“Cursed be the day on which I was born” (Jeremiah 20:14) - the ninth of Av (Midrash Iyov, Wertheimer 20).
Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, prophesied close to the time of the Destruction of the First Temple (Seder Olam Rabbah 20).
Jeremiah wrote his book, Jeremiah, Kings I, and Lamentations (Bava Batra 15a).
The prophets who prophesied during the First Temple would conclude with words of praise and comfort - except for Jeremiah, who concluded with words of rebuke (Yerushalmi Berachot 5:1).
“Master of the World,” said Jeremiah, “what sins were in my hands that of all the prophets who arose before me and who will arise after me, You destroyed Your Temple through none but me?” God replied: “Before I created the world, you were designated for that” (Pesikta Rabbati 27:5).

He never married, Israel’s only prophet bereft of family. This was not his choice. On the contrary, it was a Divine prohibition! “Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place” (Jeremiah 16:2). Whereas other religious traditions have extolled the monastic life, the teachers of Judaism have always emphasized the Genesis commandment that when “a man leaves his father and his mother, he shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
Not so Jeremiah. And this lack of spouse and family underlined his condition: he was alone. He was also lonely. Further, in the tradition of the preceding prophets, he was shy: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6). But the mission was thrust upon him with an immediacy that was both alarming and intimidating, for it was Jeremiah who was to preside as Israel’s prophet during the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The Lord said: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build, and to plant (Jeremiah 1:10).
At least Isaiah, in the latter part of his ministry, had the good fortune to offer his people nechemta, “consolation,” upon their travails in exile and their imminent return to Israel at the graceful hand of the Persian King Cyrus. Jeremiah’s prophecies were dark, darker, and darkest. Did this affect his personality? Would he have been happier to have served in another period in Israel’s history? It is facile to answer the questions affirmatively, but neither response does justice to his book(s) or to his central role as a suffering servant of the Jewish people.