Jeremiah 20:16

16 Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the LORD overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,

Jeremiah 20:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 20:16

And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew,
&c.] In his fury, as the Targum and Septuagint add. Meaning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were utterly destroyed, and were never recovered: and repented not;
whose sentence God never repented of, nor revoked: this was very severe and uncharitable, to wish for so sore a destruction upon an innocent person; and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
as soon as he is up in the morning, the first thing that salutes his ears, let it be the noise of an enemy invading the city he dwells in; and by noon let him hear the shouting of him, having broke in, and gotten the victory, seizing the plunder.

Jeremiah 20:16 In-Context

14 Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.

15 I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!”

16 Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the LORD overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,

17 because he did not kill me at birth. Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!

18 Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.