Jeremiah 1.4-10: ‘Lost and Found’ in Translation and a New Interpretation

Jeremiah 1.4-10 presents the first encounter between God and Jeremiah, an encounter which results in Jeremiah’s commission to be a prophet of God. The text is characterized by two literary devices: (1) the use of stereotypical expressions, which have led exegetes to treat vv. 4-10 as ‘the call pr…