[1] Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the
house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. [2] Then
Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in
the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. [3] On the morrow, when
Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD
does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on every side. [4] For thus
says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your
friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on.
And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall
carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. [5]
Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its
prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the
hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry
them to Babylon. [6] And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house,
shall go into captivity; to Babylon you shall go; and there you shall die,
and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have
prophesied falsely." [7] O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived;
thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a
laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. [8] For whenever I speak, I
cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has
become for me a reproach and derision all day long. [9] If I say, "I will
not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it
were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot. [10] For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side!
"Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my familiar friends, watching
for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and
take our revenge on him." [11] But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will
be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will
never be forgotten. [12] O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous, who
seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to
thee have I committed my cause. [13] Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For
he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. [14]
Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let
it not be blessed! [15] Cursed be the man who brought the news to my
father, "A son is born to you," making him very glad. [16] Let that man be
like the cities which the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry
in the morning and an alarm at noon, [17] because he did not kill me in the
womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb for ever great.
[18] Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend
my days in shame?
