Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah rips into God but good
Slapped Jeremiah goes to jail
1A priest named Pashhur [1] served as the Jerusalem Temple’s top security officer. He was the son of Immer. Pashhur heard what Jeremiah said would happen to Judah. 2So he slapped Jeremiah, arrested him, and confined him at the upper Benjamin Gate [2] that leads into the Temple courtyards.3Pashhur kept Jeremiah overnight and released him the next morning. Jeremiah told Pashhur, “The LORD has given you a new name. You’re not Pashhur anymore. You’re Fear Alone. [3] 4And the LORD says, ‘I'm going to make sure you’re terrified of yourself [4] and that all your friends are going to be afraid of you as well. In fact, you’re going to see them killed by the swords of invading Babylonians. I'm going to give all of Judah to the king of Babylon. And he's going to march the survivors among you back to Babylon as captives.
5I will give the Babylonians everything you own. I'll give them all your money, property, and other treasures. Your king loses everything, too. All of you will lose it all. And if you survive the war, you’ll end up captive in Babylon. 6As for you, Pashhur, you and everyone who lives under your roof are going to end up in Babylon as captives. You will live there, die there, and get buried there. So will the people who listened to you spread those false prophecies.’”
God “suckers” Jeremiah
7LORD, you suckered [5] me.
Now I’m the sucker.
You kidnapped me.
Now you have me.
I’m the butt of jokes all day long.
Everyone’s laughing at me.
It’s always about violence and death.
People hate me for that.
They’re always insulting me.
9I tell myself to stop it,
And no longer deliver your messages.
But there’s a fire inside me,
A burning passion for the message.
I can’t keep it to myself.
10I hear the people talking about me.
They say, “Everyone’s afraid because of him.
So, let’s hit him hard with the blame.
Maybe we can trick him,
And force him to make a mistake.
Then maybe we can get even.”
11But they don’t have a chance.
I have the LORD, a great warrior.
He’ll block their attacks.
They’ll lose and suffer the shame of losers.
Generations to come will always remember
The shame these people are about to experience.
12LORD of everyone,
You put good people to the test.
You can see into their hearts and minds.
Now let me see into your sense of justice.
That’s what I want to see. Some justice.
Sing about God protecting good folks
13Let’s sing praise songs to the LORD.
Thank the good LORD.
He has saved the good and the oppressed folks
From the evil and the oppressive ones.
Don’t wish me happy birthday.
It was not a happy day.
It’s too bad my mother had a baby.
15And damn the man who told my dad,
“Congratulations, you have a son.”
My dad thought that was good news.
16That other man deserves to die
Like cities that will fall
When invaders attack without mercy.
May he be there to hear the alarm
When enemies crest the nearby hills.
17He should have killed me
While I was still inside Mom.
Then Mom would have become my tomb.
18Why did I bother to breathe?
I should have died before I was born.
What do I have to live for?
Suffering, sadness, and shame.
Footnotes
Pashhur may have locked Jeremiah in stocks, chains, or in a pit or a holding cell of some kind. Ancient Hebrew commentators vary on how to interpret what it was.
There was apparently another gate named Benjamin, perhaps one leading into the city further south on the ridge that Jerusalem called home.
Kings and others in power, such as God, sometimes gave people new names to mark a pivotal moment in their life. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, and Pashhur became, more literally: māgôr missābîb min sābîb. The Hebrew phrase is often translated as some version of Terror All Around, Terror Everywhere, or Terror on Every Side.
When Jeremiah gave Pashhur an ominous new name, it may have sounded like a curse, or like putting a bad-luck spell on the priest. That could have been scary for the priest himself and for anyone who associated with him.
Jeremiah was living a terrible life. His job was to tell the nation of Judah that they had sinned themselves to death, and it was nearly time to die. No one wants to hear that. Not even his family and friends. Many would have loved to have found him dead in what looked like an accident. Here, he blames God for all his suffering. He expresses the kind of feelings many of us experience in hard times. And he blames God for setting him up for a miserable and lonely life. Jeremiah didn’t even have the comforting hug of a wife. He says he’d have been better off born dead. For people who have never experienced PTSD-level trauma, what Jeremiah said might sound too disrespectful to God. For those who have walked through fire, his words might simply sound honest and human and more normal than most folks would want to admit in a Wednesday night testimony service.
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Balage Balogh / ArchaeologyIllustrated.com
Licensed to Casual English Bible
