Jeremiah 20:8

"Because with my bitter word I shall laugh." There is a certain laughter that is promise, of which promise the patriarch Isaac is the namesake; for he is interpreted "Laughter." And that laughter is promise is clear from the words "Blessed are those who weep now"; and the promise is "for they shall laugh." Just as it is a promise that "they shall be called sons of God," and "they shall see God," and "they shall inherit the earth," and "theirs is the kingdom of heaven," so laughter is a promise; to which promise the contrary is the weeping that is called blessed. And you will inquire whether, with this good laughter, according to one and another conception, the weeping that is called blessed sings in harmony, while there is opposed to it another weeping, laid up, over which those bewailed with the contrary woes lament. For "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep"; for one is the weeping that is called blessed, another the weeping laid up for those who have lived badly. But whether that one too has some beneficial end, I do not know. What do I say? Hear Paul. When he taught, he set himself to grieve his hearers by his speaking. And he confesses that he was then most of all gladdened, when someone was grieved by him; for he says: "And who is it that gladdens me, if not the one grieved by me?" And if anyone is competent to move the soul of a hearer, especially of one who has sinned, he prays to speak such words as, being announced from power and array and divinity and holy conceptions, will shake the soul of the hearer and move it to mourning and to weeping and to tears, so that the speaker rejoices, † when he sees the audience delighted and full because of what is said. For where he leads to promises, as "through the narrow and afflicted way of being grieved unto life," also through weeping he leads to the laughter that is called blessed. […]

(Verse 7, 8.) You have deceived me, Lord, and I have been deceived (or you have beguiled me, Lord, and I have been beguiled). You were stronger than me and prevailed (or you obtained and were able to). I have become a mockery all day long, everyone mocks me; because now I speak, crying out injustice and devastation (or because with bitter words I will laugh at transgression and call upon misery). The Prophet says he was deceived by the Lord, because from the beginning hearing: I have appointed you as a Prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). And again: Behold, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build up, and to plant (Jeremiah, 1:10), thinking that he would say nothing against the people of Judah, but rather against the various nations around. Therefore, he gladly accepted the prophecy; and it happened contrary, that while predicting the captivity of Jerusalem, he endured persecutions and hardships. And he accomplished it. I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me, because they think that he has been lying about everything and that all the things he predicted would happen were lies. And the Prophet immediately thought that what the Lord had threatened would come true, and the people thought that it would not come any more because it had not come immediately. And I cry out about the destruction of Babylon and the wickedness of the enemies through which my people will be oppressed. […]

For not only did he bear those things nobly which happen to the body, the afflictions, and whatever he enumerated, but those also which touch the soul; for neither are these wont to disturb slightly. Jeremiah at least having borne many temptations, gave in upon these, and when he was reproached, said, "I will not prophesy, neither will I name the Name of the Lord." And David too many places complains of reproach. Isaiah also, after many things, exhorteth concerning this, saying, "Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye overcome by their reviling." And again, Christ also to His disciples; "When they shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice and be exceeding glad," He saith, "for great is your reward in heaven."

Jeremiah says here, in effect: "As I am crying out and saying that the Babylonian army is coming and that the sword of the enemy will plunder us all, the word of the Lord is turned against me as a derision and a reproach, since they believe that the tardiness of a prophecy's fulfillment is tantamount to a lie. For this reason, I've decided within myself that I will no longer speak the word of God to the people of God, nor will I name his name.

And so far as the literal truth is concerned, it is useful to recount what things Jeremiah suffered among the people, with respect to which he said, "And I said, I will not speak, nor will I call on the name of the Lord." And again, elsewhere, "I was continually being mocked." And how great sufferings he endured from the then king of Israel are written in his prophecy. And it is also written that some of the people often came to stone Moses to death. His homeland was not the stones of any place but was instead the people who followed him, among whom also he was dishonored.