Jeremiah 20

Pashhur son of Immer was a priest, and he was also the chief officer in the LORD's temple. He heard Jeremiah preaching these things.

1Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

NoteThe KJV's "chief governor" is not a civil ruler. Pashhur held the temple office of chief officer, the official in charge of order in the temple precincts, ranking just below the high priest, with authority to arrest and punish anyone causing a disturbance there. He was acting within his job description.

2So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten. Then he locked him in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was next to the LORD's temple.

2Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

Note"Smote" here means struck or beaten, most likely a formal flogging rather than a casual blow. The stocks were a wooden frame that clamped the neck, hands and feet together, forcing the body into a bent, twisted position; the pain and the public humiliation in a busy gateway were both part of the punishment. The Gate of Benjamin was on the north side of the temple, named for the direction of the tribal territory of Benjamin, which lay that way.

3The next day Pashhur let Jeremiah out of the stocks. Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD does not call you Pashhur. He calls you Magor-missabib."

3And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.

NoteThe renaming is the whole point of the verse, and both names have to be heard in Hebrew to work. "Magor-missabib" means "Terror on every side." The sense of "Pashhur" is uncertain, but it was a real and ordinary name, and Jeremiah replaces it with a phrase no one would ever be named, announcing what the man's life is about to become.

4"For this is what the LORD says: I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to everyone who is your friend. They will die by their enemies' swords, and you will watch it happen. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry the people away to Babylon as prisoners and kill them with the sword."

4For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

NoteBabylon was the dominant empire of the region in Jeremiah's lifetime, under King Nebuchadnezzar. Deporting a conquered people (especially its leaders, priests and skilled workers) and resettling them in the conqueror's territory was standard imperial practice: it broke a nation's ability to rebel. Jerusalem fell and Judah was deported some years after this scene.

5"I will also hand over all the wealth of this city, everything it produces, everything valuable in it, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. I will give it to their enemies. They will rob it, seize it, and carry it off to Babylon."

5Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

6"And you, Pashhur, along with everyone living in your house, will be taken away as prisoners. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried: you and all your friends, the people you told lies to when you claimed to speak for God."

6And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

NoteDying and being buried in Babylon is a specific curse, not merely a prediction of death. Burial in the family tomb in one's own land was what a person expected and hoped for; to be buried in foreign soil, cut off from the family graves, was considered a disgraceful end.

7LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you won. All day long people laugh at me; everyone makes fun of me.

7O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

NoteThe two Hebrew verbs here are unusually forceful. The one translated "deceived" is elsewhere used of enticing or seducing someone into doing what they would not otherwise do; the one behind "stronger" and "prevailed" is used of physically overpowering a person. Translators differ over how violent to make them in English, ranging from "you tricked me" to "you seduced me" and "you overpowered me." The ambiguity is in the original.

8Whenever I speak, I have to shout out. I announce violence and ruin. So the LORD's message has brought me insults and mockery all day long.

8For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

9So I said, "I will not mention him. I will not speak in his name anymore." But his word became like a fire burning inside me, shut up in my bones. I wore myself out trying to hold it in, and I could not.

9Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

10I hear many people whispering about me: "Terror on every side! Turn him in! Let's turn him in!" Even my close friends are watching for me to trip up. They say, "Maybe he can be tricked. Then we can beat him and get our revenge on him."

10For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Note"Terror on every side" is the same phrase Jeremiah made into Pashhur's new name in verse 3. Here his enemies are using it, either as a taunting nickname for Jeremiah himself, throwing his catchphrase back at him, or as the alarm cry they raise about him. The KJV's "my familiars" means his intimates, the friends closest to him, and "watched for my halting" means watched for him to stumble.

11But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. So the people hunting me will stumble and will not win. They will fail, and so they will be deeply ashamed. Their disgrace will last forever and will never be forgotten.

11But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

12LORD of Armies, you test those who are in the right. You see a person's deepest thoughts and feelings. Let me see you pay them back, because I have laid my case before you.

12But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.

Note"LORD of hosts" means the LORD commanding armies, the title pictures God as a military commander. "The reins" in the KJV means the kidneys. Hebrew described the inner person by internal organs: the kidneys were the seat of the emotions and conscience, the heart the seat of thought and will. Together they mean everything a person is on the inside, where no one else can see.

13Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! He rescues the life of the poor from the hands of evil people.

13Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

14A curse on the day I was born. May the day my mother gave birth to me never be called blessed.

14Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

NoteA curse in this culture is not swearing or bad temper. It is a formal spoken formula invoking harm on its target, the exact mirror image of a blessing, and it was believed to have real force once uttered. Jeremiah is pronouncing the ritual form over his own birthday. A near-identical speech appears in the book of Job.

15A curse on the man who brought my father the news, "You have a son!", the news that made him so happy.

15Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

NoteWhen a child was born, a messenger ran ahead to bring the news to the father, who was not present at the birth, and the bearer of good news could expect thanks and a reward. The curse is aimed at the man who did nothing but carry a happy announcement, which is part of the point of how far the curse reaches.

16May that man be like the cities the LORD tore down without pity. May he hear screaming in the morning and the noise of battle at noon,

16And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;

Note"The cities which the LORD overthrew" is an unmistakable reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed so completely that the phrase needed no explanation. The morning screaming and the noon battle cry are the sounds of a town under assault: the alarm at daybreak and the attackers' shout still going at midday, meaning a day with no relief in it at all.

17because he did not kill me while I was still in the womb. Then my mother would have been my grave, and her womb would have stayed swollen with me forever.

17Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

Note"Great with me" is the old English idiom for pregnant, as in "great with child." The image is of a pregnancy that never ends and never delivers, the mother's body serving as a permanently sealed tomb.

18Why did I ever come out of the womb? Only to see trouble and sorrow, and to spend all my days in shame.

18Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?