FRAMEWORKS:
Jeremiah 20: Jeremiah
and Pashhur & Jeremiah's complaint
[Preliminary
Comment: This straight-forward chapter falls easily into
two Parts:
Part
1: v.1-6: Jeremiah and Pashhur
Part
2: v.7-18: Jeremiah's complaint
The
first Part shows us how opposition to Jeremiah went beyond mere
words and found him being beaten and put in the stocks. Whether
this left him feeling even more dejected than before, we don't
know but in the second Part, in an emotional roller-coaster fashion
he complains of being made a mockery and being constantly insulted,
he tries to hold back but just can't and he knows they are all
watching him, ready to leap on any wrong word, but then something
deep down makes him declare for the Lord [v.11] but then [and
we don't know if it was written later] he seems to take an emotional
nose-dive and the remaining verses might be summed up as, “I wish
I'd never been born!” The cost of being a lonely prophet standing
against the ungodly tide is really showing.]
Part
1: v.1-6: Jeremiah and Pashhur
v.1,2
Pashhur has Jeremiah put in the stocks
v.1
When
the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the
temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,
v.2
he
had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper
Gate of Benjamin at the Lord's temple.
v.3-6
When he is released Jeremiah brings God's word against Pashhur
and the nation
v.3
The
next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah
said to him, ‘The Lord's name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror
on Every Side.
v.4
For
this is what the Lord says: “I will make you
a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes
you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I
will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon,
who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword.
v.5
I
will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands
of their enemies – all its products, all its valuables and
all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away
as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.
v.6
And
you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile
to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your
friends to whom you have prophesied lies.”'
Part
2: v.7-18: Jeremiah's complaint
v.7
Lord, you led me into this and now I am a mockery
v.7
You
deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
v.8
Whenever I speak your word I am insulted
v.8
Whenever
I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
v.9
But if I try to hold back your word, I just can't
v.9
But
if I say, ‘I will not mention his word
or speak any more in his name,'
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
v.10
They're all waiting for me to overstep the mark
v.10
I
hear many whispering,
‘Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let's denounce him!'
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
‘Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him.'
v.11
But nevertheless I'm sure the Lord is with me to overcome
v.11
But
the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not
prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonour will never be forgotten.
v.12
So, Lord, please deal with them
v.12
Lord
Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
v.13
Let's praise the Lord anyway for He will save us
v.13
Sing
to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
v.14-18
Yet a downtime prevails and like Job he curses the day he was
born
v.14
Cursed
be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
v.15
Cursed
be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying,
‘A child is born to you – a son!'
v.16
May
that man be like the towns
the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
a battle cry at noon.
v.17
For
he did not kill me in the womb,
with my mother as my grave,
her womb enlarged for ever.
v.18
Why
did I ever come out of the womb
to see trouble and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?
Continue
to Chapter 21