Brueggemann on Jeremiah’s Language The situation of the people is such that language “must not be conventional, reasonable, predictable, or expected. It must shock people’s sensitivity, call attention to what is not usually noticed, break the routine, make statements with ambiguity so that people redescribe things that have long since seemed settled, bear surpluses of power before routine assessment.” Walter Brueggemann, “The Book of Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet,” in Interpreting the Prophets,