THE CALL OF JEREMIAH by DAVID TUDOR ... - David T Williams

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the prophet undergoes as private experience... (Koch
1983:6).
Jeremiah in his confessions indicates how he would love the burden to
be gone, or even altered (Blank 1969:13), but it cannot even be
shared, much less, as in the later office of the "shaliach", was it
transferable.
O that I had in the desert a wayfarers' lodging place, that
I might leave my people and go away... (Jr 9:2).
The exclusivity portrayed in the comparison of the covenant with Israel
to marriage (cf esp Hosea, who has many similarities to Jeremiah
(Snaith 1953:25)) also reflects in the prophet's many references to
marriage (Carroll 1981:132) and in their own matrimonial experiences.
(This covenant is of course not between equals, as marriage (Knight
1960:22).) Jeremiah could not marry (Jr 16:2), not just out of God's
compassion in that situation, but probably also because the intensity
of the relationship with God (Robinson 1937:77) tended to preclude it.
....for I am called by thy name, O Lord (Jr 15:16).
That prophecy is primarily a relationship is portrayed vividly in the
dumbness of Ezekiel. He could be a prophet without verbal
communication. This relationship implies belonging (Bright 1970:200).