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7 O Lord, if I am deceaued, then hast thou deceaued me, thou enforcedst me, and hast preuayled: dayly am I despised and laughed to scorne of euery man. 8 For since I began to preache, I cryed out against violencie, and exclamed against oppression: for the whiche cause they cast the worde of the Lorde in my teeth, to my reproche continually. 9 Wherefore I thought from hencefoorth not to speake of hym, nor to preache any more in his name: but the worde of the Lorde was a very burning fire in my heart and in my bones, whiche when I woulde haue stopped, I might not. 10 Ueryly I hearde the euyll reportes of many, terrour was on euery side of me: complayne vpon hym say they, and we wyll tell his tale: Yea all myne owne companions, and suche as were conuersaunt with me, lay in wayte for my halting, saying: peraduenture he wylbe deceaued, and so shall we preuayle against hym, and be auenged of hym. 11 But the Lorde stoode by me lyke a mightie giaunt, therefore my persecutours fell and coulde do nothing: they shalbe sore confounded, for they haue done vnwisely, they shall haue an euerlasting shame, which shall neuer be forgotten. 12 And nowe O Lorde of hoastes that triest the righteous, which knowest the raynes and the very heartes, let me see them punished: for vnto thee I haue declared my cause. 13 Sing vnto the Lord and prayse hym, for he hath deliuered the soule of the oppressed from the hande of the violent. 14 Cursed be the day wherein I was borne, vnhappy be the day wherein my mother brought me foorth. 15 Cursed be the man that brought my father the tidinges to make hym gald, saying, Thou hast begotten a sonne: 16 Let it happen vnto that man, as to the cities whiche the Lorde turned vpsidedowne and repented not: Let hym heare crying in the morning, and at noone day lamentable howling. 17 Why sluest thou not me assoone as I came out of my mothers wombe? or that my mother had ben my graue her selfe, that the byrth might not haue come out, but remayned still in her? 18 Wherefore came I foorth of my mothers wombe? to haue experience of labour and sorowe, and to leade my lyfe with shame? Jeremiah 20:7-18, Bishops' Bible of 1568. Public domain.
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