OEB JER chapter 20

20 Now when Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who had the general supervision of the Temple, heard this prophetic utterance of Jeremiah’s, 2 he beat him and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin gate in the Temple. 3 Next day, after Pashhur had released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "Thy name is (henceforth) changed from Pashhur to Terror. 4 For thus saith Jehovah: See! I will make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends. They shall fall by the enemy’s sword, and thou shalt see it with thine own eyes. I will give the whole of Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them to exile in Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 And all the resources of this city, all her wealth, all that she prizes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies, who shall despoil them and carry them off to Babylon. 6 As for thee, Pashhur, thou and all who share thy home shall be swept into captivity. To Babylon thou shalt come; there thou shalt die, and there shalt thou be buried – thou and all the friends to whom thou hast prophesied lies."

What it Cost

7 O Jehovah, Thou hast beguiled me,

And I let myself be beguiled;

Too strong for me art Thou,

And Thou hast won the victory.

All the day long am I ridiculed,

Every one mocketh at me.

8 Every word that I utter is laughed at;

"Wronged" and "despoiled" must I cry.

For to me is the word of Jehovah

An endless reproach and derision.

9 When I vow to put it out my mind

And to speak in His name no more,

It doth burn in my heart like a fire

Shut up within my bones;

I am weary of enduring,

and I can bear it no more.

10 For I hear their many whispers–

A terror on every side–

"Denounce him." "Yes, we will denounce him."

"All ye his familiar friends,

Keep a narrow watch for his stumbling,

Perchance he will be beguiled,

And we shall prevail against him,

And take our vengeance upon him."

The Prophet’s Sense of Divine Support

11 But Jehovah Himself is with me,

As a mighty One and a terrible;

So my persecutors shall stumble,

And they shall not prevail;

But because they have dealt unwisely,

They shall come to utter shame,

To perpetual confusion,

Which never shall be forgotten.

12 O Jehovah that triest the righteous,

That mind and heart dost behold,

Let me see Thy vengeance upon them;

For on Thee have I rolled my cause.

13 Sing to Jehovah, sing praise to Jehovah:

For He hath delivered the soul of the needy

From the hand of evildoers.

The Prophet’s Despair

14 A curse on the day whereon I was born,

Unblest be the day that my mother bore me.

15 A curse on the man who announced to my father

"A man child is born to thee" – making him glad.

16 Let the fate of that man be the fate of the cities

O’erthrown by Jehovah in pitiless anger;

Let him hear in the morning a cry (of distress)

And at noon the alarum of war:

17 That he slew me not in the womb,

So my mother had been my grave,

And her womb had been great for ever.

18 O why came I forth from the womb

To behold but labour and sorrow,

That my days should be wasted with shame?

OEB JER Chapter 20