Jeremiah 20

¹ Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was in charge of the police in the Temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah making this prophecy.

² Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and then put in the stocks at the Gate of Benjamin, the upper gate leading into the Temple of Yahweh.

³ Next day, Pashhur had Jeremiah taken out of the stocks; Jeremiah said to him, ‘Not Pashhur but Terror is Yahweh’s name for you.

⁴ For Yahweh says this, “I am going to hand you over to terror, you and all your friends; they shall fall by the sword of their enemies; your own eyes shall see it. The whole of Judah, too, I will hand over to the king of Babylon; he will carry them off captives to Babylon and put them to the sword.

⁵ And all the wealth of this city, all its stores, all its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will hand over to their enemies who will plunder them, round them up and carry them off to Babylon.

⁶ As for you, Pashhur, and your whole household, you shall go into captivity; you shall go to Babylon; there you will die, and there be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.”‘

⁷ You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody’s butt.

⁸ Each time I speak the word, I have to howl and proclaim: ‘Violence and ruin!’ The word of Yahweh has meant for me insult, derision, all day long.

⁹ I used to say, ‘I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more. Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it.

¹⁰ I hear so many disparaging me, ‘”Terror from every side!” Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’

¹¹ But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

¹² But you, Yahweh Sabaoth, you who probe with justice, who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.

¹³ Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

¹⁴ A curse on the day when I was born, no blessing on the day my mother bore me!

¹⁵ A curse on the man who brought my father the news, ‘A son, a boy has been born to you!’ making him overjoyed.

¹⁶ May this man be like the towns that Yahweh overthrew without mercy; may he hear alarms in the morning, the war cry in broad daylight,

¹⁷ since he did not kill me in the womb; my mother would have been my tomb while her womb was swollen with me.

¹⁸ Why ever did I come out of the womb To live in toil and sorrow and to end my days in shame!