Jeremiah 20:17
 Jeremiah 20:17 
New International Version (©2011)
For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.

New Living Translation (©2007)
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!

English Standard Version (©2001)
because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
because he didn't kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.

International Standard Version (©2012)
because he didn't kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant.

NET Bible (©2006)
For he did not kill me before I came from the womb, making my pregnant mother's womb my grave forever.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
If only he had killed me while I was in the womb. Then my mother would have been my grave, and she would have always been pregnant.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
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.

American 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.

American Standard Version
because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.

Darby Bible Translation
because he slew me not from the womb. Or would that my mother had been my grave, and her womb always great with me!

English Revised Version
because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother should have been my grave, and her womb always great.

Webster's Bible Translation
Because he slew me not at my birth; or that my mother might have been my grave, and she had not been delivered.

World English Bible
because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

Young's Literal Translation
Because he hath not put me to death from the womb, And my mother is to me -- my grave, And her womb a pregnancy age-during.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:14-18 When grace has the victory, it is good to be ashamed of our folly, to admire the goodness of God, and be warned to guard our spirits another time. See how strong the temptation was, over which the prophet got the victory by Divine assistance! He is angry that his first breath was not his last. While we remember that these wishes are not recorded for us to utter the like, we may learn good lessons from them. See how much those who think they stand, ought to take heed lest they fall, and to pray daily, Lead us not into temptation. How frail, changeable, and sinful is man! How foolish and unnatural are the thoughts and wishes of our hearts, when we yield to discontent! Let us consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we should be at any time weary and faint in our minds under our lesser trials.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because he slew me not from the womb,.... As soon as he came out of it; that is, as soon as he was born; either because God slew him not so soon, as Kimchi; or the angel of death, as Jarchi: or rather the man that carried the tidings of his birth to his father, who is all along spoken of in the two former verses; he curses him for not doing that, which, had he done, would have been exceeding criminal in him indeed; for not committing murder, even for not murdering an innocent babe;

or that my mother might have been my grave; he wishes he had died in her womb, and had never been brought forth; and so that had been his grave, where he should have been at ease and safety:

and her womb to be always great with me; or, "her womb an everlasting conception" (m); his wish was, that she had been always conceiving, or ever big with child of him, but never bring forth; which was a more cruel and unnatural wish than the former concerning the man, the carrier of the tidings of his birth; since this was wishing a perpetual, painful, and intolerable evil to his own mother.

(m) "et ejus uterus, conceptus perpetuus", Munster; "et vulva ejus, conceptio perpetua", Pagninus, "et vulva ejus praegnans perpetuo", Vatablus.


Jeremiah 20:17 Parallel Commentaries
Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Jeremiah's Complaint
16And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; 17Because 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. 18Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Job 3:10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.
Job 3:11 "Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?
Job 10:18 "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
Job 10:19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!