Shared Word Translation
Jeremiah 20
Pashhur Strikes Jeremiah
Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD.
The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. For thus says the LORD: Behold, I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them away into exile in Babylon and strike them down with the sword.
And I will give all the wealth of this city, all its gains, all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
You enticed me, O LORD, and I was enticed;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out;
I proclaim, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all the day.
If I say, “I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,”
then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary of holding it in,
and I cannot.
For I hear the whispering of many:
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
watch for my stumbling:
“Perhaps he will be enticed,
and we can prevail against him
and take our revenge on him.”
The LORD Is with Me
But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly put to shame,
for they will not succeed;
their everlasting disgrace
will not be forgotten.
O LORD of Hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the kidneys and the heart,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
Cursed Be the Day
Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
Let the day when my mother bore me
not be blessed!
Cursed be the man
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A son is born to you,”
making him very glad.
Let that man be like the cities
that the LORD overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
because he did not kill me in the womb,
so that my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever pregnant.
Why did I come out from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?