Jeremiah 20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

¹When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ²he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

³The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. ⁴For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

⁷You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived.

You have overcome me and prevailed.

I am a laughingstock all day long;

everyone mocks me.

⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out;

I proclaim violence and destruction.

For the word of the LORD has become to me

a reproach and derision all day long.1

⁹If I say, “I will not mention Him

or speak any more in His name,”

His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,

shut up in my bones,

and I become weary of holding it in,

and I cannot prevail.

¹⁰For I have heard the whispering of many:

“Terror is on every side!

Report him; let us report him!”

All my trusted friends

watch for my fall:

“Perhaps he will be deceived

so that we may prevail against him

and take our vengeance upon him.”

¹¹But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior.

Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.

Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame,

with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.

¹²O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous,

who sees the heart and mind,

let me see Your vengeance upon them,

for to You I have committed my cause.

¹³Sing to the LORD!

Praise the LORD!

For He rescues the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day I was born!

May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.1

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,

saying, “A son is born to you,”

bringing him great joy.

¹⁶May that man be like the cities

that the LORD overthrew without compassion.

May he hear an outcry in the morning

and a battle cry at noon,

¹⁷because he did not kill me in the womb

so that my mother might have been my grave,

and her womb forever enlarged.

¹⁸Why did I come out of the womb

to see only trouble and sorrow,

and to end my days in shame?