Jeremiah 20

Pashhur strikes Jeremiah

1Pashhur son of Immer, the priest who was chief officer in the LORD’s house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the LORD’s house.

3The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah told him, “The name the LORD gives you is Terror on Every Side, not Pashhur. 4For this is what the LORD says: Look, I am making you a terror to yourself and all your friends. They will fall by their enemies’ sword while you watch. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them into exile in Babylon and strike them with the sword.

5All this city’s wealth, all it has earned, all its precious things, and all the treasures of Judah’s kings—I will hand them over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and take them to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and everyone in your household will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, die there, and be buried there—you and all the friends to whom you prophesied lies.”

The prophet’s protest

7You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived.
You overpowered me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.

8Whenever I speak, I cry out;
I shout, “Violence! Destruction!”
The LORD’s word has brought me
reproach and ridicule all day long.

9I said, “I will not mention him
or speak in his name anymore.”
But then it was like a burning fire in my heart,
shut up in my bones.
I grew weary of holding it in;
I could not.

10I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my close friends watch for me to stumble:
“Perhaps he can be deceived.
Then we can prevail over him
and take our revenge.”

The LORD is with me

11But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior.
So my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be deeply ashamed because they have not succeeded,
with an everlasting humiliation that will not be forgotten.

12LORD of hosts, you test the righteous
and see the innermost being and heart.
Let me see your vengeance on them,
for I have laid my case before you.

13Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed be the day

14Cursed be the day I was born!
Let the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.

15Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
“A son, a boy, has been born to you!”
and filled him with joy.

16Let that man be like the cities
the LORD overthrew without relenting.
Let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon, 17because he did not kill me in the womb,
so my mother would have been my grave
and her womb pregnant forever.

18Why did I come out of the womb
to see toil and sorrow
and spend my days in shame?