Jeremiah 20

1. When Pashhur the son of Immer the priest (he was chief officer in the house of the LORD) heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,

2. Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD.

3. And it came to pass on the next day, Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Terror from All Around.

4. For thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall behold it. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will exile them into Babylon, and kill them with the sword.

5. And I will give all the wealth of this city, and its produce, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah, even I will give it into the hand of their enemies; who will strip them and take them, and bring them to Babylon.

6. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. And you shall come to Babylon, and you shall die there, and shall be buried there; you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’ ”

7. O LORD, You have enticed me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I, and You have prevailed. I am in derision all the day; everyone laughs at me.

8. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I cry violence and ruin; for the Word of the LORD has been a reproach and a cause of mocking to me all day.

9. But if I say, “I will not mention Him, nor speak in His name any more,” then His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I could not stop.

10. For I heard the mocking of many, “Terror is all around!” “Denounce! Yea, let us denounce him!” Every man of my peace is watching for my fall, saying, “Perhaps he will be lured away, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.”

11. But the LORD is with me like a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not overcome me. They shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not be blessed. Their everlasting shame shall never be forgotten.

12. But, O LORD of hosts, who tries the righteous and sees the reins and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them. For I have committed my cause to You.

13. Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD; for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

14. Cursed is the day in which I was born; let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

15. Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A man child is born to you;” making him very glad.

16. And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not; and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;

17. Because he did not kill me from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always enlarged with me.

18. Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?