Jeremiah 20:7-18

⁷O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
⁸For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
⁹But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
¹⁰For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”
¹¹But the Lord is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
¹²Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For to You I have set forth my cause.
¹³Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
¹⁶But let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
¹⁷Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
¹⁸Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?