Jeremiah 20:8

8 Every time I open my mouth I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!" And all I get for my God-warnings are insults and contempt.

Jeremiah 20:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 20:8

For since I spake, I cried out
Or, "when I speak, I cry" {a}; whensoever I speak in the name of the Lord, and deliver message from him to the people, I lift up my voice and cry aloud, that all may hear and understand; and as showing zeal, fervour, and diligence: or, "I cry" with grief and trouble at the usage I meet with, and the contempt that is cast upon the word; or because of what I am obliged to declare to them, as follows. The Targum takes in both sense, of the word thus,

``for at the time that I prophesy, I lift up my voice, weeping, and crying.''

I cried violence and spoil:
or, "proclaimed" it ^F2, for a different word is here used; that is, he publicly declared the rapine and oppression they were guilty of, inveighed against it, and reproved them for it; and foretold the violence of the enemy, and the spoil that he should make of them, when he should come upon them, even the king of Babylon; as well as cried out and complained of the injurious treatment he himself met with from them; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a
derision daily;
which is a reason either why he cried with grief and sorrow; or why he cried violence and spoil, ruin and destruction: or, "though the word of the Lord was" ^F3, &c; yet he went on publishing and proclaiming it: or, "surely the word of the Lord was made a reproach" ^F4, &c; either because of the matter of it, it not being believed, or the manner in which it was delivered; or because it was not immediately fulfilled.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (qeza rbda ydm) "quum loquor exclamavi, i.e. loquor exclamans", Gataker.
F2 (arqa) "clamo", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius; "proclamo", Piscator.
F3 (rbd hyh yk) "quamvis".
F4 "Verum, verbum Domini", so some in Vatablus; "utique", De Dieu, Gataker.

Jeremiah 20:8 In-Context

6 "'And you, Pashur, you and everyone in your family will be taken prisoner into exile - that's right, exile in Babylon. You'll die and be buried there, you and all your cronies to whom you preached your lies.'"

7 You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it. You were too much for me. And now I'm a public joke. They all poke fun at me.

8 Every time I open my mouth I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!" And all I get for my God-warnings are insults and contempt.

9 But if I say, "Forget it! No more God-Messages from me!" The words are fire in my belly, a burning in my bones. I'm worn out trying to hold it in. I can't do it any longer!

10 Then I hear whispering behind my back: "There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!" Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face: "One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"