Jeremiah 20:14

Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Jeremiah speaks as a persecuted prophet, positioned between a declaration of praise in Jeremiah 20:13 and a curse on the birth-messenger in Jeremiah 20:15. He addresses his audience with a direct lament over his own existence.

The words — The verse begins with אָר֣וּר ('a.Rur), literally "cursed," and uses יֻלַּ֖דְתִּי (yu.Lad.ti), literally "I was born." These terms explicitly condemn the calendar day and the biological event of his nativity.

The thread — The text parallels the birth-curse motif in Job 3:3 and Jeremiah 15:10, where sufferers denounce their own day of birth. This thread links personal despair to a broader biblical pattern of lamenting one's entry into a hostile world.

Why it lands — The text states a raw rejection of the speaker's own life without offering immediate theological resolution. It asks the reader to sit with unvarnished prophetic anguish and recognize that lament can coexist with the praise declared in the surrounding verses.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

אָר֣וּר'a.Rur[is] cursed הַיּ֔וֹםhai./Yomthe/ day אֲשֶׁ֥ר'a.Sherwhen יֻלַּ֖דְתִּיyu.Lad.tiI was bornבּ֑וֹb/oon <the>/ itי֛וֹםYom[the] day אֲשֶׁר־'a.Sher-when יְלָדַ֥תְנִיye.la.Dat./nishe bore/ me אִמִּ֖י'i.M/imother/ my אַל־'al-may not יְהִ֥יye.Hiit be בָרֽוּךְ׃va.Rukhblessed

King James Version

Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 15:10 Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.
Job 3:3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’