Jeremiah 20

20 ¹ Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest and chief officer in the house of our Father, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ² So Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Gate of Benjamin, in the house of our Father. ³ The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "Our Father has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib —​Terror on Every Side. ^a a v3 Magor-Missabib means "terror on every side" — the new name names the dread Pashhur's own choices will bring on him.

⁴ For this is what our Father says: 'I am about to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies while your own eyes look on. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and strike them down with the sword. ⁵ I will hand over all the wealth of this city, all its goods and all its precious things; and I will hand over all the treasures of the kings of Judah to their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried —​you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.'"

Jeremiah Cries out to His Father

⁷ You deceived me, my Father, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. ⁸ Whenever I speak, I cry out, shouting, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of our Father has brought me mockery and contempt all day long. ⁹ But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart something like a burning fire locked in my bones. I am worn out holding it in, and I cannot. ¹⁰ For I hear the whispering of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" All my trusted friends watch for my fall: "Perhaps he will be deceived, and then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him." ¹¹ But our Father is with me like a fearsome warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly put to shame, for they have not succeeded; their everlasting dishonor will never be forgotten. ¹² O Father of heaven's armies, you who test the righteous and see the heart and the mind, let me see your justice against them, for I have committed my cause to you. ¹³ Sing to our Father! Praise our Father! For he has rescued the life of the needy from the clutches of evildoers. ¹⁴ May the day I was born be cursed! May the day my mother gave birth to me never be blessed. ¹⁵ May that man who brought my father the news, "A son is born to you!" be cursed — making him very glad. ¹⁶ Let that man be like the cities our Father overthrew without relenting. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a battle alarm at noon, ¹⁷ because he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave, her womb my resting place forever. ¹⁸ Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?