⁷ Lord, you tricked me, and I was fooled.
    You are stronger than I am. So you won.
I have become a joke.
    Everyone makes fun of me all day long.
⁸ Every time I speak, I shout.
    I am always shouting about violence and destruction.
I tell the people about the message I received from the Lord.
    But this only brings me insults. The people make fun of me all day long.
⁹ Sometimes I say to myself,
    “I will forget about the Lord.
    I will not speak anymore in his name.”
But then the Lord’s message becomes like a burning fire inside me.
    It feels like it burns deep within my bones.
I get tired of trying to hold the Lord’s message inside of me.
    And finally, I cannot hold it in.
¹⁰ I hear many people whispering about me:
    “Terror on every side!
    Let’s tell the rulers about him.”
My friends are all just waiting for me to make some mistake.
    They are saying,
“Maybe we can trick Jeremiah.
    Then we can defeat him.
    Then we can pay him back.”

¹⁴ Let there be a curse on the day I was born.
    Let there be no blessing on the day when my mother gave birth to me.
¹⁵ Let there be a curse on the man
    who brought my father the news:
“You have a son!”
    This made my father glad.
¹⁶ Let that man be like the towns
    the Lord destroyed without pity.
Let that man hear loud crying in the morning.
    And let him hear battle cries at noon.
¹⁷ This is because he did not kill me before I was born.
    Then my mother would have been my grave.
    I would never have been born.
¹⁸ Why did I have to come out of my mother’s body?
    All I have known is trouble and sorrow.
    And my life will end in shame.