Verses 14-18 are similar to Job 3.3-12. In fact, many Old Testament scholars believe the Job passage is dependent upon these verses.

For Cursed see 11.3.

For blessed see 17.7.

The ancient Hebrews thought of days as separate entities that came back each year. Thus a curse could be placed upon a day as much as upon an individual. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the verse:

• May that day be cursed on which I was born, may that day be blotted out on which my mother brought me into the world!

In Job 3.3 there is a progression of thought in the two parallel lines: the day I was born should be cursed (line 1); more, even the day I was conceived should be cursed (line 2). Here, however, Cursed be and let it not be blessed have essentially the same meaning, stated once positively and once negatively. In this case what is not clear is (1) whether Jeremiah is cursing the day of his birth, as Job clearly was, or (2) whether he is stating that the day he was born was cursed. By this second interpretation, the meaning would be “The day I was born was cursed. How could the day my mother gave birth to me have been blessed?” But most translations follow Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version here.

The verse also is an example of chiasmus (or X-structure). It begins the first line with Cursed be, and ends the second line with let it not be blessed. In the middle are the day on which I was born and The day when my mother bore me. The relationships may be seen more clearly in the diagram below:

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .