Jeremiah and Pashhur

Jeremiah 20

Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of YHWH, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin at the house of YHWH. On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “YHWH has not called your name Pashhur, but rather Terror on Every Side.+20:3 “Magormissabib” For YHWH says, ‘I am about to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword. Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, all y’all will go into captivity. You will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.’”

 

Jeremiah’s Complaint to YHWH

YHWH, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me. For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because the word of YHWH has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day. If I say that I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t. For I have heard the defaming of many: “Terror on every side! Y’all denounce him, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived, and we will deceived him, and we will take our revenge on him.” But YHWH is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they won’t prevail. They will be utterly disappointed because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which will never be forgotten. But YHWH Almighty, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you. Y’all sing to YHWH! Y’all praise YHWH, for ʜᴇ has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers. Cursed is the day I was born. Don’t let the day my mother bore me be blessed. Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A boy is born to you,” making him glad-glad! Let that man be as the cities which YHWH overthrew, without relenting. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noon, because he didn’t kill me in the womb, so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb pregnant forever. Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?