Bible Strands
Jeremiah 20:17
because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks this lament to God immediately after cursing the messenger who reported his birth (Jer 20:16).
The words — The Hebrew terms רָחֶם (raḥem, "womb") and קִבְרִי (qibri, "my grave") describe a womb that should have functioned as a tomb and remained permanently enlarged.
The thread — This wish for prenatal death runs through Job 3:10, Job 3:16, and Job 10:18, where each author expresses the same desire to have never been born.
Why it lands — The text states the speaker wishes his mother’s womb had been his grave and never closed. This literal description of unexperienced life asks the reader to acknowledge the raw mechanics of despair without softening the words.
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
King James Version
Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Cross-references
- Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- Job 10:18 Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
- Job 3:16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.