Jeremiah 20:7-18

Jeremiah 20:7-18. The prophet bitterly complains to God of his lot

The passage opens to us the depths of the prophet's soul, and we see him in intimate converse with God, and possessed now by the emotions of despair, and now by confident hope. We have here the thoughts, as Gi. and Co. observe, which may well have occupied his mind when in confinement, and Jeremiah 20:7 at any rate are thus closely connected both in time and subject-matter with Jeremiah 20:1. As derision was still the prophet's fate (Jeremiah 20:7), they can hardly be later than the early part of Jehoiakim's reign, when the hope that danger would be averted was still prevalent. On the other hand Jeremiah 20:14 most naturally belong to the latter days of Zedekiah, when the prophet stood alone, hated as the enemy of his people and a traitor to his country.

It may be summarized thus.

(i) Jeremiah 20:7. O Lord, Thou hast beguiled me. My human weakness cannot cope with the Divine strength. Perforce I utter Thy message, and therefore am become an object of perpetual scorn. Yet that message, whatever I may resolve to the contrary, insists on utterance. Denunciation, craft, revenge even my intimates employ these weapons against me. (ii) Jeremiah 20:11. After all, I have Jehovah on my side. My foes shall be put to perpetual shame. May He, who searches my heart and theirs, grant me to see their discomfiture. Praise be to Him for deliverance. (iii) Jeremiah 20:14. Accursed be the day of my birth and he who announced it. May his doom be terrible as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why did he not cut me off from life ere I was born? Wherefore was I, wretched man that I am, given a share in human existence?