Jeremiah (1-31) 20:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Some believe that these words from verse 14 to the end belong before verse 11. That is not to say that they have been misplaced, but that this is the way the prophet, or the one who records this passage for him, works. He relieves the negativity of the passage by reporting Jeremiah's recovery before he continues the narrative of his depression. So, according to our more scientific way of doing things, verses 11-13 would come at the end of the chapter. Read this was, the words relate back to his time in the stocks, and should not be read as if Jeremiah’s mood was swinging wildly around. ‘Cursed be the day wherein I was born.’ He gets that from the Book of Job, but it is what he believes. ‘My birth was a tragic day; I am such a worthless person. I am preaching things and nothing happens. I am offering mercy; I am giving gospel reasoning’ – we have seen some of the gospel reasoning in the earlier chapters – ‘and nobody repents and nobody turns, so I am worthless. It is as though it wasn't worth my being born.’This is poetry of course. He is not literally wishing curses upon these people. He speaking as though he is so unfortunate in his life and he is such a failure, that poetically it ought to be that whoever brought the news of his birth to his other relatives should be cursed, because he announced a disastrous event: the birth of Jeremiah. He is so depressed and down now. ‘Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.’ He should not have been glad, given the way my life has turned out, given the fact that nobody will listen to me, and the fact that I am assigned this soul-destroying task.‘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.’ It is an extravagant curse. Let the man who conveyed the news of my birth to my father be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which God overthrew. Let that man hear the sound of besieging forces entering the city to destroy it, and rejoicing once they have done so. My birth was a dismal event if it were understood properly. I was to be a hopeless failure. I should have been slain from the womb, or never been born, never entered into this world. ‘Why did I come forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed utterly with shame?’ – this is how it felt to him. What has been the point of my ministry?’ Down, down, down goes poor Jeremiah!