Jeremiah 20:17

Because I was not slain [as I escaped] from the womb; or that my mother might have become unto me my grave, and her womb have been affected with a perpetual pregnancy.

Leeser Tanakh

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

16And may that same man become like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and bethought himself not; and may he hear a cry of anguish in the morning, and a tumultuous noise at noontide;

18Wherefore was this that I came forth out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, that my days should pass away in shame?

Read all of Jeremiah 20

Cross References

Job 3:10Because God closed not against me the doors of the womb, and thus concealed trouble from my eyes.

Job 3:16Or as an untimely birth, hidden [from view] I should not exist; as infants that never have seen the light;

Ecclesiastes 6:3If a man were to beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years were many, and his soul were not satisfied with what is good, and he have not had even a burial: then do I say, that an untimely birth 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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