Jeremiah 20:14

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 am cut off; this is also implied, Psa 77:7. When grace has got the victory it is good to remember the struggles of corruption, that we may be ashamed of ourselves and our own folly, may admire the goodness of God in not taking us at our word, and may be warned by it to double our guard upon our spirits another time. See here how strong the temptation was which the prophet, by divine assistance, got the victory over, and how far he yielded to it, that we may not despair if we through the weakness of the flesh be at any time thus tempted. Let us see here, I. What the prophet's language was in this temptation. 1. He fastened a brand of infamy upon his birthday, as Job did in a heat (Job 3:1): "Cursed be the day wherein I was born. It was an ill day to me (Jer 20:14), because it was the beginning of sorrows, and an inlet to all this misery." It is a wish that he had never been born. Judas in hell has reason to wish so (Mat 26:24), but no man on earth has reason to wish so, because he knows not but he may yet become a vessel of mercy, much less has any good man reason to wish so. Whereas…

20:14-18 Jeremiah’s hope of deliverance did not negate the reality of his circumstances. Shocked by his persecution, Jeremiah wished that he were already dead or that he had never been born (cp. 16:3-4; Job 3).