Jeremiah 20

1 Pashhur, the son of Immer, was a priest who supervised the temple guards. He heard those things that I had prophesied.

Now it came to the ears of Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief in authority in the house of the Lord, that Jeremiah was saying these things;

2 [So he arrested me]. Then he [commanded guards to] whip me and fasten my feet in (stocks/a wooden frame) at the Benjamin Gate of Yahweh’s temple.

And Pashhur gave blows to Jeremiah and had his feet chained in a framework of wood in the higher doorway of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord.

3 The next day, when Pashhur released me, I said to him, “Pashhur, Yahweh is giving you a new name. From now on, your name will be ‘Surrounded by Terror’,

Then on the day after, Pashhur let Jeremiah loose. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has given you the name of Magor-missabib (Cause-of-fear-on-every-side), not Pashhur.

4 because Yahweh says this [to you]: ‘I will cause you and your friends to be terrified. You will watch them being killed by your enemies’ swords. I will enable the [army of the] king of Babylon to capture the people of Judah. Those soldiers will take some of the people to Babylon, and they will kill others with their swords.

For the Lord has said, See, I will make you a cause of fear to yourself and to all your friends: they will come to their death by the sword of their haters, and your eyes will see it: and I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away prisoners into Babylon and put them to the sword.

5 And I will enable their soldiers to take away [other things in] Jerusalem. They will take to Babylon all the very valuable things that belonged to your kings.

And more than this, I will give all the wealth of this town and all its profits and all its things of value, even all the stores of the kings of Judah will I give into the hands of their haters, who will put violent hands on them and take them away to Babylon.

6 And [as for] you, Pashhur, they will take you and all your family to Babylon. You and your family and all your friends who have prophesied things that are lies will die there and be buried there.’”

And you, Pashhur, and all who are in your house, will go away prisoners: you will come to Babylon, and there your body will be put to rest, you and all your friends, to whom you said false words.

7 [One day I said this to Yahweh]: “Yahweh, [when you chose me to be a prophet, ] deceived me, and I allowed you to deceive me. You insisted that I [become a prophet] and you are stronger than I am. And now everyone [HYP] ridicules me. They make fun of me all the day.

O Lord, you have been false to me, and I was tricked; you are stronger than I, and have overcome me: I have become a thing to be laughed at all the day, everyone makes sport of me.

8 When I tell [people your messages], I shout saying, ‘[Yahweh is going to cause you to experience] violence and destruction!’ So because I tell them those messages from you, they insult me and scoff at me all day long.

For every word I say is a cry for help; I say with a loud voice, Violent behaviour and wasting: because the word of the Lord is made a shame to me and a cause of laughing all the day.

9 But if I would say, ‘I will never mention Yahweh or say anything about him, [MTY]’ [it would be as though] your message would burn in my inner being like [SIM] a fire; it would be like a fire in my bones. Sometimes I try to remain silent and not proclaim your messages, but I am not able to do that.

And if I say, I will not keep him in mind, I will not say another word in his name; then it is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am tired of keeping myself in, I am not able to do it.

10 I hear many people whispering [about me], saying ‘[He is the man who proclaims that there will be things that cause us to] be terrified everywhere. We must tell [the authorities what he is saying]! We must denounce him!’ [Even] my best friends are waiting for me to say something that is wrong. [They are saying], ‘Perhaps we can cause him to say something wrong, and if he does, we will be able to discredit him.’

For numbers of them say evil secretly in my hearing (there is fear on every side): they say, Come, let us give witness against him; all my nearest friends, who are watching for my fall, say, It may be that he will be taken by deceit, and we will get the better of him and give him punishment.

11 But [you], Yahweh, are helping me like [SIM] a strong warrior, so [it is as though] you will cause those who persecute me to stumble, and they will not defeat me. They will be completely disgraced because of being unable to defeat me; and other people will never forget that they were disgraced.

But the Lord is with me as a great one, greatly to be feared: so my attackers will have a fall, and they will not overcome me: they will be greatly shamed, because they have not done wisely, even with an unending shame, kept in memory for ever.

12 Commander of the armies of angels, you examine [all] those who are righteous; you know [all that is in] their inner beings and what they think. Allow me to see you getting revenge on those [who want to harm me], because I trust that you will do for me what is right.”

But, O Lord of armies, testing the upright and seeing the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come on them; for I have put my cause before you.

13 Sing to Yahweh! Praise Yahweh! He rescues [poor and] needy people, from those [SYN] who are wicked.

Make melody to the Lord, give praise to the Lord: for he has made the soul of the poor man free from the hands of the evil-doers.

14 But I hope/desire that the day that I was born will be cursed. I do not want [anyone to] celebrate that day.

A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me.

15 And [as for] that man who brought to my father the news, and caused him to be very happy, by saying “[You wife] has given birth to a son for you”, I hope/desire that he [also] will be cursed.

A curse on the man who gave the news to my father, saying, You have a male child; making him very glad.

16 Allow him to be destroyed like the cities that Yahweh destroyed [long ago], without acting mercifully [toward them]. Cause that man to hear the people wailing in the morning, and [to hear the enemy soldiers shout their] battle cries at noon.

May that man be like the towns overturned by the Lord without mercy: let a cry for help come to his ears in the morning, and the sound of war in the middle of the day;

17 [I want that to happen to him] because he did not kill me before I was born. I wish that I had died in my mother’s womb, and that my mother’s body would have been [like] [MET] my grave.

Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever.

18 I have continually experienced much trouble and sorrow, and I am disgraced now when I am about to die; why was it necessary [RHQ] for me to me born?

Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?