Jeremiah 20

¹Now Pashhur the priest , the son of Immer , who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things .

²Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet , and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.

³The next day , when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks , Jeremiah said to him, The Lord does not call your name Pashhur , but Terror on Every Side .

⁴For thus says the Lord: Behold , I will make you a 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 .

⁵Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city , all its gains , all its prized 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 .

⁶And you, Pashhur , 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 , to whom you have prophesied falsely .

⁷O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived ; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed . I have become a laughingstock all the day ; everyone mocks me.

⁸For whenever I speak , I cry out , I shout , Violence and destruction ! For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long .

⁹If I say , I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name , there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones , and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot .

¹⁰For I hear many whispering . Terror is on every side ! Denounce him! Let us denounce him! say all my close friends , watching for my fall . Perhaps he will be deceived ; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.

¹¹But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior ; therefore my persecutors will stumble ; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed , for they will not succeed . Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten .

¹²O Lord of hosts , who tests the righteous , who sees the heart and the mind , let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause .

¹³Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers .

¹⁴Cursed be the day on which I was born ! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed !

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father , A son is born to you, making him very glad .

¹⁶Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity ; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon ,

¹⁷because he did not kill me in the womb ; so my mother would have been my grave , and her womb forever great .

¹⁸Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow , and spend my days in shame ?