Jeremiah 20 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

20:1 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a 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. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized 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. 6 And you, Pashhur, 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, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

7   O LORD, you have deceived me,
    and I was deceived;
  you are stronger than I,
    and you have prevailed.
  I have become a laughingstock all the day;
    everyone mocks me.
8   For whenever I speak, I cry out,
    I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
  For the word of the LORD has become for me
    a reproach and derision all day long.
9   If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
  there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
  and I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.
10   For I hear many whispering.
    Terror is on every side!
  “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
    say all my close friends,
    watching for my fall.
  “Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”
11   But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
    therefore my persecutors will stumble;
    they will not overcome me.
  They will be greatly shamed,
    for they will not succeed.
  Their eternal dishonor
    will never be forgotten.
12   O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,
    who sees the heart and the mind,¹
  let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.
13   Sing to the LORD;
    praise the LORD!
  For he has delivered the life of the needy
    from the hand of evildoers.
14   Cursed be the day
    on which I was born!
  The day when my mother bore me,
    let it not be blessed!
15   Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
  “A son is born to you,”
    making him very glad.
16   Let that man be like the cities
    that the LORD overthrew without pity;
  let him hear a cry in the morning
    and an alarm at noon,
17   because he did not kill me in the womb;
    so my mother would have been my grave,
    and her womb forever great.
18   Why did I come out from the womb
    to see toil and sorrow,
    and spend my days in shame?

Footnotes

[1] 20:12 Hebrew kidneys

Commentary

v1: Jeremiah had returned from the Valley of Tophet to the court of the house of the Lord. There he proclaimed judgment upon Jerusalem.

Pashhur was an influential leader, and a representative of the religion of the day. He was doubtless one of those who had risen up to attack Jeremiah (18.18).

v2: Pashhur had the authority to have Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned.

v3: In Jeremiah's general message for the people, he still had opportunity for a personal message for Pashhur, giving him a new, prophetic, name.

v4-6: "Terror on every side," Pashhur's new name; Jeremiah explains the details of how this will be fulfilled. We do not have the whole story. What we do know is that Pashhur had prophesied lies to his friends, presumably other leaders, who had happily accepted his words. See 6.13-14. But the reality is striking; it is foolish to stand against the anointed prophet of God.

v7-8: Jeremiah's faithfulness and sorrow. He had found that proclaiming the word of God involved personal suffering.

v9: In that suffering, there was the temptation to keep silent, but he could not hold back God's word. The fire of God burned in his bones, he was compelled to speak: that was the calling upon Him, and could not be restrained – the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

v10: The condemnation against Pashhur was also used to mock Jeremiah. They tried to destroy him. Jeremiah felt alone, even his acquaintances (not friends) were against him, looking for opportunity to attack him.

Similarly, the faithful Christian may come under close scrutiny, and the scheming of the wicked.

v11-12: Jeremiah's confidence in the Lord. He is "with me." He too is faithful. God had promised to with him (see ch 1), and Jeremiah had found this to be true in his experience. And God's words through the prophet would be vindicated.

v13: Joyful praise not dependent upon his difficult circumstances.

v14-18: Jeremiah's depression, similar to that expressed by Job, see Job 3. He cursed the day of his birth. He had endured endless persecution, and felt alone, having been called to prophecy from an early age. He was born for trouble and sorrow; such is the calling of those entrusted by God with His message.