Jeremiah 20:17
Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Jeremiah 20:17 in other translations
| BSB | because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged. |
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| WEB | because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. |
| ASV | because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. |
| YLT | Because he hath not put me to death from the womb, And my mother is to me--my grave, And her womb a pregnancy age-during. |
| DARBY | because he slew me not from the womb. Or would that my mother had been my grave, and her womb always great with me! |
| BBE | Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever. |
| Webster | Because he slew me not at my birth; or that my mother might have been my grave, and she had not been delivered. |
What does Jeremiah 20:17 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…
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…
Jeremiah 20:17 in the original Hebrew
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Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for Jeremiah 20:17
- Job 10:18-19
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
- Job 3:10-11
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
- Job 3:16
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Jeremiah 20:16
And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
- Jeremiah 20:17
Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
- Jeremiah 20:18
Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Jeremiah 20:17 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Porque no me mató en el vientre, y mi madre me hubiera sido mi sepulcro, y su vientre concebimiento perpetuo. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | parce qu’il ne m’a pas fait mourir dès le ventre. Ou ma mère, que n’a-t-elle pas été mon sépulcre! et son ventre, que ne m’a-t-il toujours porté! |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | weil er mich nicht tötete im Mutterleibe so daß meine Mutter mir zu meinem Grabe geworden und ihr Leib ewig schwanger geblieben wäre! |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | qui non me interfecit a vulva, ut fieret mihi mater mea sepulchrum, et vulva ejus conceptus æternus! |