“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.”
The final expression of the lament—wishing Jeremiah had been killed in the womb—represents the ultimate expression of despair. The image of pregnancy as a tomb and the womb as the grave shows the prophet's desire to undo his existence altogether. The finality and absoluteness of this wish emphasizes the depth of Jeremiah's suffering at this moment. The verse shows that even prophets with faith and calling experience moments of such despair that they wish they had never been born.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!