Jeremiah 20

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

2Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of Yahweh.

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

4For this is what Yahweh says: Look, I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies while you watch. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them into exile to Babylon and strike them down with the sword.

5I will hand over all the wealth of this city, all the fruit of its labor, all its valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.

6And you, Pashhur, and everyone who lives in your house will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.”

7Yahweh, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you were stronger than I, and you prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.

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

9But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak in his name anymore,” then it becomes like a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones. I am worn out holding it in, and I cannot.

10For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble: “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will overpower him and take our revenge on him.”

11But Yahweh is with me like a mighty warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. They will be utterly put to shame, because they have not succeeded; their everlasting disgrace will never be forgotten.

12Yahweh of Armies, you who test the righteous and see the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have laid out my case.

13Sing to Yahweh! Praise Yahweh! For he has rescued the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

14Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother gave birth to me not be blessed!

15Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you, a boy!” and made him very glad.

16May that man be like the cities Yahweh overthrew without relenting; may he hear a cry in the morning and a battle shout at noon,

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

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