Jer 20 | ESV | STEP | Now Pashhur the priest , the son of Immer , who was chief officer in the house of the Lord , heard Jeremiah prophesying these things .

1 Now ^aPashhur the priest, the son of ^bImmer, who was ^cchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then ^dPashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^ein the stocks that were in the upper ^fBenjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3 The 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. 4 For 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. 5 Moreover, ^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. 6 And 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.
8 For 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.
9 If 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.”
11 But ^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.
12 O 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!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
^almaking him very glad.
16 Let 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?