Jeremiah 15:16 - Exposition

Thy words were found . Jeremiah here describes his first reception of a Divine revelation. Truth is like "treasure hid in a field;" he alone who seeks it with an unprejudiced mind can "find" it. But there are some things which no "searching" of the intellect can "find" ( Job 11:7 ; Job 37:23 ; Ecclesiastes 3:11 ; Ecclesiastes 8:17 ); yet by a special revelation they may be "found" by God's "spokesmen," or prophets. This is the train of thought which underlies Jeremiah's expression here. The "words," or revelations, of Jehovah are regarded as having an objective existence in the ideal world of which God is the light, and as "descending" from thence (comp. Isaiah 9:8 ) into the consciousness of the prophet. So Ezekiel 3:1 , "Eat that thou findest." I did eat them ; I assimilated them, as it were (comp. Ezekiel 2:8 ; Ezekiel 3:3 ). I am called by thy name ; literally, thy name hath been (or, had been ) called upon me ; i.e. I have (or, had) been specially dedicated to thy service. The phrase is often used of Israel (see on Jeremiah 14:9 ), and, as here applied, intimates that a faithful prophet was, as it were, the embodied ideal of an Israelite.