Jeremiah Beaten by Pashhur
Jeremiah Compelled to Preach
7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.
You seized me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all the time;
everyone ridicules me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I proclaim, “Violence and destruction!”
because the word of the Lord has become for me
constant disgrace and derision.
9 If I say, “I won’t mention Him
or speak any longer in His name,”
His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,
shut up in my bones.
I become tired of holding it in,
and I cannot prevail.
10 For I have heard the gossip of many people,
“Terror is on every side![b]
Report him; let’s report him!”
Everyone I trusted[c] watches for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we might prevail against him
and take our vengeance on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior.
Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed,
an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.
12 Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous
and seeing the heart[d] and mind,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for I have presented my case to You.
13 Sing to the Lord!
Praise the Lord,
for He rescues the life of the needy
from the hand of evil people.
Jeremiah’s Lament
14 May the day I was born
be cursed.
May the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.
15 May the man be cursed
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A male child is born to you,”
bringing him great joy.
16 Let that man be like the cities
the Lord demolished without compassion.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
and a war cry at noontime
17 because he didn’t kill me in the womb
so that my mother might have been my grave,
her womb eternally pregnant.
18 Why did I come out of the womb
to see only struggle and sorrow,
to end my life in shame?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 20:3 = Terror Is on Every Side; Jr 6:25; 20:10; 46:5
- Jeremiah 20:10 Hb Magor-missabib; Jr 20:3
- Jeremiah 20:10 Lit Every man of my peace
- Jeremiah 20:12 Lit kidneys