Text: Jeremiah 20:8
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 22:25
Subject: seduced, seized, and crying out
Source: No public domain commentary confirmation available
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Jeremiah 20:8 describes the prophet's experience of being compelled to cry out — "whenever I speak, I cry out" (אֶזְעָק, ez'aq) — using vocabulary that resonates with Deuteronomy 22:25, where a man "overpowers" (חָזַק, chazaq) a woman. The shared semantic field of compulsion and outcry links Jeremiah's involuntary proclamation to the legal framework of the innocent victim. The word of the LORD has become "a reproach and derision all day long" (v. 8), yet Jeremiah cannot stop speaking it — a compulsion described in v. 9 as a "burning fire shut up in my bones." The Deuteronomic framework establishes that one seized by overwhelming force bears no guilt, implicitly defending Jeremiah's legitimacy as a prophet despite the hostile reception of his message.