Jeremiah 20:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

O Lord, thou hast deceived me, &c.— Over-persuaded me, and I was over-persuaded. Our translation here is harsh and faulty. The occasion of the words was this: The prophet had met with a large share of ill-usage from an ungrateful people, in return for the faithful discharge of his prophetic office. Under these his calamitous circumstances, he looks up to God, and appeals to him, the searcher of hearts, as his witness, that it was not through any ambition of his own that he had entered upon that invidious office; see chap. Jeremiah 1:6-7, &c. nor had he taken upon him of his own accord to reprove his countrymen: but all that he had done in that affair was pursuant to a divine cause, and in pure obedience to divine command. He would gladly have declined it, but God would not suffer him; wherefore hereupon he says, speaking to the Almighty, Thou hast over-persuaded me, and I was over-persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. The passage carries in it a lively idea of the prophet's great modesty and profound humility, in not affecting high things or shining offices; but submitting, however, to the burden of them in obedience to the will of God. See Waterland's Script. Vind. part. 3: p. 84.