The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 The priest Pashur son of Immer was the senior priest in God's Temple. He heard Jeremiah preach this sermon.
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Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the LORD, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying.
2 He whipped Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate of God's Temple.
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So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the LORD ’s Temple.
3 The next day Pashur came and let him go. Jeremiah told him, "God has a new name for you: not Pashur but Danger-Everywhere,
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The next day, when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the LORD has changed your name. From now on you are to be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’
4 because God says, 'You're a danger to yourself and everyone around you. All your friends are going to get killed in battle while you stand there and watch. What's more, I'm turning all of Judah over to the king of Babylon to do whatever he likes with them - haul them off into exile, kill them at whim.
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For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword.
5 Everything worth anything in this city, property and possessions along with everything in the royal treasury - I'm handing it all over to the enemy. They'll rummage through it and take what they want back to Babylon.
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And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city—the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings—will be carried off to Babylon.
6 "'And you, Pashur, you and everyone in your family will be taken prisoner into exile - that's right, exile in Babylon. You'll die and be buried there, you and all your cronies to whom you preached your lies.'"
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As for you, Pashhur, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything would be all right.’”
7 You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it. You were too much for me. And now I'm a public joke. They all poke fun at me.
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O LORD, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me.
8 Every time I open my mouth I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!" And all I get for my God-warnings are insults and contempt.
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When I speak, the words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” I shout. So these messages from the LORD have made me a household joke.
9 But if I say, "Forget it! No more God-Messages from me!" The words are fire in my belly, a burning in my bones. I'm worn out trying to hold it in. I can't do it any longer!
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But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
10 Then I hear whispering behind my back: "There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!" Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face: "One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"
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I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.” They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.” Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”
11 But God, a most fierce warrior, is at my side. Those who are after me will be sent sprawling - Slapstick buffoons falling all over themselves, a spectacle of humiliation no one will ever forget.
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But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, no one fools you. You see through everyone, everything. I want to see you pay them back for what they've done. I rest my case with you.
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O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, you test those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.
13 Sing to God! All praise to God! He saves the weak from the grip of the wicked.
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Sing to the LORD ! Praise the LORD ! For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.
14 Curse the day I was born! The day my mother bore me - a curse on it, I say!
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Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
15 And curse the man who delivered the news to my father: "You've got a new baby - a boy baby!" (How happy it made him.)
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I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!”
16 Let that birth notice be blacked out, deleted from the records, And the man who brought it haunted to his death with the bad news he brought.
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Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the LORD overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,
17 He should have killed me before I was born, with that womb as my tomb, My mother pregnant for the rest of her life with a baby dead in her womb.
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because he did not kill me at birth. Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!
18 Why, oh why, did I ever leave that womb? Life's been nothing but trouble and tears, and what's coming is more of the same.
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Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.