Jeremiah’s Complaint

7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;

You have aovercome me and prevailed.

I have become a blaughingstock all day long;

Everyone cmocks me.

8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;

I aproclaim violence and destruction,

Because for me the bword of the Lord has 1resulted

In reproach and derision all day long.

9 But if I say, “I will not aremember Him

Or speak anymore in His name,”

Then in bmy heart it becomes like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

And I am weary of holding it in,

And cI cannot endure it.

10 For aI have heard the whispering of many,

“bTerror on every side!

cDenounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”

1All my dtrusted friends,

Watching for my fall, say:

“Perhaps he will be 2deceived, so that we may eprevail against him

And take our revenge on him.”

11 But the aLord is with me like a dread champion;

Therefore my bpersecutors will stumble and not prevail.

They will be utterly ashamed, because they have 1failed,

With an ceverlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.

12 Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who atest the righteous,

Who see the 1mind and the heart;

Let me bsee Your vengeance on them;

For cto You I have set forth my cause.

13 aSing to the Lord, praise the Lord!

For He has bdelivered the soul of the needy one

From the hand of evildoers.