What Does Jeremiah 1:6 Mean in the King James?

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

Jeremiah 1:6 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The “I knew you” of the previous verse and the “I have not known how to speak” here share the same Hebrew root: knowing meets claimed inexperience.

THE MEANING

You can name the speech you do not yet know how to give; even that admission already has a voice. You connect the limit to your youth, as though inexperience settles what you can say. The answer in the next verse treats that limit as a claim, not a verdict.

THE ROOT

יָדַעְתִּי

yādaʿtî

GROWS FROM

ידע

Know or perceive through encounter.

“cannot speak” in this verse is yādaʿtî. The “I knew you” in Jeremiah 1:5 is ⁨יְדַעְתִּיךָ⁩ (yedaʿtîkha, “I knew you”), from this same root. The passage sets that knowing beside Jeremiah’s stated lack of experience in speaking: what he does not know is how to speak, not that he is unknown.

ALSO GROWS

yādaʿ: Know through personal encounter.

יָדַע

This is the root verb in “I have not known how to speak,” and also in the previous verse’s “I knew you.”

daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.

דַּעַת

This noun from the same root keeps the focus on what is known or learned, rather than treating Jeremiah’s words as proof that he has no voice.

דַּבֵּר

dabbēr

GROWS FROM

דבר

Speak or utter.

⁨דַּבֵּר⁩ (dabbēr, “speak”) shares its root with ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (dāḇār, “word” or “matter”). Hebrew holds speech close to the word or matter spoken: Jeremiah is naming inexperience in expression, while already putting his concern into words.

ALSO GROWS

dāḇār: A word, matter, or thing.

דָּבָר

The shared root joins the act of speaking to the word or matter being spoken.

dibbēr: Spoke; a verb form from the same root.

דִּבֵּר

It makes the link concrete: the root behind Jeremiah’s “speak” also forms ordinary statements of someone speaking.

THE PATTERN

A speaker’s confessed limitation does not have final authority over the message entrusted to them.

And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

Exodus 4:10 · KJVMoses names his difficulty with speech as Jeremiah does, making the limitation part of the exchange rather than its end.

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

Jeremiah 1:7 · KJVThe answer distinguishes Jeremiah’s estimate of his ability from the words he is sent to speak.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

1 Corinthians 2:4 · KJVThe verse locates the force of speech in what carries it, not in polished human eloquence.

THE THREAD

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah 1:5 · KJV

“I knew thee” in verse 5 and “I have not known how to speak” in verse 6 both use ⁨ידע⁩ (yādaʿ, “know, perceive through encounter”). The same root holds together being known and lacking experience: Jeremiah’s stated limit does not contain the whole account of him.

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