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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Jeremias (Jeremiah) 20
20
1Now Phassur the son of Emmur, the priest, who was appointed chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words.
2And Phassur struck Jeremias the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord.
3And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out of the stocks. And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy name Phassur, but fear on every side.
4For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver thee up to fear, thee and all thy friends. And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thy eyes shall see it. And I will give all Juda into the hand of the king of Babylonand he shall carry them away to Babylon and he shall strike them with the sword.
5And I will give all the substance of this city, and all its labour, and every precious thing thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Juda will I give into the hands of their enemies: and they shall pillage them and take them away and carry them to Babylon.
6But thou, Phassur, and all that dwell in thy house, shall go into captivity. And thou shalt go to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied a lie.
7Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughing-stock all the day: all scoff at me.
8For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity and I often proclaim devistation: and the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me and a derision, all the day.
9Then I said: I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. And there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones: and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
10For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and, let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived and we may prevail against him and be revenged on him.
11But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall and shall be weak. They shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach which never shall be effaced.
12And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them, for to thee I have laid open my cause.
13Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.
14Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
15Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying: A man child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice.
16Let that man be as the cities that the Lord hath overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning and howling at noontide:
17Who slew me not from the womb that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
18Why came I out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, and that my days should be spent in confusion?
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.