Jeremiah 20:7

20:7-13 The prophet complains of the insult and injury he experienced. But ver. 7 may be read, Thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded. Thou wast stronger than I; and didst overpower me by the influence of thy Spirit upon me. So long as we see ourselves in the way of God, and of duty, it is weakness and folly, when we meet with difficulties and discouragements, to wish we had never set out in it. The prophet found the grace of God mighty in him to keep him to his business, notwithstanding the temptation he was in to throw it up. Whatever injuries are done to us, we must leave them to that God to whom vengeance belongs, and who has said, I will repay. So full was he of the comfort of God's presence, the Divine protection he was under, and the Divine promise he had to depend upon, that he stirred up himself and others to give God the glory. Let the people of God open their cause before Him, and he will enable them to see deliverance.

Jeremiah 20:7 . O Lord, thou hast deceived me, &c. — This is a very harsh and improper translation of the prophet’s words, פתיתני ואפת , which properly and literally signify, Thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded. Some, to make the sense more clear, supply a few words, and make the whole sentence stand thus; O Lord, thou hast persuaded me to carry thy commands to thy people, and I was persuaded: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed — That is, “It was sore against my will, that I undertook the prophetic office, which I would gladly have declined, chap. Jeremiah 1:6 . But thy commands and inspiration did, in a manner, constrain me to it.” The occasion of the words was this: “The prophet had met with a large share of ill usage, from an ungrateful people, in return for the faithful discharge of his prophetic office. Under these his calamitous circumstances he looks up to God, and appeals to him, the searcher of hearts, as his witness, that it was not through any ambition of his own that he had entered upon that invidious office; nor had he taken upon him, of his own accord, to reprove his countrymen: but he had done all in pure obedience to the divine command. He would gladly have declined the office, but God would not suffer him: wherefore, hereupon he says, speaking to the Almighty, Thou hast persuaded me, &c.

Verses 7-13. - A lyric passage, expressing the conflict in the prophet's mind owing to the mockery and the slander which his preaching has brought upon him, and at the same time his confidence of victory through the protection of Jehovah; a suitable sequel to the narrative which goes before, even if not originally written to occupy this position (see general Introduction). Verse 7. - Thou hast deceived me , etc.; rather, thou didst entice me , and I let myself be enticed . Jeremiah refers to the hesitation he originally felt to accepting the prophetic office ( Jeremiah 1 .). The verb does not mean "to deceive," but "to entice" (so rendered in ver. 10, Authorized Version), or "allure." The same word is used in that remarkable narrative of "the spirit" who offered to "entice" (Authorized Version, to "persuade") Ahab to "go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead" ( 1 Kings 22:21 ). In Ezekiel, too, the same case is supposed as possible of Jehovah's "enticing" a prophet (Ezekiel 15:9). The expression implies that all events are, in some sense, caused by God, even those which are, or appear to be, injurious to the individual. Was Goethe thinking of this passage when he wrote the words, "Wen Gott betrugt, ist wohl be-trogon?" Applying the words in a Christian sense, we may say (with F. W. Robertson) that God teaches us by our illusions. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed ; rather, thou didst take hold on me , and didst prevail .

7 . deceived ] mg. enticed ; induced him to undertake duties, the gravity of which together with the resulting sufferings was hidden from him. Cp. use of the same Hebrew word in Proverbs 1:10 ; Proverbs 16:29 . 7–9 . These vv . shew us that the prophets did not speak of their own will. It was an influence which they could not resist that urged them forward, in spite of the certain ills that should follow to themselves. “Here there rings out clearly the prophet’s unfaltering certainty of the real inspiration which is the source of all his message.” Pe. Cp. Jeremiah 23:29 ; so Amos 3:8 and 1 Corinthians 9:16 . Ch. Jeremiah 20:7-18 . The prophet bitterly complains to God of his lot The passage opens to us the depths of the prophet’s soul, and we see him in intimate converse with God, and possessed now by the emotions of despair, and now by confident hope. We have here the thoughts, as Gi. and Co. observe, which may well have occupied his mind when in confinement, and Jeremiah 20:7-13 at any rate are thus closely connected both in time and subject-matter with Jeremiah 20:1-6 . As derision was still the prophet’s fate ( Jeremiah 20:7 ), they can hardly be later than the early part of Jehoiakim’s reign, when the hope that danger would be averted was still prevalent. On the other hand Jeremiah 20:14-18 most naturally belong to the latter days of Zedekiah, when the prophet stood alone, hated as the enemy of his people and a traitor to his country.

It may be summarized thus. (i) Jeremiah 20:7-10 . O Lord, Thou hast beguiled me. My human weakness cannot cope with the Divine strength. Perforce I utter Thy message, and therefore am become an object of perpetual scorn. Yet that message, whatever I may resolve to the contrary, insists on utterance. Denunciation, craft, revenge—even my intimates employ these weapons against me. (ii) Jeremiah 20:11-13 . After all, I have Jehovah on my side. My foes shall be put to perpetual shame. May He, who searches my heart and theirs, grant me to see their discomfiture. Praise be to Him for deliverance. (iii) Jeremiah 20:14-18 . Accursed be the day of my birth and he who announced it. May his doom be terrible as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why did he not cut me off from life ere I was born? Wherefore was I, wretched man that I am, given a share in human existence?

O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was {c} deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast {d} prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. (c) In this appears the impatiency which often overcomes the servants of God when they do not see their labours profit, and also feel their own weakness. See Geneva Jer 15:18 (d) You thrust me forth to this work against my will.

(7) O Lord, thou hast deceived me. —There is an obvious break between Jeremiah 20:6-7 . The narrative ends, and a psalm of passionate complaint begins. Its position probably indicates that the compiler of the prophecies in their present form looked on the complaints as belonging to this period of the prophet’s work, representing the thoughts of that night of shame which was, as it were, the extremest point of apparent failure. This then was the end of his prophetic calling, this the fulfilment of the promise which told him that he was set over the nations, and that his enemies should not prevail against him ( Jeremiah 1:8-10 ). Some touches of this feeling we have heard already in Jeremiah 15:18 . Now it is more dominant and continuous. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.—Better, thou hast laid hold on me. Jehovah now appears to the prophet as a hard taskmaster who had forced him, against his will (Jeremiah 17:16), to enter on a work from which he shrank, and who gave him scorn and derision as his only wage. He felt, in St. Paul’s language, that “a necessity was laid upon” him (1Corinthians 9:16); or in Isaiah’s, that the “strong hand” of the Lord was on him (Isaiah 8:11). Daily.—Literally, all the day.

In the rest of the chapter we have an outbreak of deep emotion, of which the first part ends in a cry of hope Jeremiah 20:13 , followed nevertheless by curses upon the day of his birth. Was this the result of feelings wounded by the indignities of a public scourging and a night spent in the stocks? Or was it not the mental agony of knowing that his ministry had (as it seemed) failed? He stands indeed before the multitudes with unbending strength, warning prince and people with unwavering constancy of the national ruin that would follow necessarily upon their sins. Before God he stood crushed by the thought that he had labored in vain, and spent his strength for nothing. It is important to notice that with this outpouring of sorrow Jeremiah's ministry virtually closed. Though he appeared again at Jerusalem toward the end of Jehoiakim's reign, yet it was no longer to say that by repentance the national ruin might be averted. During the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the die was cast, and all the prophet henceforward could do, was to alleviate a punishment that was inevitable. Jeremiah 20:7 Thou hast deceived me ... - What Jeremiah refers to is the joy with which he had accepted the prophetic office Jeremiah 15:16, occasioned perhaps by taking the promises in Jeremiah 1:18 too literally as a pledge that he would succeed. Thou art stronger than I-- Rather, "Thou hast taken hold of me." God had taken Jeremiah in so firm a grasp that he could not escape from the necessity of prophesying

The following part of the chapter to the end of it containeth a complaint or prayer of the prophet unto God, made (as some think) during his imprisonment by Pashur, but the certain time is not known. Our translators here might have translated the word yghyhm more favourably than thou hast deceived me. It might have been, thou hast persuaded me , or, thou hast allured or enticed me, as it is translated, Judges 14:15 1 Kings 22:21,22 Exo 22:16 Proverbs 1:10 16:29 Psalm 78:36 . The word signifies no more than by words to remove a man from his own opinion. That is, doubtless, the sense here: Lord, I was not fond of this employment as a prophet , by thy words I was removed from my own opinion of myself; which might be spoken by the prophet without any reflection upon God; it only signifieth his undertaking the office of a prophet at God’s command, not out of any ambition of his own. Thou art stronger than I and hast prevailed; but thou prevailest against me. Jeremiah at first excused himself to God, as we read, Jeremiah 1:6 ; he said Ah, Lord God! behold, I am a child, and cannot speak ; but the Lord prevailed upon him, replying, Jeremiah 1:7 , Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Jeremiah 1:9, The Lord put forth his hand, and touched his mouth, and said, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth . This is all that is here meant by deceiving , viz.