Jeremiah 20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

1 Pashhur son of Immer, the priest and chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

2 He struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate, near the LORD’s temple.

3 The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but ‘Terror on Every Side.’”

4 “For this is what the LORD says: I will make you a terror to yourself and your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them into exile or kill them with the sword.”

5 “I will give all the wealth of this city, its products, valuables, and treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and take them to Babylon.”

6 “And 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 your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.”

Jeremiah’s Complaint to God

7 “LORD, You persuaded me, and I let myself be persuaded; You overpowered me and prevailed. Now I am mocked all day long; everyone ridicules me.”

8 “Whenever I speak, I cry out violence and destruction! Because the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.”

9 “But if I say, ‘I will not mention Him or speak His name anymore,’ His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am tired of holding it in, I cannot do it.”

10 “I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side!’ ‘Report him! Let us report him!’ All my close friends are watching for me to slip, saying, ‘Maybe he will be deceived, and we can overpower him and take revenge on him.’”

Jeremiah’s Confidence in God

11 “But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly disgraced and never forgotten.”

12 “LORD of armies, who tests the righteous and sees the heart and mind, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For I have presented my case to You.”

13 “Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has rescued the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.”

Jeremiah’s Curse on His Birth

14 “Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!”

15 “Cursed be the man who brought my father the good news, saying, ‘A son is born to you!’, making him very glad.”

16 “Let that man be like the cities the LORD overthrew without pity. Let him hear cries of distress in the morning and shouts of anguish at noon.”

17 “For he did not kill me in the womb so my mother would be my grave and her womb enlarged forever.”

18 “Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow And end my days in shame?”