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20:1  Pashhur son of Immer was a priest and the chief of temple security. He heard what I had said,
20:2  and so he hit me. Then he had me arrested and put in chains at the Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple.
20:3  The next day, when Pashhur let me go free, I told him that the Lord had said: No longer will I call you Pashhur. Instead, I will call you Afraid-of-Everything.
20:4  You will be afraid, and you will bring fear to your friends as well. You will see enemies kill them in battle. Then I will let the king of Babylonia take everyone in Judah prisoner, killing some and dragging the rest away to Babylonia.
20:5  He will clean out the royal treasury and take everything else of value from Jerusalem.
20:6  Pashhur, you are guilty of telling lies and claiming they were messages from me. That's why I will let the Babylonians take you, your family, and your friends as prisoners to Babylonia, where you will all die and be buried.
20:7  You 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.
20:8  You have let me announce only injustice and death. Your message has brought me nothing but insults and trouble.
20:9  Sometimes 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.
20:10  I 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.”
20:11  But you, Lord, are a mighty soldier, standing at my side. Those troublemakers will fall down and fail— terribly embarrassed, forever ashamed.
20:12  Lord 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.
20:13  I sing praises to you, Lord. You rescue the oppressed from the wicked.
20:14  Put a curse on the day I was born! Don't bless that day.
20:15  Put a curse on the man who told my father, “Good news! You have a son.”
20:16  May that man be like the towns you destroyed without pity. Let him hear shouts of alarm in the morning and battle cries at noon.
20:17  He deserves to die for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's body would have been my grave.
20:18  Why did I have to be born? Was it just to suffer and die in shame?