Jeremiah Chapter 20

From The Open Bible Project

20:1 Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

20:2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh.

• (a) Thus we see that the thing which neither the king nor the princes nor the people dared to undertake against the prophet of God, this priest as a chief instrument of Satan first attempted, read (Jeremiah 18:18).

20:3 It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib.

20:4 For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.

20:5 Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

20:6 You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

• (b) Who have allowed themselves to be abused by your false prophecies.

20:7 Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me.

• (c) In this appears the impatiency which often overcomes the servants of God when they do not see their labours profit, and also feel their own weakness. See Jeremiah 15:18
• (d) You thrust me forth to this work against my will.

20:8 For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Yahweh is made a reproach to me, and a derision, all the day.

• (e) He shows that he did his office in that he reproved the people of their vices and threatened them with God’s judgments: but because he was derided and persecuted for this, he was discouraged, and would have stopped preaching, except that God’s spirit forced him to it.

20:9 If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't [contain].

20:10 For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, [say] all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall; perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

• (f) Thus the enemies conferred together to know what they had heard him say, that they might accuse him of it, read (Isaiah 29:21).

20:11 But Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly disappointed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten.

• (g) Here he shows how his faith strove against temptation and sought the Lord for strength.

20:12 But, Yahweh of Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.

20:13 Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh; for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

20:14 Cursed is the day in which I was born: don't let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

• (h) How the children of God are overcome in this battle of the flesh and the Spirit, and into what inconveniences they fall till God raises them up again: read (Job 3:1; Jeremiah 15:10).

20:15 Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, A boy is born to you; making him very glad.

20:16 Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn't repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;

• (i) Alluding to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Genesis 19:25).

20:17 because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

• (k) Meaning that the fruit of it might never come to profit.

20:18 Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?