THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

 

Jeremiah Chapter 20

1 ¶ Now when Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the LORD’S temple, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

2 Pashur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

3 And on the next day, when Pashur released Jeremiah from the stocks. Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has not named you Pashur, but Magor-missabib.

4 For the LORD says, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all of your friends: and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it: and I will place everyone in Judah in the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive into Babylon, and will slay them with the sword.

5 Moreover I will put all the riches of this city, and all the products of your labor, and all its valuable things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah in the hands of their enemies, who will plunder them, and carry them away to Babylon.

6 And you, Pashur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity: and you will go to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.

7 ¶ O LORD, you have misled me, and I was misled: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am a laughingstock all day long, every one mocks me.

8 For whenever I talk, I have to cry out, proclaiming violence and destruction; and the word of the LORD has brought me reproach, and mockery, all day long.

9 Then I thought, I will not speak of him, or say anything else in his name. But his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I became tired of holding it in, and I could not do it.

10 For I heard the slander of many, danger is on every side. Denounce him, they say, and we will denounce him. Everyone I trusted is watching to see if I make a mistake, saying, Perhaps he will be misled, then we can overcome him, and can take our vengeance on him.

11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty and terrible warrior: therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they cannot win: their humiliation will be great; for they will not succeed: their everlasting shame will never be forgotten.

12 But, O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, and examines their feelings and thoughts, let me see you take vengeance on them: for I have laid my case before you.

13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD: because he saves the soul of the helpless from the hand of evildoers.

14 ¶ May the day on which I was born be cursed: do not allow the day on which my mother bore me to be blessed.

15 Cursed is the man who told my father, You have a son; making him very glad.

16 May that man be like the cities that the LORD destroyed, without pity: let him hear the war cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon;

17 Because he did not slay me in the womb; so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever great.

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