Open English Translation JER Chapter 20

20 The priest, Pashhur (Immer’s son) who was a supervisor, heard Yirmeyah prophesying those words at Yahweh’s house, 2 and he struck the prophet Yirmeyah. Then he placed him in the stocks that were at the upper gate of Benyamin hear Yahweh’s house. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Yirmeyah from the stocks, Yirmeyah said to him, “Yahweh won’t call you ‘Pashhur’, but ‘Magor-Missabib’ (which means ‘surrounded by terror’), 4 because Yahweh says this: Listen, I’ll make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They’ll fall by their enemies’ swords before your very eyes, and then I’ll hand Yehudah over to the Babylonian king, and he’ll carry them away to Babylon and put them to death. 5 I’ll give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of Yehudah’s kings—to their enemies. They’ll plunder it, seize it, and carry it off to Babylon. 6 Then you, Pashhur will be taken into captivity along with all the others in your home. You’ll be taken to Babylon, and you’ll die there and be buried—you and all your friends who you’ve prophesied these lies to.

7 Yahweh, you’ve deceived me, and I was deceived.

≈ You’ve overcome me and prevailed.

I’m laughed at all day long—

≈ everyone mocks me.

8 Yes, whenever I speak, I call out loudly.

I proclaim violence and destruction

because Yahweh’s message has become a reproach and derision for me, all day long.

9 If I say that I won’t mention him

and won’t speak in his name anymore,

then his message becomes a fire burning in my heart—

shut up in my bones.

Then I get worn out holding it in,

and I can’t continue to do it.

10 Yes, I’ve heard many people whispering

that terror is all around.

They want to publicly denounce me.

All my trusted friends watch for my fall:

“Perhaps he can be deceived

so that we may prevail against him

and take out our vengeance on him.”

11 However Yahweh is like a fearsome warrior with me,

therefore my persecutors will stumble and won’t prevail.

Because they won’t succeed, they’ll be totally put to shame—

an everlasting disgrace that’ll never be forgotten.

12 Commander-in-chief Yahweh, who examines the righteous people,

who sees the thoughts and motives,

let me see your vengeance upon them,

→ because I’ve made my case known to you.

13 Sing to Yahweh.

Praise Yahweh because he’s rescued the lives of those who are oppressed from the clutch of those who do evil.

14 Let the day when I was born be cursed.[ref]

≈ Don’t let the day that my mother gave birth to me be blessed.

15 Let the man who brought the news to my father be cursed—

≈ The one who said, ‘You now have a son,’ causing great celebration.

16 Let that man be like the cities that Yahweh overthrew without having compassion on them.

≈ Let him hear a cry for help in the dawn and a battle cry at noontime,

17 because he didn’t kill me in the womb—

→ making my mother become my tomb—her womb forever pregnant.

18 Why did I come out from the womb to see trouble and sorrow,

≈ and to end my days in shame?