The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 1:1 Go To Jeremiah 1
Jerome
AD 420
In those days etc. The great clemency of God is astonishing; with the captivity already neat and the Babylonian army besieging Jerusalem, he nevertheless provokes the people to repentance, preferring to save the converted rather than to destroy wrongdoers.
before I. This is not as heresy supposes because Jeremiah existed before his conception, but because the Lord, to whom things not yet made are already made, foreknew that he was going to exist.
before etc. Fruthermore, when he says, "I appointed you a prophet to the nations," he wishes this to be understood: later on in this very prophet, we are going to read that he prophesied not only to Jerusalem but also to many of the surrounding nations. Certain people understand this passage to be about the Savior, who was in the strictest sense a prophet to the nations and who called all nations through the apostles. For that one, before being formed in the virgin's womb and coming forth from his mother's body, was truly sanctified in the womb and known in the Father, and the Father was always in Him.
