Jeremiah 20:17

Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. The contrast between the spirit of this passage and the preceding thanksgiving to be explained thus: to show how great was the deliverance (), he subjoins a picture of what his wounded spirit had been previous to his deliverance; I had said, in the time of my imprisonment, "Cursed be the day when I was born:" my feeling was that of Job (; Job 3:10, whose words Jeremiah therefore copies). Though Jeremiah's zeal had been stirred up, not so much for self as for God's honour trampled on by the rejection of the prophet's words, yet it was intemperate when he made his birth a subject for cursing, which was really a ground for thanksgiving....

After having denounced his imprecations on his birth-day, and on the messenger who had wished to convey joy to his father, Jeremiah now expostulates with God. It hence appears how great was his madness; for thus must we speak. But if Jeremiah spared not God, how should he spare a mortal man? There is then no doubt but that he raged furiously against God, for his expostulation is that of a man wholly desperate; he asks, why he was not slain from the womb, as though he did not regard it as a kindness that he came alive into light. But this life, though exposed to many sorrows, ought yet to be counted as an evidence of God’s inestimable favor. As the Prophet, then, not only despised this goodness of God, but contended with God himself, because he had been created a man and brought into light, how great was his ingratitude!...

14-18 When grace has the victory, it is good to be ashamed of our folly, to admire the goodness of God, and be warned to guard our spirits another time. See how strong the temptation was, over which the prophet got the victory by Divine assistance! He is angry that his first breath was not his last. While we remember that these wishes are not recorded for us to utter the like, we may learn good lessons from them. See how much those who think they stand, ought to take heed lest they fall, and to pray daily, Lead us not into temptation. How frail, changeable, and sinful is man! How foolish and unnatural are the thoughts and wishes of our hearts, when we yield to discontent! Let us consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we should be at any time weary and faint in our minds under our lesser trials....

In the rest of the chapter we have an outbreak of deep emotion, of which the first part ends in a cry of hope Jeremiah 20:13, followed nevertheless by curses upon the day of his birth. Was this the result of feelings wounded by the indignities of a public scourging and a night spent in the stocks? Or was it not the mental agony of knowing that his ministry had (as it seemed) failed? He stands indeed before the multitudes with unbending strength, warning prince and people with unwavering constancy of the national ruin that would follow necessarily upon their sins. Before God he stood crushed by the thought that he had labored in vain, and spent his strength for nothing. It is important to notice that with this outpouring of sorrow Jeremiah’s ministry virtually closed. Though he appeared again at Jerusalem toward the end of Jehoia

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 20:1 The continuation of the preceding narrative. PASHUR THE SON OF TRAINER. This man belonged to the sixteenth of the sacerdotal families or classes (1 Chronicles 24:14). Another of the same name is referred to in Jeremiah 21:1 (see note). The one here mentioned was "chief overseer" (there were several inferior overseers, 2 Chronicles 31:13); the eminence of the position appears from the fact that Zephaniah, Pashur's successor (Jeremiah 29:26), is s

BECAUSE HE SLEW ME NOT FROM THE WOMB,.... As soon as he came out of it; that is, as soon as he was born; either because God slew him not so soon, as Kimchi; or the angel of death, as Jarchi: or rather the man that carried the tidings of his birth to his father, who is all along spoken of in the two former verses; he curses him for not doing that, which, had he done, would have been exceeding criminal in him indeed; for not committing murder, even for not murdering an innocent babe; OR THAT MY MOTHER MIGHT HAVE BEEN MY GRAVE; he wishes he had died in her womb, and had never been brought forth; and so that had been his grave, where he should have been at ease and safety: AND HER WOMB [TO BE] ALWAYS GREAT [WITH ME]; or, "her womb an everlasting conception" m; his wish was, that she had been always conceiving, or ever big with child of him, but never bring forth; which was a more cruel and...

CHAPTER 20 Pashur.-Jeremiah's Perplexity and Complaint _ 1. Pashur and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:1) _ 2. Jeremiah's great perplexity and complaint (Jeremiah 20:7) Jeremiah 20:1. A great scene now follows the message in connection with the broken bottle. The great Pashur, the chief governor in the house of the LORD had heard of the message. He smites Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks, which must have been some form of cruel torture by which the victim was rendered helpless, besides being exposed to the vulgarity of the people who passed by and would taunt him. In this position Jeremiah remained all night before the high gate of Benjamin. In the morning he was released. He then speaks a

THE PROPHET'S TROUBLES, HOPES, AND DARK DESPAIR. In passionate protest against his lot (possibly occasioned by the incident just related) Jeremiah complains that Yahweh has beguiled him into the work of a prophet, only that he may incur bitter shame, and suffer violence. Yet the inner compulsion of the prophetic word will not allow him to restrain it (_i.e._ forbear, Jeremiah 20:9), though it subjects him to the charge of treasonable utterance (Jeremiah 26:11). Jeremiah 20:11 (if originally here) mark a change of mood, and express Jeremiah's confidence that Yahweh will avenge him. The depth of his despair is reached in...

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 wa

BECAUSE— _Because I was not slain in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, even the womb of her that conceived me, for ever._ REFLECTIONS.—1st, They who will be zealous for God, and faithful to men's souls, must expect to be abused and insulted. We have here, 1. The prophet smitten by Pashur, a priest, and a chief governor of the house of the Lord, probably the head of his course, or captain, of the temple, see Acts 4:1. Hearing the prophet's discourse, or being informed of it, though his sacred character should have been a protection, and his own station and profession should have restrained him from such violence, he fell into a rage and struck the prophet himself to silence him, or commanded some inferior officer to beat him; and, to add ignominy to the insult, he ordered him to be set in the stocks, or prison, at the high gate of Benjamin, which was by