Jeremiah 20:7–18

JEREMIAH COMPELLED TO PREACH

⁷You deceived^t me, Lord, and I was deceived.

You seized me and prevailed.

I am a laughingstock all the time;^u

everyone ridicules me.

⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I proclaim, “Violence and destruction!”^v

so the word of the Lord has become my

constant disgrace and derision.

⁹I say, “I won’t mention him

or speak any longer in his name.”^w

But his message becomes a fire burning in my heart,^x

shut up in my bones.

I become tired of holding it in,^y

and I cannot prevail.

¹⁰For I have heard the gossip of many people,

“Terror is on every side!^z

Report him; let’s report him!”

Everyone I trusted^A watches for my fall.^aa

“Perhaps he will be deceived

so that we might prevail against him

and take our vengeance on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior.^ab

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.^ac

¹²Lord of Armies, testing the righteous

and seeing the heart^B and mind,

let me see your vengeance on them,

for I have presented my case to you.^ad

¹³Sing to the Lord!

Praise the Lord,

for he rescues the life of the needy

from evil people.

JEREMIAH’S LAMENT

¹⁴May the day I was born

be cursed.^a

May the day my mother bore me

never be blessed.

¹⁵May the man be cursed

who brought the news to my father, saying,

“A male child is born to you,”

bringing him great joy.

¹⁶Let that man be like the cities

the Lord demolished without compassion.^b

Let him hear an outcry in the morning^c

and a war cry at noontime

¹⁷because he didn’t kill me in the womb^d

so that my mother might have been my grave,

her womb eternally pregnant.

¹⁸Why did I come out of the womb

to see only struggle and sorrow,^e

to end my life in shame?