“Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 15:10 Mean?
"Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me." Jeremiah breaks — and the break is raw, personal, and aimed at his own mother.
"Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me" — Jeremiah wishes he hadn't been born. This echoes Job 3:1 and anticipates Jesus' words about Judas: "it had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matthew 26:24). The prophet's suffering has reached the point where existence itself feels like a curse.
"A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth" — Jeremiah's calling has made him universally hated. He hasn't chosen conflict. His obedience to God's word created it. Every time he opens his mouth, he produces opposition. The whole earth contends with him.
"I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury" — this is Jeremiah saying: I haven't wronged anyone. I haven't cheated, exploited, or taken advantage of a single person. He reaches for the most concrete example of injustice — predatory lending — and says: I haven't done it. I'm innocent of the charges. "Yet every one of them doth curse me" — the hatred is universal and undeserved. He did nothing wrong. He obeyed God. And the reward is cursing from every direction.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you ever been hated for doing the right thing? How did that experience affect your willingness to keep obeying?
- 2.Jeremiah wishes he hadn't been born. Have you ever felt your calling was a burden rather than a gift? Did you tell God?
- 3.He says 'I haven't wronged anyone, yet everyone curses me.' Is there an injustice in your life that you've been carrying silently that needs to be voiced to God?
- 4.What keeps you faithful when obedience produces opposition instead of blessing? Where does the strength come from when the reward feels insufficient?
Devotional
If you've ever done the right thing and been hated for it — if obedience to God made you unpopular, if speaking truth cost you relationships, if faithfulness turned you into everyone's target — Jeremiah is your prophet.
His complaint is specific and legitimate: I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't exploit anyone. I didn't cheat anyone. I just said what God told me to say. And now the whole world curses me. Where's the fairness in that?
The honesty of this verse is what makes it Scripture. God didn't edit out Jeremiah's pain. He didn't smooth over the prophet's wish to have never been born. He preserved it. Which means God isn't offended by this kind of prayer. The cry of "why did You make me for this?" is a legitimate question to bring before God, not a sign of failed faith.
If your calling has made you a person of strife — if doing what God asked has turned relationships hostile, if your integrity has made you a target — you're not doing it wrong. You might be doing it exactly right. Jeremiah was. And his reward on earth wasn't applause. It was cursing. The reward from God was different — but it didn't always feel like enough in the moment.
You're allowed to say so. You're allowed to cry out to God that this is hard, that it's unfair, that you wish you'd never been born into this assignment. God can handle that. He kept Jeremiah's complaint in the canon.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife,.... Not that the prophet was a quarrelsome and contentious…
Jeremiah vents his sorrow at the rejection of his prayer. In reading these and similar expostulations we feel that we…
Jeremiah has now returned from his public work and retired into his closet; what passed between him and his God there we…
Jer 15:10-21. The prophet bewails his lot. God's reply
The passage as a whole is one of the most eloquent and pathetic…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture