Jeremiah 20:7-18

Jeremiah 20:7-Job : . The Prophet’ s Troubles, Hopes, and Dark Despair.— In passionate protest against his lot (possibly occasioned by the incident just related) Jeremiah complains that Yahweh has beguiled him into the work of a prophet, only that he may incur bitter shame, and suffer violence. Yet the inner compulsion of the prophetic word will not allow him to restrain it ( i.e. “ forbear” , Jeremiah 20:9), though it subjects him to the charge of treasonable utterance ( Jeremiah 26:11). Jeremiah 20:11-1 Chronicles : (if originally here) mark a change of mood, and express Jeremiah’ s confidence that Yahweh will avenge him. The depth of his despair is reached in Jeremiah 20:14-Job : ( cf. Job 3:3-2 Kings :), in which he curses the very day of his birth; he awards a curse instead of the usual reward for good news to the messenger who announced it, invoking on him the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah ( Genesis 19:25, Isaiah 13:19), and the alarms of war ( Jeremiah 4:19). He wishes he had never been born, because of his hard fate ( Jeremiah 20:18). This impressive passage is of great importance for the study of the prophetic consciousness; it shows clearly that the psychological compulsion which underlies a “ Thus saith the Lord” is the guarantee of the prophet’ s sincerity, when claiming to speak by Divine inspiration.

Jeremiah 20:8 . Violence and spoil: i.e. as being suffered by the speaker.

Jeremiah 20:17 . For “ from” read “ in” , with LXX, Syr.