Text -- Jeremiah 20:12-18 (NET)

20:12 O Lord who rules over all, you test and prove the righteous. You see into people’s hearts and minds. Pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause. 20:13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he rescues the oppressed from the clutches of evildoers. 20:14 Cursed be the day I was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. 20:15 Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him! 20:16 May that man be like the cities that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy. May he hear a cry of distress in the morning and a battle cry at noon. 20:17 For he did not kill me before I came from the womb, making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever. 20:18 Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb? All I experience is trouble and grief, and I spend my days in shame.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 20:12

¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

sn See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title for God.

² tn Heb “Lord of armies, the one who tests the righteous, who sees kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

sn This verse is almost an exact duplication of the petition in one of Jeremiah’s earlier prayers and complaints. See Jer 11:20 and notes there for explanation of the Hebrew psychology underlying the use of “kidneys and heart” here. For the thoughts expressed here see Ps 17.

NET Notes: Jer 20:13

¹ sn While it may be a little confusing to modern readers to see the fluctuation in moods and the shifts in addressee in a prayer and complaint like this, it was not at all unusual for Israel where these were often offered in the temple in the conscious presence of God before fellow worshipers. For another example of these same shifts see Ps 22 which is a prayer of David in a time of deep distress.

NET Notes: Jer 20:14

¹ 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 of Job and Jeremiah expressing the wish that they had never been born.

NET Notes: Jer 20:15

¹ 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 of retention of the family property. See Ruth 4:10, 13-17.

NET Notes: Jer 20:16

¹ 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.

NET Notes: Jer 20:17

¹ 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 the last line for English stylistic purposes and greater clarity.

NET Notes: Jer 20:18

¹ 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.”