Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 20

Verse 1

Son, or descendant. His father was Melchia, chap. xxi. 1., and 1 Paralipomenon ix. 12. (Calmet) --- Chief: high priest, (Theodoret) or rather a chief officer, (chap. xxix. 25.) or prince, (Matthew xxvi. 27.; Tolet.; Grotius) whose duty it was to take up impostors. He treated Jeremias in this light. (Calmet) --- See Luke xxii. 52. (Haydock)

Verse 2

Struck, or seized. (Grotius) --- Upper gate, nearer the temple. (Calmet)

Verse 3

Phassur. This name signifies, increase and principality; and therefore is here changed to Magor-Missabib, or "fear on every side," to denote the evils that should come upon him in punishment of his opposing the word of God. (Challoner) --- Aquila renders Posseur, "a stranger," and St. Jerome, "blackness of visage." (Haydock) --- It may also mean, "one who causes paleness." (Calmet) --- Mogur may signify "fear or distress." Septuagint and Syriac, "an exile." (Haydock) --- He deserved to be thus treated, ver. 6. (Calmet) --- He would be terrified by many enemies. (Worthington)

Verse 6

Lie. He was therefore a false prophet, and vexed that Jeremias should contradict him. (Calmet)

Verse 7

Thou hast deceived, &c. The meaning of the prophet is not to charge God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission, the greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was to bring upon him. (Challoner) --- Hebrew, "thou hast enticed me," when I declined the office. (Tirinus) --- God never promised that he should suffer no persecution. (Haydock) --- Jeremias might also have supposed that he was to be sent to the Gentiles, chap. i. 5. (St. Jerome in chap xxv. 18.) --- The oriental languages are much more lofty than ours, and express common things in the strongest manner. (Calmet) --- We may perceive the different emotions of fear and joy (Du Hamel) with which the prophet was actuated, like St. Paul, and our Saviour himself. The saints evince the weakness of man and the power of divine grace. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "If thou, Lord, hast deceived me, I am," &c. (Tournemine)

Verse 8

Day. They keep asking where are these enemies from the north, the plagues? &c. (Calmet) --- He is sorry to see the word of God despised, (Theodoret) and is guilty of a venial pusillanimity, concluding that his words had no good effect. (Menochius)

Verse 9

And there, or "for," &c. I was grieved continually. (Sanctius) --- I could not however refrain from speaking, Acts xvii. 16., and 1 Corinthians ix. 16., and Job xxxii. 18.

Verse 10

Side, seeking an opportunity to ruin me, as the Pharisees did our Saviour, Psalm xl. 10. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "familiars watched for my halting, saying, peradventure he," &c. (Haydock)

Verse 12

Let me see, &c. This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill-will, but zeal of justice. (Challoner) --- He expresses in a human manner a future punishment.

Verse 13

Sing. God having shewn that his prayer should be heard, he gives thanks, (Calmet) and thus shews that what he is going to say proceeds not from impatience. (Theodoret)

Verse 14

CHAPTER XX.

Cursed, &c. In these and the following words of the prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him. (Challoner) --- The wicked would deem the day of his birth cursed, or unlucky. (Menochius) --- Jeremias was now in prison, (Grotius) and people in pain express themselves forcibly, particularly in the East, ver. 7., and Job iii. 2. (Calmet) --- Perhaps no man had announced the tidings of his birth, or he might be no longer living to feel the effects of a curse: as the day was certainly irrevocably past. (Haydock)

Verse 16

Repented, is decree for the ruin of Sodom being fixed. --- Noon. This is more extraordinary than at midnight. Let him always be terrified with dismal sounds. (Calmet)

Verse 17

Who. Septuagint, "because he (the Lord.; Du Hamel; Tirinus) slew me not in my mother’s womb." (Haydock) --- Syriac, Grotius, &c., explain the Hebrew in the same sense, though it may also agree with the Vulgate, from the womb, or as soon as I was born. O that I had never seen the light! (Calmet) --- He abstracts from the effects of original sin. (Tirinus) --- It is better not to exist than to be in constant misery, Matthew xxvi. (St. Jerome) (Worthington) --- The prophet bewailed the abuse which was made of God’s word, by unbelievers, ver. 8. (Haydock)