Jeremiah 20:7–18

⁷O Lord, thou hast deceived me,

and I was deceived;

thou art stronger than I,

and thou hast prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all the day;

every one mocks me.

⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I 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,”

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

and I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

¹⁰For I hear many whispering.

Terror is on every side!

“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

say all my familiar friends,

watching for my fall.

“Perhaps he will be deceived,

then we can overcome him,

and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble,

they will not overcome me.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

¹²O Lord of hosts, who triest the righteous,

who seest the heart and the mind,

let me see thy vengeance upon them,

for to thee have I committed my cause.

¹³Sing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand 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,

“A son is born to you,”

making him very glad.

¹⁶Let that man be like the cities

which 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 for ever great.

¹⁸Why did I come forth from the womb

to see toil and sorrow,

and spend my days in shame?