Pashur, smiting Jeremiah, receives a new name and a fearful doom, 1-6. Jeremiah complains about contempt, 7-9; about treachery, 10-13; and about his birth, 14-18.
1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 And it came to pass on the next day, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall behold it. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon and shall slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of this city, all its labors, all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who shall pillage them, take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity. And you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die and shall be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'"
7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived./
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed./
I am in derision daily./
Everyone mocks me.
8 For as often as I speak, I cry out./
I proclaim, "Violence and destruction,"/
because the word of the LORD is made to me/
continual reproach and derision.
9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of him,/
nor speak anymore in his name."/
But his word was in my heart as a burning fire/
shut up in my bones,/
and I was weary with forbearing/
and I could not stay.
10 For I heard the defaming of many,/
fear on every side./
"Report," they say, "and we will report it."/
All my familiar friends watched for my fall, saying,/
"Perhaps he will be enticed,/
and we shall prevail against him/
and take our revenge on him."
11 But the LORD is with me as an awesome mighty one;/
therefore, my persecutors shall stumble/
and shall not prevail./
They shall be greatly ashamed,/
for they shall not prosper./
Their everlasting disgrace shall never be forgotten.
12 But, O LORD of hosts, who tries the righteous/
and sees the mind and the heart,/
let me see your vengeance on them,/
for I have opened my cause to you.
13 Sing to the LORD,/
praise the LORD,/
for he has delivered the soul of the poor/
from the hand of evil-doers.
14 Cursed is the day/
in which I was born./
Do not let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
15 Cursed is the man who brought tidings/
to my father, saying,/
"A male child is born to you,"/
making him very glad.
16 And let that man be as the cities/
which the LORD overthrew, and did not repent./
And let him hear the cry in the morning/
and the shouting at noon,
17 Because he did not slay me at my birth/
so that my mother might have been my grave/
and she always be great with child.
18 Why was I brought into the world/
to see labor and sorrow/
so that my days should be consumed with shame?
Matthew Henry Commentary - Jeremiah, Chapter 20[➚]
[v.17] - "and she always be great with child" - This rendering follows a euphemism typical with Noah Webster, where he avoided the use of the word, "womb." (The same was done earlier in this verse.) A literal translation would be, "and her womb a pregnancy age-during."