My approach this morning to Jeremiah was to read the Introduction from the New Revised Standard Version, followed by the one from Dummelow (The One Volume Bible Commentary). I have only read up to the beginning of paragraph Reign of Josiah so far.
I must say that, to me, the NRSV was dry bones compared to the first page of Dummelow - a very different tone. Dummelow is more gentle; NRSV merely historic and scholarly.
We hear of the divine calling of Jeremiah only in Dummelow, and he writes, “Jeremiah is one who reveals with frankness the workings of his mind. His prophesies are charged with a large element of human interest.”
In case readers do not have access to Dummelow, I am going to copy in full the last paragraph which I have read:
"Belonging to the orders both of priest and prophet, and living at the very time when each had sunk to its lowest degree of degradation, he was compelled to submit to the buffeting which they each bestowed on one who by his every word and deed was passing sentence upon them. Hostility, abuse, powerlessness to avert the coming ills, a solitary life and prohibition of marriage (16:2)-- these were the conditions of life allotted to a man of shy and timid disposition and naturally despondent mind. No miracle was wrought for his benefit. His predictions were scorned. He failed to induce his compatriots to recognise the solidity of his claims to a hearing. At times he despaired even, as it seems, of life (20:14-18). And yet he could not be silent. The divine message must find its utterance (20:8, 9), and in fact the promise made to him at the time of his call (1:18), and renewed later (15:10), did not fail."
Joyce Voysey
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