Jeremiah 20:7–18

Jeremiah’s Unpopular Ministry

⁷O Lord, You ²induced me, and I was persuaded;

^hYou are stronger than I, and have prevailed.

ⁱI am ³in derision daily;

Everyone mocks me.

⁸For when I spoke, I cried out;

^jI shouted, “Violence and plunder!”

Because the word of the Lord was made to me

A reproach and a derision daily.

⁹Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,

Nor speak anymore in His name.”

But His word was in my heart like a ^kburning fire

Shut up in my bones;

I was weary of holding it back,

And ^lI could not.

^10mFor I heard many ⁴mocking:

“Fear on every side!”

“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”

ⁿAll my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,

“Perhaps he can be induced;

Then we will prevail against him,

And we will take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is ^owith me as a mighty, awesome One.

Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not ^pprevail.

They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.

Their ^qeverlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

¹²But, O Lord of hosts,

You who ^rtest the righteous,

And see the ⁵mind and heart,

^sLet me see Your vengeance on them;

For I have pleaded my cause before You.

¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

For ^tHe has delivered the life of the poor

From the hand of evildoers.

^14uCursed be the day in which I was born!

Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!

¹⁵Let the man be cursed

Who brought news to my father, saying,

“A male child has been born to you!”

Making him very glad.

¹⁶And let that man be like the cities

Which the Lord—^voverthrew, and did not relent;

Let him ^whear the cry in the morning

And the shouting at noon,

^17xBecause he did not kill me from the womb,

That my mother might have been my grave,

And her womb always enlarged with me.

^18yWhy did I come forth from the womb to ^zsee ⁶labor and sorrow,

That my days should be consumed with shame?