Jeremiah 20
20
Jeremiah and Pashhur
1Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying. 2So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord’s Temple.
3The next day, when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the Lord has changed your name. From now on you are to be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’#20:3 Hebrew Magor-missabib, which means “surrounded by terror”; also in 20:10. 4For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword. 5And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city—the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings—will be carried off to Babylon. 6As for you, Pashhur, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything would be all right.’”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7O Lord, you misled me,
and I allowed myself to be misled.
You are stronger than I am,
and you overpowered me.
Now I am mocked every day;
everyone laughs at me.
8When I speak, the words burst out.
“Violence and destruction!” I shout.
So these messages from the Lord
have made me a household joke.
9But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord
or speak in his name,
his word burns in my heart like a fire.
It’s like a fire in my bones!
I am worn out trying to hold it in!
I can’t do it!
10I have heard the many rumors about me.
They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.”
They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.”
Even my old friends are watching me,
waiting for a fatal slip.
“He will trap himself,” they say,
“and then we will get our revenge on him.”
11But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior.
Before him my persecutors will stumble.
They cannot defeat me.
They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated.
Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12O Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
you test those who are righteous,
and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets.
Let me see your vengeance against them,
for I have committed my cause to you.
13Sing to the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
For though I was poor and needy,
he rescued me from my oppressors.
14Yet I curse the day I was born!
May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
15I curse the messenger who told my father,
“Good news—you have a son!”
16Let him be destroyed like the cities of old
that the Lord overthrew without mercy.
Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,
17because he did not kill me at birth.
Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb,
that her body had been my grave!
18Why was I ever born?
My entire life has been filled
with trouble, sorrow, and shame.
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Jeremiah 20: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Jeremiah 20
20
1Pashhur, son of Immer, was a priest and the official#20:1. Probably in charge of the Temple guards, and clearly not the high priest. in charge of the Lord's Temple. When he heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2he beat Jeremiah the prophet and had him put in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate, near to the Lord's Temple.
3The following day, when Pashhur had Jeremiah released from the stocks, Jeremiah told him, “The Lord doesn't call you Pashhur (tear in pieces), but Magor-missabib (terror is everywhere). 4For this is what the Lord says: I'm going to make you terrified—you and all those you love. Enemies will kill them as you watch. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will kill some, and the rest he will take away into exile in Babylon.
5I'm going to give it all away. All the wealth of this city, all the results of hard work, all the valuables, all the crown jewels of Judah's kings—I'm going to hand it over to their enemies, who will take it as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.
6You, Pashhur, and everyone who lives with you, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. You will die there and be buried—you and all those you love, those to whom you prophesied lies.”
7You fooled me, Lord, and I let myself be fooled!#20:7. Jeremiah is expressing his fear that his work on behalf of the Lord has been a failure. You're stronger than me—you've won! I've become a joke people laugh at all day long. Everyone is mocking me. 8This is because every time I open my mouth I have to shout out warnings of violence and destruction. The Lord's message has become the reason people criticize and ridicule me the whole time. 9If I tell myself, “I won't talk about him anymore, I won't even mention his name,” then his message is like a fire trapped within me, burning me from the inside out. I'm getting tired of holding it in. I just can't win.
10I've heard many people gossiping: “He's the one who says, ‘Terror is everywhere!’ He has to be reported! Report what he's doing!”#20:10. The idea is that Jeremiah is creating panic and should be reported to the country's leaders. All my good friends are waiting for me to slip up. “Maybe he'll make a mistake so we can defeat him and get our revenge on him,” they say. 11But the Lord stands beside me like a powerful warrior. So those who are attacking me will fall. They won't win! Because they're not successful they will be totally disgraced. Their shame won't ever be forgotten.
12Lord Almighty, you know without question who is living right. You examine people's thoughts and feelings. So let me see your punishment fall on them, because I've trusted you to judge my case.
13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he saves the poor from the power of the wicked.
14May the day I was born be cursed! May the day my mother gave birth to me never be blessed! 15May the man be cursed who brought my father the news that made him really happy, saying, “You have a son.” 16May that man be like the towns that the Lord destroyed without mercy. May he hear shouts of alarm in the morning and war cries at noon, 17because he should have killed me in the womb so that my mother would have been my grave, remaining pregnant forever. 18Why was I born only to see trouble and sadness, and to end my life in shame?
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com