Jeremiah 20:14-18
Faithful obedience to God can lead to profound personal suffering, yet such lament exposes the real cost of proclaiming God’s truth in a rebellious world.
14 Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
15 Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A boy is born to you,” making him very glad.
16 Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn’t repent. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;
17 because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.
18 Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Faithful obedience to God can lead to profound personal suffering, yet such lament exposes the real cost of proclaiming God’s truth in a rebellious world.
To record Jeremiah’s deepest lament in response to the suffering and isolation produced by his prophetic calling.
Jeremiah 20:14–18 concludes the prophet’s lament that began earlier in chapter 20. After affirming confidence in the Lord’s justice (20:11–13), Jeremiah shifts into a deeply personal expression of grief. The structure mirrors lament psalms where trust in God and emotional distress coexist.
Pashhur, Terror on Every Side, and the Fire Shut Up in Jeremiah’s Bones
The LORD’s word brings Jeremiah persecution, ridicule, and anguish, yet it burns with irresistible force within him, and the LORD remains his mighty warrior against those who oppose the truth.