Jeremiah - Chapter 20

¹ Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief of police in the Temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah making this prophecy.

² Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and then put him in the stocks, in the Upper Benjamin Gate leading into the Temple of Yahweh.

³ Next day, Pashhur had Jeremiah taken out of the stocks; Jeremiah then said to him, 'Not Pashhur but Terror-on-every-Side is Yahweh's name for you.

⁴ For Yahweh says this, "I am going to hand you over to terror, you and all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies, your own eyes will see it. The whole of Judah, too, I shall hand over to the king of Babylon; he will carry them off captive to Babylon and put them to the sword.

⁵ And all the wealth of this city, all its stores, all its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I shall hand over to their enemies who will plunder them, round them up and carry them off to Babylon.

⁶ As for you, Pashhur, and your whole household, you will go into captivity; you will go to Babylon; there you will die, and there be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies." '

⁷ You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a laughing-stock all day long, they all make fun of me.

⁸ For whenever I speak, I have to howl and proclaim, 'Violence and ruin!' For me, Yahweh's word has been the cause of insult and derision all day long.

⁹ I would say to myself, 'I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more,' but then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not do it.

¹⁰ I heard so many disparaging me, 'Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!' All those who were on good terms with me watched for my downfall, 'Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we shall get the better of him and take our revenge!'

¹¹ But Yahweh is at my side like a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, vanquished, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

¹² Yahweh Sabaoth, you who test the upright, observer of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.

¹³ Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of one in need from the clutches of evil doers.

¹⁴ A curse on the day when I was born! May the day my mother bore me be unblessed!

¹⁵ A curse on the man who brought my father the news, 'A son, a boy has been born to you!' making him overjoyed.

¹⁶ May this man be like the towns that Yahweh overthrew without mercy; may he hear the warning-cry at dawn and the shout of battle at high noon,

¹⁷ for not killing me in the womb; my mother would have been my grave and her womb pregnant for ever.

¹⁸ Why ever did I come out of the womb to see toil and sorrow and end my days in shame?

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