Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
he—"that man" (Jeremiah 20:15-16).
from the womb—that is, at that time while I was still in the womb.
Written probably when, after having repulsed the Egyptians who brought succors to the Jews (Jeremiah 37:5-8; II Kings 24:7), the Chaldees were a second time advancing against Jerusalem, but were not yet closely besieging it (Jeremiah 21:4, Jeremiah 21:13) [ROSENMULLER]. This chapter probably ought to be placed between the thirty-seventh and thirty-eight chapters; since what the "princes," in Jeremiah 38:2, represent Jeremiah as having said, is exactly what we find in Jeremiah 21:9. Moreover, the same persons as here (Jeremiah 21:1) are mentioned in Jeremiah 37:3; Jeremiah 38:1, namely, Pashur and Zephaniah. What is here more fully related is there simply referred to in the historical narrative. Compare Jeremiah 52:24; II Kings 25:18 [MAURER].
The contrast between the spirit of this passage and the preceding thanksgiving is to be explained thus: to show how great was the deliverance (Jeremiah 20:13), he subjoins a picture of what his wounded spirit had been previous to his deliverance; I had said in the time of my imprisonment, "Cursed be the day"; my feeling was that of Job (Job 3:3, Job 3:10-11, whose words Jeremiah therefore copies). Though Jeremiah's zeal had been stirred up, not so much for self as for God's honor trampled on by the rejection of the prophet's words, yet it was intemperate when he made his birth a subject for cursing, which was really a ground for thanksgiving.
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