Jeremiah 20:7-18

7 O LORD, ¹you have deceived me, and I was deceived; ²you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. ³I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.

8 For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, ⁴"Violence and destruction!" For ⁵the word of the LORD has become for me ⁶a reproach and ⁷derision all day long.

9 If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," ⁸there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and ⁹I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

10 ¹⁰For I hear many whispering. ¹¹Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! ¹²Let us denounce him!" say all my ¹³close friends, ¹⁴watching for ¹⁵my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then ¹⁶we can overcome him and take our revenge on him."

11 But ¹⁷the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; ¹⁸they will not overcome me. ¹⁹They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their ²⁰eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.

12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, ²¹who sees the heart and the mind,^[a] let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.

13 ²²Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

14 ²³Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!

15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is born to you," ²⁴making him very glad.

16 Let that man be like ²⁵the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; ²⁶let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,

17 ²⁷because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.

18 ²⁸Why did I come out from the womb ²⁹to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days 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.

Cross References

• 1. [Ezekiel 14:9]
• 2. [2 Peter 1:21]
• 3. Psalms 119:51; Lamentations 3:14
• 4. Jeremiah 6:7
• 5. Jeremiah 6:10
• 6. Psalms 44:13; Psalms 79:4
• 7. Psalms 44:13; Psalms 79:4
• 8. Job 32:18, 19; Psalms 39:3
• 9. Jeremiah 6:11
• 10. Psalms 31:13
• 11. See Jeremiah 6:25
• 12. [Jeremiah 36:16, 20]
• 13. Psalms 41:9; Psalms 55:13; [Jeremiah 9:4; Jeremiah 38:22]
• 14. [Psalms 56:6]
• 15. Psalms 35:15
• 16. Jeremiah 1:19; Jeremiah 5:22
• 17. See Jeremiah 1:8
• 18. See Jeremiah 1:8
• 19. Jeremiah 17:18; Jeremiah 23:40
• 20. Jeremiah 23:40
• 21. See Jeremiah 11:20
• 22. [Psalms 35:9, 10; Psalms 109:30, 31]
• 23. Jeremiah 15:10; Job 3:3
• 24. [John 16:21]
• 25. Genesis 19:25; Isaiah 13:19
• 26. Jeremiah 18:22
• 27. [Job 3:10, 11]
• 28. [Job 3:20]
• 29. [Lamentations 3:1, 2]

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew kidneys