.

¹²Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep watch over my word to give effect to it.