The contrast between the spirit of this passage and the preceding thanksgiving to be explained thus: to show how great was the deliverance (Jeremiah 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 when I was born:" my feeling was that of Job (Job 3:3; Job 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 honour 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.
Verse 15. A man-child - The birth of whom is in the East a special subject of joy; whereas that of a female is often not so.
Verse 16. The cities which the Lord overthrew - Sodom and Gomorrah.
Let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide - i:e., 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 (Jeremiah 18:22). Verse 17. He - that man (Jeremiah 20:15-16).
From the womb - i:e., at that time while I was still in the womb.
Remarks:
(1) The faithful servants of God, like their Lord on earth, have been always exposed to the contempt, and not unfrequently to the persecution of the world. But their cause is in the hands of Him who will soon utterly reverse the present order of things. Before long those who now walk on every side in fancied security, like Pashur, and who molest the godly, shall become Magor-missabib, "a terror to themselves, and to all their friends" (Jeremiah 20:3-4); while the children of God, having "the Lord with them, the Mighty terrible One" (Jeremiah 20:11), shall "sing praise unto" Him for having "delivered their soul" forever "from the hand of evildoers" (Jeremiah 20:13).
(2) But too often the servants of God are impatient under present crosses, and give way to the infirmity of their old nature. Like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:7), they complain as if God had done them some wrong, and had not let them know in entering His service what trials were before them. But it is not God who has dealt unfairly with them, but themselves who have lost sight of the appointed conditions of His service. The Lord never allures (Jeremiah 20:7) any to follow Him without plainly telling them the cross that awaits them, if they wish to be His disciples (Luke 9:57-62). He had not promised Jeremiah exemption from sufferings, but divine support under them. Let us, then, if tried with "reproach and derision," for conscience' sake (Jeremiah 20:8), "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us, as though some strange thing happened unto us: but rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, we may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12-13).
(3) The believer feels the word of Christ to be "as a burning fire" within (Jeremiah 20:9), that will and must find a vent for itself; he cannot forbear to testify of his beloved Lord, howsoever man may reject his testimony. Having "the mighty Lord" on his side, he fears not what man can do unto him. Having "opened his cause unto the Lord," like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:12) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:14), he can look back with thankfulness for his deliverance, not only from fear of the enemy, but also from his own intemperate, complaining, fearful, and desponding spirit under the first shock of trial (Jeremiah 20:14-18); and he can already "praise the Lord," who has compassed him about with songs of deliverance (Jeremiah 20:13). Let us be warned against indulging in the temporary impatience of the prophet, and rather follow the only faultless Pattern, even Him who "endured" so unfaintingly "the contradiction of sinners against Himself"!