Jeremiah 20

1Pashur son of Immer the priest, who was overseer and ruler in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

2Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in Benjamin's upper gate, which was in the house of Yahweh.

3The next day Pashur brought Jeremiah out from the stocks. Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh has not called your name Pashur, but Magormissabib.”

4For thus says Yahweh: "Behold, I am appointing you a terror to yourself and to all your lovers, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will behold; I will give all Judah into the hand of Babylon's king, and he will exile them to Babylon and strike them with the sword."

5I will give all the wealth of this city, all its toil, all its valuables, and all the treasuries of Judah's kings into their enemies' hands, and they will plunder them, take them, and bring them to Babylon.

6You, Pashur, and all who dwell in your house will go captive; you will reach Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried—you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsehoods.

7Yahweh, you enticed me, and I succumbed; you overpowered me and prevailed; I have become derision all day, as everyone scoffs at me.

8Whenever I speak, I cry out, "Violence and destruction!" For Yahweh's word has become a reproach to me and derision all day long.

9I said, "I will not mention him, nor speak in his name any longer," but it burned in my heart like a blazing fire, confined in my bones, and I wearied myself restraining it, unable to endure.

10For I heard the slander of many, terror all around: "Denounce him, and we will denounce him," declare all my confidants, those watching for my stumble; "perhaps he will be enticed, and we will overpower him, and take our vengeance from him."

11Yahweh is with me like a mighty dread warrior; therefore my pursuers will stumble and not prevail—they are greatly ashamed, because they have not prospered, an everlasting disgrace never to be forgotten.

12Yahweh of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the mind and heart, let me see your vengeance against them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

13Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

14Cursed be the day of my birth, the day my mother bore me—may it not be blessed.

15Cursed be the man who announced good news to my father, saying, "A son, a male, is born to you," making him very glad.

16Let that man be like the cities Yahweh overthrew without relenting, and let him hear a cry in the morning and shouting at noontime.

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

18Why did I come from the womb to see toil and grief, with my days consumed in shame?