Jeremiah 20

Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the LORD’s house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the LORD’s house.

On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib.

For the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword.

Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies. They will make them captives, take them, and carry them to Babylon.

You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity. You will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.’”

LORD, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me.

For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because the LORD’s word has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day.

If I say that I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t.

For I have heard the defaming of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”

But the LORD is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they won’t prevail. They will be utterly disappointed because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which will never be forgotten.

But the LORD of Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.

Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A boy is born to you,” making him very glad.

Let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and didn’t repent. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime,

because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter records the intense personal suffering of Jeremiah following his confrontation with Pashhur, a temple official who opposed his prophetic message. After enduring public humiliation and imprisonment, Jeremiah breaks into anguished prayer, expressing both loyalty to God’s call and deep despair over his mission’s burden, revealing the inner cost of faithfulness in the face of national rebellion.

Flow.

Pashhur, a priestly leader, arrests and humiliates Jeremiah by placing him in the stocks after hearing his prophecies of judgment (vv. 1–2).
Upon release, Jeremiah pronounces a divine renaming of Pashhur as “Magormissabib” (“Terror on Every Side”) and foretells his personal ruin and Judah’s exile (vv. 3–6).
Jeremiah pours out his soul in prayer, caught between the inescapable fire of God’s word within him and the mockery he endures from all sides (vv. 7–10).
Though affirmed by God’s sustaining presence, his lament intensifies into a curse on the day of his birth, mirroring the depth of his emotional and spiritual distress (vv. 11–18).

Connections.
Following chapter 19, in which Jeremiah enacts a prophecy of judgment by shattering a clay jug in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, chapter 20 shows the immediate backlash from religious authorities and the prophet’s resulting inner turmoil. Jeremiah’s prediction of Pashhur’s exile to Babylon intensifies the unfolding announcement of national catastrophe. This personal crisis sets the tone for the increasingly personal and anguished tone of the subsequent chapters, particularly chapter 21, where Jeremiah delivers another message of doom to envoys sent by King Zedekiah amid the looming Babylonian siege.

What it teaches.
The chapter reveals the divine authority of prophetic revelation and the human cost of obedience to God’s word. Jeremiah’s imprisonment does not silence God’s message but becomes the occasion for a sharper pronouncement of judgment, underscoring that opposition to the prophet is opposition to God (WCF 1.4). His internal struggle—simultaneously compelled by God’s word and repulsed by its consequences—illustrates the reality of divine sovereignty and human vulnerability. His cry for vengeance is not personal but an appeal to God as the righteous judge who sees the heart (Ps. 7:9; cf. HC LD 10), trusting that faithfulness, though persecuted, is upheld by the Lord’s strength (HC LD 1).

Apply.
Faithful witness to God’s word often brings rejection, yet the call to speak truth remains even when it leads to suffering and sorrow.

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