Jeremiah 20:17

Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever.

Bible in Basic English

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

16May that man be like the towns overturned by the Lord without mercy: let a cry for help come to his ears in the morning, and the sound of war in the middle of the day;

18Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?

Read all of Jeremiah 20

Cross References

Job 3:10Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.

Job 3:16Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

Ecclesiastes 6:3If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he.

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 20:15-18

The Prophet's Impatient Appeal. ( b. c. 600.) 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… Read the whole commentary →

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