Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Jeremiah 20
¹⁰ I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.” They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.” Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”
¹¹ But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
¹² O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, you test those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.
¹³ Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.
¹⁴ Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
¹⁵ I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!”
¹⁶ Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the LORD overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,
¹⁷ because he did not kill me at birth. Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!
¹⁸ Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.
Jeremiah 21
¹ The LORD spoke through Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malkijah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to speak with him. They begged Jeremiah,
² “Please speak to the LORD for us and ask him to help us. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking Judah. Perhaps the LORD will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies.”