Jeremiah 20:7-18

Jeremiah Compelled to Preach

7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out- I proclaim: Violence and destruction![a] because the word of the Lord has become for me constant disgrace and derision.
9 If I say: I won't mention Him or speak any longer in His name, His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
10 For I have heard the gossip of the multitudes, "Terror is on every side![b][c] Report [him]; let's report him!" Everyone I trusted[d] watches for my fall.[e] "Perhaps he will be deceived so that we might prevail against him and take our vengeance on him."
11 But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior.[f] Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed, an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.
12 Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous and seeing the heart[g] and mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for I have presented my case to You.[h]
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord, for He rescues the life of the needy from the hand of evil people.

Jeremiah's Lament

14 Cursed be the day on which I was born.[i] The day my mother bore me- let it never be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A male child is born to you," bringing him great joy.
16 Let that man be like the cities the Lord overthrew without compassion. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war cry at noontime
17 because he didn't kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.
18 Why did I come out of the womb to see [only] struggle and sorrow, to end my life in shame?

Jeremiah 20:7-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 20

This chapter gives an account of the usage that Jeremiah met with from many for his prophecies, and the effect it had upon him. He was smitten and put in the stocks by Pashur the priest, who released him the next day, Jer 20:1-3; upon which he prophesies again of the delivery of the city of Jerusalem, with all its riches, and of the whole land, to the Chaldeans; and particularly that Pashur should be a terror to himself and all his friends; and that both he and they should be carried captive into Babylon, and die, and be buried there, Jer 20:4-6; and then he complains of his being mocked at by the people for the word of the Lord; which he therefore determined to make no more mention of, but was obliged to it; and of the defamations of him, and snares that were laid for him, Jer 20:7-10; under which he is supported with the consideration of the Lord's being with him, and that his enemies should not prevail, but be confounded; and appeals to him, and calls for vengeance from him on them; and, in the view of deliverance, not only praises the Lord himself, but calls upon others to join with him in it, Jer 20:11-13; and yet, after all, the chapter is concluded with his cursing the day of his birth, and the man that brought his father the news of it, Jer 20:14-18.

Footnotes 9

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