Rather, Before I formed thee in
the belly I approved of thee [as
one fit for the prophetic office], and
before thou camest forth from the womb I
made thee holy [dedicated thee to holy uses]; I have appointed thee [now by this public call to be] a prophet unto the nations.
unto the nations] The privileges contained in this verse
are so great as in their full sense to be true only of Christ Himself, while to
Jeremiah they belong as being in so many particulars a type of Christ. (Albert
Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament:
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, Lamentations & Ezekiel,
ed. F. C. Cook and J. M. Fuller [London: John Murray, 1879], 146)
