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jeremiah 20:7-18

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Jeremiah 20:7-18

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”

— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

7. O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. 8. For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. 9. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But [his word] was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not [stay]. 10. For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, [say they], and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, [saying], Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. 11. But the LORD [is] with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: [their] everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 12. But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, [and] seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause. 13. Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. 14. Cursed [be] the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 15. Cursed [be] the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. 16. And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; 17. Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb [to be] always great [with me]. 18. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Jeremiah 20:7-18 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Jeremiah 20:7

Theological / Devotional

Thou hast deceived me. See on ch. 4:10. The complaints were probably a reaction to the prophet’s distressful night in the stocks (see vs. 2, 3). In his depressed state Jeremiah seems to have considered his work a failure, a failure made more bitter by a haunting fear that God would not fulfill His promises (see Jer. 1:8—10; cf. Jer. 15:10, 17; Jonah 4:1-4).

Stronger than I. In his bitter complaint Jeremiah implies that the Lord has employed His greater power to force Jeremiah, against his own desire and will, to take up a mission from which he shrank.

By SdaBc

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