Jeremiah 20:7-10
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors
7 O Lord, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering:
“Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
“Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.”
Jeremiah 20:7-10
Good News Translation
Jeremiah Complains to the Lord
7 Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived.
You are stronger than I am,
and you have overpowered me.
Everyone makes fun of me;
they laugh at me all day long.
8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out
and shout, “Violence! Destruction!”
Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time
because I proclaim your message.
9 But when I say, “I will forget the Lord
and no longer speak in his name,”
then your message is like a fire
burning deep within me.
I try my best to hold it in,
but can no longer keep it back.
10 I hear everybody whispering,
“Terror is everywhere!
So let's report him to the authorities!”
Even my close friends wait for my downfall.
“Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say;
“then we can catch him and get revenge.”
Jeremiah 20:7-10
Authorized (King James) Version
7 O Lord, thou hast deceived me,
and I was deceived:
thou art stronger than I,
and hast prevailed:
I am in derision daily,
every one mocketh me.
8 For since I spake, I cried out,
I cried violence and spoil;
because the word of the Lord
was made a reproach unto me,
and a derision, daily.
9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him,
nor speak any more in his name.
But his word was in mine heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I was weary with forbearing,
and I could not stay.
10 For I heard the defaming of many,
fear on every side.
Report, say they, and we will report it.
All my familiars watched for my halting, saying,
Peradventure he will be enticed,
and we shall prevail against him,
and we shall take our revenge on him.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.