Jeremiah 20:7-18

7Lord, you forced me to become a prophet, and I let you do that. You used your power to make me agree, and you won. Now everybody laughs at me and they insult me.

8When I speak your message, I have to say, ‘Terrible trouble is coming!’ When I shout that message from the Lord, people laugh at me. They insult me.

9Sometimes I think, ‘I will say nothing about the Lord or his message.’ But then his message burns like a fire inside me. It gives me pain in my mind and my body. I cannot keep his message to myself. I have to speak it.

10I hear what people are saying against me. They say, ‘Terror is all around him! We should tell the officers what he is saying.’ All my friends want me to make a mistake so that they can accuse me. They say, ‘Perhaps we can cause him to say something wrong. Then we will have power over him. We will pay him back for the trouble he has given us.’

11But the Lord is with me, like a brave soldier who will fight for me. So people who want to hurt me will fail. They will not get power over me. They will be very ashamed because they have failed. Nobody will ever forget their shame.

12Lord Almighty, you test righteous people, to see if they are faithful. You know what people think. You know their feelings. I trust you to show that I am not guilty. So punish those people who want to hurt me.

13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! He rescues poor people from the power of wicked people.

14I would like to curse the day that I was born. That day was not a happy day, the day that my mother gave birth to me.

15That day, a man told my father, ‘Good news! You have a son!’ I would like to curse that man too.

16May the Lord destroy that man, as he completely destroyed those cities long ago. I want that man to hear people who are weeping in the morning. I want him to hear the noise of battles at noon.

17He should have killed me before I was born. I should have died inside my mother. She would have held me inside her. That would have been my grave for ever.

18I should have stayed in that safe place. In my life, I only receive trouble and pain. When I die, all I will have is shame.