Jeremiah 20:7–18

Jeremiah’s Lament

⁷You have persuaded me, O Yahweh, and I was persuaded.

You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long.

Everyone^e is mocking me.

⁸For as often as^f I speak,

I must cry out violence and destruction.

I must shout, for the word of Yahweh has become for me

a disgrace and derision all day long.

⁹But if I say, “I will not mention him

and I will no longer speak in his name,”

then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning,

locked up in my bones,

and I struggle to contain it,^g

and I am not able.

¹⁰For I hear the rumor of many,

“Terror is from all around, denounce him,^h

yes, let us denounce him!”

All my close friendsⁱ are watchers of my stumbling,

saying, “perhaps he can be persuaded,

and we can prevail over him,

and we can take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But Yahweh is with me like a powerful warrior.

Therefore^j my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.

They will be very ashamed, for they will not achieve success.

Their everlasting insult^k will not be forgotten.

¹²Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, who tests the righteous,

who sees the heart^l and the mind,^m

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have revealed my legal case.

¹³Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh,

for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day on which I was born,

let not the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,

saying,ⁿ “A child is born to you, a son!”

and he made him very glad.

¹⁶And let that man be like the cities

that Yahweh demolished without regret,

and let him hear a cry for help in the morning,

and an alarm at the time of noon.

¹⁷Because he did not kill me in the womb,

so that my mother would have been for me my grave,

and her womb would be pregnant forever.

¹⁸Why^o did I come out from the womb,

to see toil, and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?^p