John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 20:7

"O Jehovah, thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocketh me." — Jeremiah 20:7 (ASV)

O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived

What follows from here to the end of the chapter is thought to have been said by the prophet, when in the stocks, or in prison, and shows a mixture of grace and corruption in him; a struggle between flesh and spirit, and the force of a temptation under which he laboured, arising from difficulties and discouragements in his work.

He not only complains to God, but of him; that he had deceived him, when he first called him to be a prophet, by telling him that he should be set over nations and kingdoms, to pull them down, (Jeremiah 1:10); which he understood of foreign nations, but now found his own people were meant, so Jerom; or in not immediately executing the threatenings he sent him with; as was the case of Jonah; or by giving him reason to expect honour and ease, whereas he met with nothing but disrespect and trouble; and that he should have divine protection and success against his opposers, (Jeremiah 1:18Jeremiah 1:19); whereas he was now delivered into their hands, and used in the most reproachful manner. But be it so, this was all a mistake of the prophet, and no deception of God.

Calvin takes it to be ironically spoken, expressing the sense of his enemies, who charging him with a deception, tacitly charged God with being the author of it. Others, to soften the expression, render the words, "if you have deceived me, I am deceived"; or, "you have deceived me if I am deceived" ^F25 .

But it seems best of all to translate them, as they will bear it, "O Lord, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded" ^F26 ; so the word is used of God in (Genesis 9:27); "God shall enlarge" or "persuade Japheth"; see also (Hosea 2:14), where it is rendered allure. And then the sense is, you have persuaded me to take upon me the prophetical office against my will, and against remonstrances made by me; and I was persuaded by your words and promises, and by your spirit and grace, to enter upon it; to which sense the following words incline:

you are stronger than I, and have prevailed

So strong were the arguments, motives, and inducements the Lord made use of; so pressing his injunctions and commands; so forcible the constraints of his spirit; that the prophet was obliged to yield to them, and was made willing in the day of his power to comply, though first it was sore against his will.

But he could not withstand the divine call, and therefore might have hoped, since it was so manifest that he was sent of God, and did not run of himself, that he should have met with a better reception, and more success; but so it was not:

I am in derision daily, everyone mocks me

He was the laughing stock of everyone of the people of Israel, from the highest to the lowest; princes, priests, and people, all derided him and his prophecies, and that continually, every day, and all the day long, and especially when he was in the stocks; though it was not only his person they mocked, but the word of the Lord by him, as appears from (Jeremiah 20:8).

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FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (tpaw hwhy yntytp) "Domine si ego sim seductus, tu es qui me seduxit", Genevenses; "pellexisti me, quando pellectus sum", Junius & Tremellius; sic Syr. "tu decepisti me, si deceptus sim; quidam" in Gataker.
• F26: "Persuasisti mihi, O Jehovah, et persuasus sum", Luther, Piscator, Schmidt.