“Yahweh!
You have enticed me!
I was enticed!
You have overpowered me!
You have prevailed!
I have become a laughingstock
All day long!
Every one mocks me!
Whenever I speak,
I must cry out!
I must shout!
‘Violence!
Destruction!’
The word of Yahweh
Has become for me
A reproach.
It has become
A derision all day long.
If I say.
‘I will not mention him,
I will not speak any more
In his name,’
Then within me
There is something
Like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones.
I am weary
With holding it in.
I cannot.”
Jeremiah seems to blame Yahweh for enticing him into being a prophet in this personal lament. Yahweh has overpowered him so that he cannot prevail. He has become a laughing stock all day long, as everyone mocks him. Every time Jeremiah cries out “violence and destruction” to others, they reproach and deride him, despite the fact that it is the word of God in him. If he tries not to mention Yahweh and not speak about him, then there is something within him like a burning fire in his bones. Jeremiah was tired of holding it in. Thus he has no other option than to shout it out despite everything that happened to him. He can no longer hold it in.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 