Jeremiah 20:17

Jeremiah 20:17

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.

a. NLT: 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!

b. NIV: For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.

c. YLT: 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.

d. Amplified Bible Classic: Because he did not slay me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great.

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

f. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: because no one killed me in the womb, so that my mother would be my grave and her womb a place of eternal gestation.

1. “Because he slew me not from the womb…”

a. Because he slew [4191 * muwth] [Strong: a primitive root: to die (literally or figuratively); causatively, to kill:--X at all, X crying, (be) dead (body, man, one), (put to, worthy of) death, destroy(-er), (cause to, be like to, must) die, kill, necro(-mancer), X must needs, slay, X surely, X very suddenly, X in (no) wise.]

1). In this passage the prophet is lamenting his birth and writes, “Because he slew me not from the womb…”. The Hebrew word for “slew” is “muwth” and it means “to die or to kill”. It is translated “slew” 38 times and “kill” 24 times in the Old Testament. One good example is the extermination of the Hebrews by the Egyptians in Exodus 1:16. In that verse, the midwives were given instructions by Pharaoh about what to do when the children are born: “…if it be a son, then ye shall kill him.” The same Hebrew word is used in the book of Job, by Job under similar mental anguish.

a). Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

b). He clearly regards the end of his life in his mother’s womb as a death. We can see from the Hebrew Scriptures that if the life of the child is ended in the womb, or out, by any means, it is a death or the killing of the child.

c). Too much wrangling over words? The words “health of the mother”, from the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade opened the door to tens of millions “killings” of “children”.

b. me not from the womb [7358 *  rechem] [Strong: from 7355; the womb (Compare 7356):--matrix, womb.]

2. “…or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.”

a. or that my mother [517 * 'em] [Strong: a primitive word; a mother (as the bond of the family); in a wide sense (both literally and figuratively (like 1):--dam, mother, X parting.

b. might have been my grave [6913 * qeber; or (feminine) qibrah] [Strong: from 6912; a sepulchre:--burying place, grave, sepulchre.]

c. and her womb [7358 * rechem] [Strong: from 7355; the womb (Compare 7356):--matrix, womb.]

d. always [5769 * `owlam; or lolam] [Strong: from 5956; properly, concealed, i.e. the vanishing point; generally, time out of mind (past or future), i.e. (practically) eternity; frequentatively, adverbial (especially with prepositional prefix) always:--alway(-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, (n-))ever(-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at any time, (beginning of the) world (+ without end).]

e. great with me [2030 *  hareh; or hariy] [Strong: from 2029; pregnant:--(be, woman) with child, conceive, X great.]

1). Because he knows us before we are born then He is our God from our mothers womb.

a.). Psalm 22:10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.