Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur
Now aPashhur the priest, the son of bImmer, who was cchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then aPashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him bin the stocks that were in the upper cBenjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3 The next day, when aPashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name aPashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you aa terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, aI will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its bprized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, aPashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, bto whom you have prophesied falsely.”
7 O Lord, ayou have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
byou are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
cI have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, a“Violence and destruction!”
For bthe word of the Lord has become for me
ca reproach and cderision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
athere is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and bI am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 aFor I hear many whispering.
bTerror is on every side!
“Denounce him! cLet us denounce him!”
say all my dclose friends,
ewatching for fmy fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then gwe can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But athe Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
athey will not overcome me.
bThey will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their ceternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12 O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
awho sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
13 aSing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
14 aCursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
amaking him very glad.
16 Let that man be like athe cities
that the Lord overthrew without pity;
blet him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17 abecause he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18 aWhy did I come out from the womb
bto see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?