Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 20:14 sn From the heights of exaltation Jeremiah returns to the depths of despair. For similar mood swings in the psalms of lament, compare Ps 102. Verses 14-18 are similar in tone and mood to Job 3:1-10. They are very forceful rhetorical ways for Job and Jeremiah to express the wish that they had never been born.
2. Jeremiah 20:15 tn Heb “Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, saying, ‘A son, a male, has been born to you,’ making glad his joy.” This verse has been restructured for English stylistic purposes.sn The birth of a child was an occasion of great joy. This was especially true if the child was a boy, because it meant the continuance of the family line and the right to retain the family property. See Ruth 4:10, 13-17.
3. Jeremiah 20:16 sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain, which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the Lord brought on them because of it. See Isa 1:9-10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18.
4. Jeremiah 20:17 tn Heb “because he did not kill me from the womb, so my mother might be to me for my grave and her womb eternally pregnant.” The sentence structure has been modified and the word “womb” moved from the last line to the next-to-last line for English stylistic purposes and greater clarity.
5. Jeremiah 20:18 tn Heb “Why did I come forth from the womb to see [= so that I might see] trouble and grief and that my days might be consumed in shame?”