20Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying.H6583H1121H564H3548H6496H5057H1004H3068H8085H3414H5012H16972So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord’s Temple.H6583H5221H3414H5030H5414H4115H5945H8179H1144H1004H30683The next day, when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the Lord has changed your name. From now on you are to be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’H4283H6583H3318H3414H4115H559H3414H3068H7121H8034H6583H40364For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword.H559H3068H5414H4032H157H5307H2719H341H5869H7200H5414H3063H3027H4428H894H1540H894H5221H27195And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city—the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings—will be carried off to Babylon.H5414H2633H5892H3018H3366H214H4428H3063H5414H3027H341H962H3947H935H8946As for you, Pashhur, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything would be all right.’”H6583H3427H1004H3212H7628H935H894H4191H6912H157H5012H8267
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7O Lord, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me.H3068H6601H6601H2388H3201H7814H3117H39328When I speak, the words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke.H1767H1696H2199H7121H2555H7701H1697H3068H2781H7047H31179But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!H559H2142H1696H8034H3820H1197H784H6113H6106H3811H3557H320110I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.” They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.” Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”H8085H1681H7227H4032H5439H5046H5046H582H7965H8104H6763H6761H6601H3201H3947H536011But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.H3068H1368H6184H7291H3782H3201H3966H954H7919H5769H3639H791112O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, you test those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.H3068H6635H974H6662H7200H3629H3820H7200H5360H1540H737913Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.H7891H3068H1984H3068H5337H5315H34H3027H748914Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.H779H3117H3205H3117H517H3205H128815I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!”H779H376H1319H1H559H2145H1121H3205H8055H805516Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the Lord overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,H376H5892H3068H2015H5162H8085H2201H1242H8643H6256H667217because he did not kill me at birth. Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!H4191H7358H517H6913H7358H5769H203018Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.H3318H7358H7200H5999H3015H3117H3615H1322
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