Pashhur Strikes Jeremiah
20 Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord. 3 On the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but “Magor-missabib.”[a] 4 For thus says the Lord: I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. And they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes will see it. Thus I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive into Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, and all its produce, and all the precious things; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies who will destroy them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity; and you will come to Babylon, and there you will die and will be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.
Jeremiah Dejected
7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You are stronger than I and have prevailed.
I am held in derision daily;
everyone mocks me.
8 For each time I speak, I cry out;
I cry out, “Violence and devastation,”
because to me the word of the Lord has resulted
in reproach and derision daily.
9 But if I say, “I will not make mention of Him
nor speak any more in His name,”
then His word was in my heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones;
and I was weary of forbearing it,
and I could not endure it.
10 For I heard the defaming of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him. Yes, denounce him!”
All my familiar friends
who watch for my fall, say,
“Perhaps he will be enticed
so that we can prevail against him,
and we will take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me as a dread mighty One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting shame will never be forgotten.
12 But, O Lord of Hosts, who tests the righteous
and sees the mind and the heart,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for to You I have presented my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord.
For He has delivered the soul of the poor
from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day in which I was born.
Let not the day be blessed in which my mother bore me.
15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,
saying, “A baby boy has been born to you!”
and made him very glad.
16 Let that man be as the cities
which the Lord overthrew and did not relent,
and let him hear the cry in the morning
and the shout of alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me from the womb,
so that my mother might have been my grave,
and her womb be always pregnant.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb
to see trouble and sorrow,
so that my days are spent in shame?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 20:3 Or Terror on Every Side.