Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

1Now ^aPashhur the priest, the son of ^bImmer, who was ^cchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Then ^dPashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^ein the stocks that were in the upper ^fBenjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3The next day, when ^gPashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name ^hPashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you ⁱa terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5Moreover, ^jI will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its ^kprized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6And you, ^lPashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, ^mto whom you have prophesied falsely.”

7 O Lord, ⁿyou have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
^oyou are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
^pI have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, ^q“Violence and destruction!”
For ^rthe word of the Lord has become for me
^sa reproach and ^tderision all day long.
9If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
^uthere is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and ^vI am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 ^wFor I hear many whispering.
^xTerror is on every side!
“Denounce him! ^yLet us denounce him!”
say all my ^zclose friends,
^aawatching for ^abmy fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then ^acwe can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11But ^adthe Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
^aethey will not overcome me.
^afThey will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their ^ageternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
^ahwho sees the heart and the mind, ▼

▼Hebrew kidneys

let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
13 ^ajSing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
14 ^akCursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
^almaking him very glad.
16Let that man be like ^amthe cities
that the Lord overthrew without pity;
^anlet him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17 ^aobecause he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18 ^apWhy did I come out from the womb
^aqto see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?

Jeremiah 37

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

1 ^arZedekiah the son of Josiah, ^aswhom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of ^atConiah the son of Jehoiakim. 2 ^auBut neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

3King Zedekiah sent ^avJehucal the son of ^awShelemiah, and ^axZephaniah the priest, the son of ^ayMaaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please ^azpray for us to the Lord our God.” 4 ^baNow Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, ^bbfor he had not yet been put in prison. 5 ^bcThe army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when ^bdthe Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, ^bethey withdrew from Jerusalem.

6Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7“Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who ^bfsent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, ^bgPharaoh’s army that came to help you is about to ^bhreturn to Egypt, to its own land. 8And ^bithe Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. ^bjThey shall capture it and burn it with fire. 9Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. 10 ^bkFor even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and ^blburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

11Now when ^bmthe Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, 12Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to ^bnthe land of Benjamin ^boto receive his portion there ^bpamong the people. 13When he was at ^bqthe Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of ^brShelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ^bs“You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” 14And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to ^btthe officials. 15And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him ^buand imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made a prison.

16 ^bvWhen Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, 17King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him ^bwsecretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, ^bx“You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, ^bythat you have put me in prison? 19 ^bzWhere are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? 20Now hear, please, O my lord the king: ^calet my humble plea come before you and ^cbdo not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” 21So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to ^ccthe court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, ^cduntil all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in ^cethe court of the guard.