Let me see, etc... This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill will, but zeal of justice.
20:13. Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.
20:14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me, be blessed.
Cursed be the day, etc... In these, and the following words of the prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him.
20:15. Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying: A man child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice.
20:16. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord hath overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at noontide:
20:17. Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
20:18. Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and that my days should be spent in confusion?
Jeremias Chapter 21
The prophet's answer to the messengers of Sedecias, when Jerusalem was besieged.