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14 Cursed be the day on which I was born,
    let not the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
    saying,[a] “A child is born to you, a son!”
    and he made him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
    that Yahweh demolished without regret,
and let him hear a cry for help in the morning,
    and an alarm at the time of noon.
17 Because he did not kill me in the womb,
    so that my mother would have been for me my grave,
    and her womb would be pregnant forever.
18 Why[b] did I come out from the womb,
    to see toil, and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 20:15 Literally “to say”
  2. Jeremiah 20:18 Literally “To what this”
  3. Jeremiah 20:18 Literally “my days will come to an end in shame”

14 Yet I curse the day I was born!
    May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
15 I curse the messenger who told my father,
    “Good news—you have a son!”
16 Let him be destroyed like the cities of old
    that the Lord overthrew without mercy.
Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,
17     because he did not kill me at birth.
Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb,
    that her body had been my grave!
18 Why was I ever born?
    My entire life has been filled
    with trouble, sorrow, and shame.

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