Jeremiah 20:7–18

⁷Jehovah, thou hast enticed me, and I was enticed; thou hast laid hold of me, and hast prevailed; I am become a derision the whole day: every one mocketh me. ⁸For as oft as I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and spoil; for the word of Jehovah is become unto me a reproach and a derision all the day. ⁹And I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: but it was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I became wearied with holding in, and I could not. ¹⁰For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side: Report, and we will report it. All my familiars are watching for my stumbling: Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall take our revenge on him. ¹¹But Jehovah is with me as a mighty terrible one; therefore my persecutors shall stumble and shall not prevail; they shall be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered: it shall be an everlasting confusion that shall not be forgotten. ¹²And thou, Jehovah of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause. ¹³Sing ye unto Jehovah, praise Jehovah, for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born; let not the day wherein my mother bore me be blessed! ¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad! ¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and repented not; and let him hear a cry in the morning, and a shouting at noonday, ¹⁷because he slew me not from the womb. Or would that my mother had been my grave, and her womb always great with me! ¹⁸Wherefore came I forth from the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?