Jeremiah 20:7-18

English Standard Version

⁷O Lord, ^(A)you have deceived me,
    and I was deceived;
^(B)you are stronger than I,
    and you have prevailed.
^(C)I have become a laughingstock all the day;
    everyone mocks me.
⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out,
    I shout, ^(D)“Violence and destruction!”
For ^(E)the word of the Lord has become for me
    ^(F)a reproach and ^(G)derision all day long.
⁹If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
^(H)there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
and ^(I)I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.
¹⁰^(J)For I hear many whispering.
    ^(K)Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! ^(L)Let us denounce him!”
    say all my ^(M)close friends,
    ^(N)watching for ^(O)my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then ^(P)we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”
¹¹But ^(Q)the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
    therefore my persecutors will stumble;
    ^(R)they will not overcome me.
^(S)They will be greatly shamed,
    for they will not succeed.
Their ^(T)eternal dishonor
    will never be forgotten.
¹²O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
    ^(U)who sees the heart and the mind,^[a]
let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.

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

¹⁴^(W)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,”
    ^(X)making him very glad.
¹⁶Let that man be like ^(Y)the cities
    that the Lord overthrew without pity;
^(Z)let him hear a cry in the morning
    and an alarm at noon,
¹⁷^(AA)because he did not kill me in the womb;
    so my mother would have been my grave,
    and her womb forever great.
¹⁸^(AB)Why did I come out from the womb
    ^(AC)to see toil and sorrow,
    and spend my days in shame?