Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

¹ When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

³ The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.⁴ For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵ I will give away all the wealth of this city — all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah — to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried — you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

⁷ You have deceived me,^* O LORD, and I was deceived.^*

You have overcome me and prevailed.

I am a laughingstock all day long;

everyone mocks me.

⁸ For whenever I speak, I cry out;

I proclaim violence and destruction.

For the word of the LORD has become to me

a reproach and derision all day long.

⁹ If I say, “I will not mention Him

or speak any more in His name,”

His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,

shut up^* in my bones,

and I become weary of holding it in,

and I cannot prevail.

¹⁰ For I have heard the whispering of many:

“Terror is on every side!

Report him; let us report him!”

All my trusted friends

watch for my fall:

“Perhaps^* he will be deceived

so that we may prevail against him

and take our vengeance upon him.”

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a fearsome^* warrior.

Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.

Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame,

with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.

¹² O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous,

who sees the heart and mind,

let me see Your vengeance upon them,

for to You I have committed my cause.

¹³ Sing to the LORD!

Praise the LORD!

For He rescues the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

¹⁴ Cursed be^* the day I was born!

May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,

saying, “A son is born to you,”

bringing him great joy.

¹⁶ May that man be like the cities

that the LORD overthrew without compassion.^*

May he hear an outcry in the morning

and a battle cry at noon,

¹⁷ because he did not kill me^* in the womb

so that my mother might have been my grave,

and her womb forever enlarged.

¹⁸ Why did I come out of the womb

to see only trouble and sorrow,

and to end my days in shame?