Jeremiah:20:7-18

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* Thou didst persuade me , O Lord , and I was persuaded ; thou laidst thy strongly on me , and didst prevail : I am laughed at all the time , every one mocketh me . * For as often as I speak must I cry out , violence and wasting must I proclaim ; because the word of the Lord is become unto me a disgrace , and a derision , all the time . * And I thought , I will not make mention of him , and I will not speak any more in his name . But it became in my heart as a burning fire enclosed within my bones , and I was weary with enduring , and I could not overcome it . * For I heard the defaming of many , angry assemblies on every side , "Tell , and we will tell of him ." All the men who ought to seek my welfare , watch for my fall ; saying , "Peradventure he may he enticed , and we shall prevail against him , and we will then take our revenge on him ." * But the Lord is with me as a mighty powerful one ; therefore my persecutors will stumble , and they will not prevail : they will be greatly ashamed , for they will not prosper ; an everlasting confusion which will never be forgotten . * But , O Lord of hosts , that probest the righteous , seest the reins and the heart , let me see thy vengeance on them ; for unto thee have I laid open my cause . * Sing unto the Lord , praise ye the Lord ; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil –doers . * Cursed be the day whereon I was born : the day on which my mother bore me shall not be blessed . * Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father , saying , A man –child is born unto thee . How very glad did he make him ! * And may that same man become like the cities which the Lord overthrew , and bethought himself not ; and may he hear a cry of anguish in the morning , and a tumultuous noise at noontide ; * Because I was not slain from the womb ; or that my mother might have become unto me my grave , and her womb have been affected with a perpetual pregnancy . * Wherefore was this that I came forth out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow , that my days should pass away in shame ?

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