7You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived.
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out;
I proclaim violence and destruction.
For the word of the LORD has become to me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9If I say, “I will not mention Him
or speak any more in His name,”
His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,
shut up in my bones,
and I become weary of holding it in,
and I cannot prevail.
10For I have heard the whispering of many:
“Terror is on every side!
Report him; let us report him!”
All my trusted friends
watch for my fall:
“Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we may prevail against him
and take our vengeance upon him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior.
Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.
Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame,
with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.
12O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous,
who sees the heart and mind,
let me see Your vengeance upon them,
for to You I have committed my cause.
13Sing to the LORD!
Praise the LORD!
For He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
14Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.
15Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
saying, “A son is born to you,”
bringing him great joy.
16May that man be like the cities
that the LORD overthrew without compassion.
May he hear an outcry in the morning
and a battle cry at noon,
17because he did not kill me in the womb
so that my mother might have been my grave,
and her womb forever enlarged.
18Why did I come out of the womb
to see only trouble and sorrow,
and to end my days in shame?
— Jeremiah 20:7-18

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