Jeremiah 20:7–18

Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors

⁷O Lord, you have enticed me,

and I was enticed;

you have overpowered me,

and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

everyone mocks me.^*

⁸For whenever I speak, I must cry out;

I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the Lord has become for me

a reproach and derision all day long.^*

⁹If I say, “I will not mention him

or speak any more in his name,”

then within me there is something like a burning fire

shut up in my bones;

I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.^*

¹⁰For I hear many whispering:

“Terror is all around!

Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

All my close friends

are watching for me to stumble.

“Perhaps he can be enticed,

and we can prevail against him

and take our revenge on him.”^*

¹¹But the Lord is with me like a terrifying warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble,

and they will not prevail.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.^*

¹²O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous;

you see the heart and the mind;

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have committed my cause.^*

¹³Sing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.^*

¹⁴Cursed be the day

on which I was born!

The day when my mother bore me,

let it not be blessed!^*

¹⁵Cursed be the man

who brought the news to my father, saying,

“A child is born to you, a son,”

making him very glad.^*

¹⁶Let that man be like the cities

that the Lord overthrew without pity;

let him hear a cry in the morning

and an alarm at noon,^*

¹⁷because he did not kill me in the womb;

so my mother would have been my grave

and her womb forever pregnant.^*

¹⁸Why did I come forth from the womb

to see toil and sorrow

and spend my days in shame?^*