Pashhur Strikes the Prophet
The priest Pashhur beats Jeremiah and locks him in the stocks overnight. Released, Jeremiah renames him Terror on Every Side, then turns on his Father: you overpowered me, and the word I try to swallow burns in my bones. He praises, then curses his own birth.
20 1Pashhur son of Immer, priest and chief officer in our Father's house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the upper Gate of Benjamin, in our Father's house. 3Next day, Pashhur freed Jeremiah from the stocks. Jeremiah said, "Our Father hasn't named you Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib—Terror on Every Side. a a v3 Magor-Missabib means "terror on every side" — the new name names the dread Pashhur's own choices will bring on him.
4This is what our Father says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself and your friends. They will fall by their enemies' sword before your eyes. I will hand all Judah to Babylon's king; he will exile them to Babylon and strike them with the sword. 5I will give this city's wealth, goods, and valuables, and the treasures of Judah's kings to their enemies, who will plunder, take, and carry them to Babylon. 6You, Pashhur, and everyone in your house will go into captivity, come to Babylon, and die and be buried there—you and all your friends you prophesied lies to.'"
Jeremiah Cries out to His Father
7You deceived me, my Father, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. 8Whenever I speak, I cry out, shouting, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of our Father has brought me mockery and contempt all day long. 9But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart something like a burning fire locked in my bones. I am worn out holding it in, and I cannot. 10For I hear the whispering of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" All my trusted friends watch for my fall: "Perhaps he will be deceived, and then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him." 11But our Father is with me like a fearsome warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly put to shame, for they have not succeeded; their everlasting dishonor will never be forgotten. 12O Father of heaven's armies, you who test the righteous and see the heart and the mind, let me see your justice against them, for I have committed my cause to you. 13Sing to our Father! Praise our Father! For he has rescued the life of the needy from the clutches of evildoers. 14May the day I was born be cursed! May the day my mother gave birth to me never be blessed. 15May that man who brought my father the news, "A son is born to you!" be cursed—making him very glad. 16Let that man be like the cities our Father overthrew without relenting. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a battle alarm at noon, 17because he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave, her womb my resting place forever. 18Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?
