20:1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief overseer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,
20:2 Pashhur 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.
20:3 Then 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 ①Magor-missabib.
▷ ①I.e., horror on every side
20:4 For 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.
20:5 I 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.
20:6 And 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.’ ”
20:7 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.
20:8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has ①resulted
In taunting and derision all day long.
▷ ①Lit become
20:9 But 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.
20:10 For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him; let’s denounce him!”
①All 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.”
▷ ①Lit Every man of my peace
20:11 But 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 ①failed,
An everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
▷ ①Lit not succeeded; or not acted wisely
20:12 Yet, LORD of armies, who tests the righteous,
Who sees the ①mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You I have disclosed my cause.
▷ ①Lit kidneys
20:13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has saved the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.
20:14 Cursed be the day when I was born;
May the day when my mother gave birth to me not be blessed!
20:15 Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A ①boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
▷ ①Lit male child
20:16 But may that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without ①relenting,
And may he hear an outcry in the morning
And ②an alarm for war at noon;
▷ ①Lit being sorry ②Or a trumpet blast
20:17 Because he did not kill me ①before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb forever pregnant.
▷ ①Lit from the womb
20:18 Why did I ever come out of the womb
To look at trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?