Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

20Now ^jPashhur the priest, the son of ^kImmer, who was ^lchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ²Then ^jPashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^min the stocks that were in the upper ⁿBenjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. ³The next day, when ^jPashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name ^jPashhur, but Terror on Every Side. ⁴For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you ^oa terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. ⁵Moreover, ^pI will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its ^qprized belongings, 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. ⁶And you, ^rPashhur, 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, ^sto whom you have prophesied falsely.”

⁷O Lord, ^tyou have deceived me,

and I was deceived;

^uyou are stronger than I,

and you have prevailed.

^vI have become a laughingstock all the day;

everyone mocks me.

⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I shout, ^w“Violence and destruction!”

For ^xthe word of the Lord has become for me

^ya reproach and ^yderision all day long.

⁹If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

^zthere is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

and ^aI am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

^10bFor I hear many whispering.

^cTerror is on every side!

“Denounce him! ^dLet us denounce him!”

say all my ^eclose friends,

^fwatching for ^gmy fall.

“Perhaps he will be deceived;

then ^hwe can overcome him

and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But ⁱthe Lord is with me as a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble;

ⁱthey will not overcome me.

^jThey will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their ^keternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

¹²O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,

^lwho sees the heart and the mind,¹

let me see your vengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.

^13mSing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴ⁿCursed be the day

on which I was born!

The day when my mother bore me,

let it not be blessed!

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

“A son is born to you,”

^omaking him very glad.

¹⁶Let that man be like ^pthe cities

that the Lord overthrew without pity;

^qlet him hear a cry in the morning

and an alarm at noon,

^17rbecause he did not kill me in the womb;

so my mother would have been my grave,

and her womb forever great.

^18sWhy did I come out from the womb

^tto see toil and sorrow,

and spend my days in shame?