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

New Living Translation
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
because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.

Berean Standard Bible
because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me.

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

NASB 1995
Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant.

NASB 1977
Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant.

Legacy Standard Bible
Because he did not put me to death from the womb, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant.

Amplified Bible
Because he did not kill me before my birth, So that my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always pregnant.

Christian Standard Bible
because he didn’t kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.

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

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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because he did not put me to death in the womb, and my mother would have been to me but a tomb, and my conception would have been in the womb forever!

Brenton Septuagint Translation
because he slew me not in the womb, and my mother became not my tomb, and her womb always great with me.

Contemporary English Version
He deserves to die for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's body would have been my grave.

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

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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
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.

Good News Translation
for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.

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

JPS Tanakh 1917
Because He slew me not from the womb; And so my mother would have been my grave, And her womb always great.

Literal Standard Version
Because he has not put me to death from the womb, | And my mother is to me—my grave, | And her womb [is] a perpetual pregnancy.

Majority Standard Bible
because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.

New American Bible
because he did not kill me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever.

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

New Revised Standard Version
because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.

New Heart English Bible
because he did not kill me from the womb; and so my mother would 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. 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.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jeremiah's Complaint
16May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. May he hear an outcry in the morning and a battle cry at noon, 17because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged. 18Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?…

Cross References
Job 3:10
For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

Job 3:11
Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

Job 10:18
Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!

Job 10:19
If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.


Treasury of Scripture

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.

he slew.

Job 3:10,11,16
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes…

Job 10:18,19
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! …

Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Jump to Previous
Age-During Always Birth Body Child Death Delivered Enlarged Forever Grave Great Kill Last Mother Mother's Pregnancy Pregnant Resting-Place Slew Womb
Jump to Next
Age-During Always Birth Body Child Death Delivered Enlarged Forever Grave Great Kill Last Mother Mother's Pregnancy Pregnant Resting-Place Slew Womb
Jeremiah 20
1. Pashur, smiting Jeremiah, receives a new name, and a fearful doom.
7. Jeremiah complains of contempt;
10. of treachery;
14. and of his birth.














(17) Because he slew me not . . .--The wish that he had never been born is uttered by the prophet in strange, bold language. It would have been better that the messenger that told that he was born had slain him before his birth, that his mother's womb had been his grave, that she had never had strength to bring him forth. Thought, structure, even grammar are, in their abruptness and irregularities, alike significant of intense emotion.



Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
because
אֲשֶׁ֥ר (’ă·šer)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

he did not
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

kill me
מוֹתְתַ֖נִי (mō·wṯ·ṯa·nî)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person masculine singular | first person common singular
Strong's 4191: To die, to kill

in the womb
מֵרָ֑חֶם (mê·rā·ḥem)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7358: The womb

so that my mother
אִמִּי֙ (’im·mî)
Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )

might have been
וַתְּהִי־ (wat·tə·hî-)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

my grave,
קִבְרִ֔י (qiḇ·rî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 6913: A grave, sepulcher

and her womb
וְרַחְמָ֖הֿ (wə·raḥ·māh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 7358: The womb

forever
עוֹלָֽם׃ (‘ō·w·lām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5769: Concealed, eternity, frequentatively, always

enlarged.
הֲרַ֥ת (hă·raṯ)
Adjective - feminine singular construct
Strong's 2030: Pregnant


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 20:17 Because he didn't kill me (Jer.)
Jeremiah 20:16
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