Jeremiah 20:7–18

Jeremiah’s Fifth Complaint

⁷Lord, you tricked me, and I was fooled.

You are stronger than I am, so you won.

I have become a joke;

everyone makes fun of me all day long.

⁸Every time I speak, I shout.

I am always shouting about violence and destruction.

I tell the people about the message I received from the Lord,

but this only brings me insults.

The people make fun of me all day long.

⁹Sometimes I say to myself,

“I will forget about the Lord.

I will not speak anymore in his name.”

But then his message becomes like a burning fire inside me,

deep within my bones.

I get tired of trying to hold it inside of me,

and finally, I cannot hold it in.

¹⁰I hear many people whispering about me:

“Terror on every side!

Tell on him! Let’s tell the rulers about him.”

My friends are all just waiting for me to make some mistake.

They are saying,

“Maybe we can trick him

so we can defeat him

and pay him back.”

¹¹But the Lord is with me like a strong warrior,

so those who are chasing me will trip and fall;

they will not defeat me.

They will be ashamed because they have failed,

and their shame will never be forgotten.

¹²Lord All-Powerful, you test good people;

you look deeply into the heart and mind of a person.

I have told you my arguments against these people,

so let me see you give them the punishment they deserve.

¹³Sing to the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

He saves the life of the poor

from the power of the wicked.

Jeremiah’s Sixth Complaint

¹⁴Let there be a curse on the day I was born;

let there be no blessing on the day when my mother gave birth to me.

¹⁵Let there be a curse on the man

who brought my father the news:

“You have a son!”

This made my father very glad.

¹⁶Let that man be like the towns

the Lord destroyed without pity.

Let him hear loud crying in the morning

and battle cries at noon,

¹⁷because he did not kill me before I was born.

Then my mother would have been my grave;

she would have stayed pregnant forever.

¹⁸Why did I have to come out of my mother’s body?

All I have known is trouble and sorrow,

and my life will end in shame.