Our chapter offers a glimpse into the prophet’s personal experience. What is life like for someone whose role is to announce to his beloved people a terrible destruction — and who, as a result, must endure persecution and humiliation?

As we saw in Chapter 1, God chose Yirmiyahu from birth to be a prophet, and Yirmiyahu had no say in the matter: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" (1:5). In our chapter, it becomes clear that Yirmiyahu does not want the role at all, and he levels a harsh accusation against God: "You persuaded me, Lord, and I let myself be persuaded. You overpowered me, and You prevailed" (20:7). He suffers humiliation, unable to engage with people without crying out his prophetic message ("For whenever I speak, I must cry out") and the cost isn’t worth it for him.

Yirmiyahu decides to submit his ‘resignation letter’: "I said to myself: I will not make mention of it. I will no longer speak in His name" (20:9). He wants to suppress his prophecy and live as an ordinary person, but he finds that he simply cannot: "But it resides within me like a flaming fire, lock  into my bones. I wearied of holding it back. I could not." (20:9) This is an extraordinary description, revealing the prophetic experience as something that burns within the prophet’s very bones — he cannot sit still; he must let it out and fulfill his mission.

The prophet's distress has two aspects. First, there is the physical suffering — people torment and humiliate him. But this has a solution: God will protect him, as He promised, and Yirmiyahu expresses faith in this: "But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior. Therefore my pursuers will stumble and not prevail." (20:11) Yet the greater suffering is mental. Yirmiyahu’s soul is in turmoil — he does not want to prophesy destruction, he is exhausted by the constant struggle, and he longs for human connection, which his role prevents him from. This suffering has no resolution, and the chapter ends with Yirmiyahu cursing the day of his birth — like Iyov — declaring that he would have preferred to die at birth. The chapter’s tragic conclusion highlights the heavy toll of prophecy, of an intense relationship with God, and of bearing a great mission.