Jeremiah 20:7-18

7You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me.

8For whenever I speak, I cry out, I proclaim, “Violence and destruction!” so the word of the Lord has become my constant disgrace and derision.

9I say, “I won’t mention him or speak any longer in his name.” But his message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

10For I have heard the gossip of many people, “Terror is on every side! Report him; let’s report him!” Everyone I trusted watches for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we might prevail against him and take our vengeance on him.”

11But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed, an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.

12Lord of Armies, testing the righteous and seeing the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have presented my case to you.

13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord, for he rescues the life of the needy from evil people.

14May the day I was born be cursed. May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

15May the man be cursed who brought the news to my father, saying, “A male child is born to you,” bringing him great joy.

16Let that man be like the cities the Lord demolished without compassion. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war cry at noontime

17because he didn’t kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.

18Why did I come out of the womb to see only struggle and sorrow, to end my life in shame?