Jeremiah 20:9-16

English Standard Version

⁹If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
^(A)there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
and ^(B)I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.
¹⁰^(C)For I hear many whispering.
    ^(D)Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! ^(E)Let us denounce him!”
    say all my ^(F)close friends,
    ^(G)watching for ^(H)my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then ^(I)we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”
¹¹But ^(J)the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
    therefore my persecutors will stumble;
    ^(K)they will not overcome me.
^(L)They will be greatly shamed,
    for they will not succeed.
Their ^(M)eternal dishonor
    will never be forgotten.
¹²O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
    ^(N)who sees the heart and the mind,^[a]
let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.

¹³^(O)Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴^(P)Cursed 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,”
    ^(Q)making him very glad.
¹⁶Let that man be like ^(R)the cities
    that the Lord overthrew without pity;
^(S)let him hear a cry in the morning
    and an alarm at noon,