God chose Jeremiah to be his prophet and although many powerful people would be against him, God promised to protect him. This chapter emphasizes that Jeremiah was chosen by God to be his prophet. The people were supposed to listen to God's prophet. When he prophesied, they should have repented. Instead, they persecuted Jeremiah. The ULB sets poetry (1:4-10) farther to the right than the rest of the text to show that it is poetry.