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Jeremiah 20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

¹When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief overseer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ²Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord. ³Then on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the Lord has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. ⁴For this is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to make you a horror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will take them away as exiles to Babylon and will kill them with the sword. ⁵I will also give all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its valuable things—even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will hand over to their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

⁷¶Lord, You persuaded me and I let myself be persuaded; You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone mocks me.

⁸For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted In taunting and derision all day long.

⁹But if I say, “I will not remember Him Nor speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am tired of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.

¹⁰For I have heard the whispering of many, “Terror on every side! Denounce him; let’s denounce him!” All my trusted friends, Watching for my fall, say: “Perhaps he will be persuaded, so that we may prevail against him And take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is with me like a powerful champion; Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be put to great shame because they have failed, An everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.

¹²Yet, Lord of armies, who tests the righteous, Who sees the mind and the heart; Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have disclosed my cause.

¹³Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord! For He has saved the soul of the needy one From the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴¶Cursed be the day when I was born; May the day when my mother gave birth to me not be blessed!

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news To my father, saying, “A boy has been born to you!” And made him very happy.

¹⁶But may that man be like the cities Which the Lord overthrew without relenting, And may he hear an outcry in the morning And an alarm for war at noon;

¹⁷Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb forever pregnant.

¹⁸Why did I ever come out of the womb To look at trouble and sorrow, So that my days have been spent in shame?

Jeremiah 20 (NASB)

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Jeremiah

Chapter 20

20 of 52