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20:1  Now the priest Pashhur, son of Immer, chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
20:2  So he struck the prophet and put him in the stocks at the upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of the Lord.
20:3  The next morning, after Pashhur had released Jeremiah from the stocks, the prophet said to him: “Instead of Pashhur, the Lord names you ‘Terror on every side.’
20:4  For thus says the Lord: Indeed, I will hand you over to terror, you and all your friends. Your own eyes shall see them fall by the sword of their enemies. All Judah I will hand over to the power of the king of Babylon, who shall take them captive to Babylon or strike them down with the sword.
20:5  All the wealth of this city, all its resources and its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will hand over to their enemies, who will plunder it and carry it away to Babylon.
20:6  You, Pashhur, and all the members of your household shall go into exile. To Babylon you shall go; there you shall die and be buried, you and all your friends, because you have prophesied lies to them.”
20:7  You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me, and you prevailed. All day long I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.
20:8  Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage I proclaim; The word of the Lord has brought me reproach and derision all day long.
20:9  I say I will not mention him, I will no longer speak in his name. But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding back, I cannot!
20:10  Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he can be tricked; then we will prevail, and take our revenge on him.”
20:11  But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not prevail. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
20:12  Lord of hosts, you test the just, you see mind and heart, Let me see the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.
20:13  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the evildoers!
20:14  Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the day my mother gave me birth never be blessed!
20:15  Cursed be the one who brought the news to my father, “A child, a son, has been born to you!” filling him with great joy.
20:16  Let that man be like the cities which the Lord relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday,
20:17  because he did not kill me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever.
20:18  Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?