Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah Beaten by Pashhur

1 Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
2 So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple.
3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,[a]
4 for this is what the Lord says, 'I am about to make you a terror to both yourself and those you love. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon and put them to the sword.
5 I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products[b] and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.
6 As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. There you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends that you prophesied falsely to.' "

Jeremiah Compelled to Preach

7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out- I proclaim: Violence and destruction![c] because the word of the Lord has become for me constant disgrace and derision.
9 If I say: I won't mention Him or speak any longer in His name, His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
10 For I have heard the gossip of the multitudes, "Terror is on every side![d][e] Report [him]; let's report him!" Everyone I trusted[f] watches for my fall.[g] "Perhaps he will be deceived so that we might prevail against him and take our vengeance on him."
11 But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior.[h] Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed, an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.
12 Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous and seeing the heart[i] and mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for I have presented my case to You.[j]
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord, for He rescues the life of the needy from the hand of evil people.

Jeremiah's Lament

14 Cursed be the day on which I was born.[k] The day my mother bore me- let it never be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A male child is born to you," bringing him great joy.
16 Let that man be like the cities the Lord overthrew without compassion. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war cry at noontime
17 because he didn't kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.
18 Why did I come out of the womb to see [only] struggle and sorrow, to end my life in shame?

Footnotes 11

Jeremiah 20 Commentaries

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.