Bible verse wall art
Jeremiah 1: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee”
Jeremiah's book opens with his call, and his call opens with a startling claim: God knew him before he was conceived. The young man's reply is the one most of us would give.
Jeremiah 1 print
Jeremiah 1 · King James Version
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee
A priest's son from Anathoth
The first verses place Jeremiah precisely. He is the son of Hilkiah, from the priests who lived in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, a village a short distance from Jerusalem. The word of the LORD first came to him in the thirteenth year of King Josiah, and his ministry continued through the reigns that followed until Jerusalem was carried away captive. He would spend decades delivering a message few wanted to hear.
What does Jeremiah 1:5 mean?
The line on our print is the first half of the verse: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.” It continues, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Knowing, in Hebrew thought, is more than awareness. It carries the sense of choosing and caring for someone. Before Jeremiah could do anything, God had already set his love and purpose on him.
Jeremiah protests in verse 6: Ah, Lord GOD, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. God will not accept the excuse. He tells him not to be afraid, touches his mouth and says he has put his words there. The same verse that comforts parents today was first spoken to a young man frightened of a task too big for him.
The almond branch and the boiling pot
The rest of the chapter gives Jeremiah two visions. First he sees the branch of an almond tree, and God says he will watch over his word to perform it. The pairing is a Hebrew wordplay, since the words for almond and for watching sound alike. Then he sees a boiling pot tilted from the north, a warning of the invasion to come. The chapter ends with a promise: though kings and priests fight against him, God will make him a defenced city and an iron pillar.
A verse for new life
Christians have long read verse 5 alongside Psalm 139, where the psalmist praises God who covered him in his mother's womb, and Paul applies similar words to himself in Galatians 1, saying God separated him from his mother's womb. Our Lamb on a Cloud print, a newborn lamb asleep among golden stars, brings that conviction into a nursery. It is Christian wall art for a pregnancy announcement, a baby shower or the memory of a child lost too soon.