Jeremiah 20 · Verse 14

Jeremiah 20:14

Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jeremiah 20:14, King James Version

Jeremiah 20:14 in other translations

BSBCursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.
WEBCursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
ASVCursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
YLTCursed is the day in which I was born, The day that my mother bare me, Let it not be blessed!
DARBYCursed be the day wherein I was born; let not the day wherein my mother bore me be blessed!
BBEA curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me.
WebsterCursed be the day in which I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

What does Jeremiah 20:14 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 20:14-18
14-18. The contrast between the spirit of this passage and the preceding thanksgiving is to be explained thus: to show how great was the deliverance (Jr 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, 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.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born - If we take these words literally, and suppose them to be in their proper place, they are utterly inconsistent with that state of confidence in which he exulted a few minutes before. If they are the language of Jeremiah, they must have been spoken on a prior occasion, when probably he had given way to a passionate hastiness. They might well comport with the state he was in Jer 20:9. I really believe these verses have got out of their proper place, which I conjecture to be between the eighth and ninth verses. There they will come in very properly; and might have been a part of his complaint in those moments when he had purposed to flee from God as did Jonah, and prophesy no more in his name. Transpositions in this prophet are frequent; therefore place these five verses after the eighth, and let the chapter end with the thirteenth, and the whole will form a piece of exquisite poetry, where the state of despair and the hasty resolutions he had formed while under its influence, and the state of confidence to which he was raised by the succouring influence of God, will appear to be both illustrative of each other, and are touched with a delicacy and fervor which even a cold heart must admire. See Job 3:3 (note), and the notes there. The two passages are very similar.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jeremiah 20:14-18
When grace has the victory, it is good to be ashamed of our folly, to admire the goodness of God, and be warned to guard our spirits another time. See how strong the temptation was, over which the prophet got the victory by Divine assistance! He is angry that his first breath was not his last. While we remember that these wishes are not recorded for us to utter the like, we may learn good lessons from them. See how much those who think they stand, ought to take heed lest they fall, and to pray daily, Lead us not into temptation. How frail, changeable, and sinful is man! How foolish and unnatural are the thoughts and wishes of our hearts, when we yield to discontent! Let us consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we should be at any time weary and faint in our minds under our lesser trials.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Jeremiah 20:14 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אָר֣וּר'a.Rur[is] cursedH779
הַיּ֔וֹםhai.Yomthe dayH3117
אֲשֶׁ֥ר'a.SherwhenH834
יֻלַּ֖דְתִּיyu.Lad.tiI was bornH3205
בּ֑וֹboon <the> it
י֛וֹםYom[the] dayH3117
אֲשֶׁר\־'a.Sher-whenH834
יְלָדַ֥תְנִיye.la.Dat.nishe bore meH3205
אִמִּ֖י'i.Mimother myH517
אַל\־'al-may notH408
יְהִ֥יye.Hiit beH1961
בָרֽוּךְ\׃va.RukhblessedH1288

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jeremiah 20:14

  • Jeremiah 15:10

    Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

  • Job 3:3-16

    Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. …

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
15:10; Job 3:3-16

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Jeremiah 20:13

    Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

  • Jeremiah 20:14

    Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

  • Jeremiah 20:15

    Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

Read all of Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah 20:14 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Maldito el día en que nací: el día en que mi madre me parió no sea bendito.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Maudit le jour où je naquis! Que le jour où ma mère m’enfanta ne soit point béni!
German
Elberfelder 1871		Verflucht sei der Tag, an welchem ich geboren wurde; der Tag, da meine Mutter mich gebar, sei nicht gesegnet!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Maledicta dies in qua natus sum! dies in qua peperit me mater mea non sit benedicta!