Pashhur Arrests Jeremiah

¹Pashhur son of Immer was a priest and the chief of temple security. He heard what I had said,

²and so he hit me. Then he had me arrested and put in chains at the Benjamin Gate in the Lord 's temple.[#20.2 Or “beat me up” or “had me beaten up.”; #20.2 Or “in the stocks” (a wooden frame with holes for the hands, neck, or feet of a prisoner) or “in a prison cell.”; #20.2 The Hebrew text has “the upper Benjamin Gate in the temple”; the lower Benjamin Gate may have been the city gate of that name.]

³The next day, when Pashhur let me go free, I told him that the Lord had said:

Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

⁷You tricked me, Lord ,

and I was really fooled.

You are stronger than I am,

and you have defeated me.

People never stop sneering

and insulting me.

⁸You have let me announce

only injustice and death.

Your message has brought me

nothing but insults

and trouble.

⁹Sometimes I tell myself

not to think about you, Lord ,

or even mention your name.

But your message burns

in my heart and bones,

and I cannot keep silent.

¹⁰I heard the crowds whisper,

“Everyone is afraid.

Now's our chance

to accuse Jeremiah!”

All of my so-called friends

are just waiting

for me to make a mistake.

They say, “Maybe Jeremiah

can be tricked.

Then we can overpower him

and get even at last.”

¹¹But you, Lord ,

are a mighty soldier,

standing at my side.

Those troublemakers

will fall down and fail—

terribly embarrassed,

forever ashamed.

¹²Lord All-Powerful,

you test those who do right,

and you know every heart

and mind.

I have told you my complaints,

so let me watch you

take revenge on my enemies.

¹³I sing praises to you, Lord .

You rescue the oppressed

from the wicked.

¹⁴Put a curse on the day I was born![#Job 3.1-19.]

Don't bless that day.

¹⁵Put a curse on the man

who told my father, “Good news!

You have a son.”

¹⁶May that man be like the towns

you destroyed without pity.

Let him hear shouts of alarm

in the morning

and battle cries at noon.

¹⁷He deserves to die

for not killing me

before I was born.

Then my mother's body

would have been my grave.

¹⁸Why did I have to be born?

Was it just to suffer

and die in shame?