Jeremiah 19:1–20:18
19 Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to athe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 band say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will ctingle.
4 “Because they dhave forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with ethe blood of the innocents 5 f(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, gwhich I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or hthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, iand I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their jcorpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city kdesolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the lflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’
10 m“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: n“Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be 1made whole again; and they shall obury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled plike the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose qroofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and rpoured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in sthe court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because tthey have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”
20 Now aPashhur the son of bImmer, the priest who was also chief governor 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 high cgate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.
3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but 1Magor-Missabib. 4 For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will dgive all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I ewill deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and fcarry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have gprophesied lies.’ ”
7 O Lord, You 2induced me, and I was persuaded;
hYou are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
Everyone mocks me.
8 For when I spoke, I cried out;
jI shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the Lord was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.
9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a kburning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And lI could not.
10 mFor I heard many 4mocking:
“Fear on every side!”
“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”
nAll my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
“Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is owith me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not pprevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their qeverlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
You who rtest the righteous,
And see the 5mind and heart,
sLet me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
For tHe has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers.
14 uCursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
Who brought news to my father, saying,
“A male child has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord—voverthrew, and did not relent;
Let him whear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,
17 xBecause he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
18 yWhy did I come forth from the womb to zsee 6labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?