Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 20:14–end
What is the meaning of this? Does there proceed out of the same mouth blessing and cursing? Could he that said so cheerfully (Jer 20:13), Sing unto the Lord, praise you the Lord, say so passionately (Jer 20:14), Cursed be the day wherein I was born? How shall we reconcile these? What we have in these verses the prophet records, I suppose, to his own shame, as he had recorded that in the foregoing verses to God's glory. It seems to be a relation of the ferment he had been in while he was in the stocks, out of which by faith and hope he had recovered himself, rather than a new temptation which he afterwards fell into, and it should come in like that of David (Psa 31:22), I said in my haste, I…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 20:16
the cities--Sodom and Gomorrah.
cry . . . morning . . . noontide--that is, Let him be kept in alarm the whole day (not merely at night when terrors ordinarily prevail, but in daytime when it is something extraordinary) with terrifying war shouts, as those in a besieged city (Jer 18:22).
John Gill on Jeremiah 20:16
And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew,.... In his fury, as the Targum and Septuagint add. Meaning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were utterly destroyed, and were never recovered:
and repented not; whose sentence God never repented of, nor revoked: this was very severe and uncharitable, to wish for so sore a destruction upon an innocent person;
and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; as soon as he is up in the morning, the first thing that salutes his ears, let it be the noise of an enemy invading the city he dwells in; and by noon let him hear the shouting of him, having broke in, and gotten the victory, seizing the plunder.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 20:14-16
Jeremiah 20:14-16
14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
14. Maledietus dies, quo natus sum (in eo, sed abundat;) dies quo peperit me mater mea, non sit benedictus:
15. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
15. Maledictus vir, qui nuntiavit patri meo, dicendo, Natus est tibi filius masculus; quoniam (vel, quando) laetificavit eum (hoc est, cum vellet exhilarare patrem meum.)
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;
16. Et sit vir ille quasi urbes…
