Jeremiah 20:17

Because he has not put me to death from the womb, || And my mother is to me—my grave, || And her womb [is] a perpetual pregnancy.

Literal Standard Version

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

16Then that man has been as the cities, || That YHWH overthrew, and did not relent, || And he has heard a cry in the morning, || And a shout at noontime.

18Why [is] this? I have come out from the womb || To see labor and sorrow, || Indeed, my days are consumed in shame!

Read all of Jeremiah 20

Cross References

Job 3:10Because it has not shut the doors || Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from my eyes.

Job 3:16(Or I am not as a hidden abortion, || As infants—they have not seen light.)

Ecclesiastes 6:3If a man begets one hundred, and lives many years, and is great, because they are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from the goodness, and also he has not had a grave, I have said, “Better than he [is] the untimely birth.”

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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