Jeremiah 1:10

set thee given thee authority to speak as My representative. It is the same word as that rendered "made governor" in Jeremiah 40:5; Jeremiah 40:7, and "made overseer" in Genesis 39:4-5.

over the nations So Amos (Jeremiah 1:3 to Jeremiah 2:3) had prophesied concerning non-Jewish kingdoms.

to pluck up, etc.] The prophet is said to do in his own person that which he announces as about to be done by God. Cp. Jeremiah 15:1; Isaiah 6:10; Ezekiel 43:3, where the prophet speaks of the vision that he saw when he "came to destroy the city." So in profane literature we find prophets spoken of as though they had a share in influencing the course of the future, which it was theirs only to predict. Thus Aeneas to the Sibyl:

"And thou, O sacred maid, inspired to see

The event of things in dark futurity,

Giveme what heaven has promised to my fate

To conquer and command the Latian state."

Dryden's Vergil, VI. 100 103.

The predominant portion of the prophet's task was to consist in rebuke and in threatening; while nevertheless out of the ruins a better and more hopeful state of things should arise for Israel.