5Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations.
6Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words, for I am a child.
7But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you orders to say, you are to say.
8Have no fear because of them: for I am with you, to keep you safe, says the Lord.
9Then the Lord put out his hand, touching my mouth; and the Lord said to me, See, I have put my words in your mouth:
10See, this day I have put you over the nations and over the kingdoms, for uprooting and smashing down, for destruction and overturning, for building up and planting.
11Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond-tree.
