Jeremiah
20 Now Pashʹhur the son of Imʹmer,+ the priest, who was also the leading commissioner in the house of Jehovah,+ kept listening to Jeremiah while prophesying these words. 2 Then Pashʹhur struck Jeremiah the prophet+ and put him into the stocks+ that were in the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah. 3 But it came about on the following day that Pashʹhur proceeded to let Jeremiah out from the stocks,+ and Jeremiah now said to him:
“Jehovah has called your name,+ not Pashʹhur,* but Fright all around.*+ 4 For this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am making you a fright to yourself and to all your lovers,* and they will certainly fall by the sword of their enemies+ while your eyes will be looking on;+ and all Judah I shall give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will actually take them into exile in Babylon and strike them down with the sword.+ 5 And I will give all the stored-up things of this city and all its product and all its precious things; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I am going to give into the hand of their enemies.+ And they will certainly plunder them and take them and bring them to Babylon.*+ 6 And as for you, O Pashʹhur, and all the inhabitants of your house, YOU will go into captivity;+ and to Babylon you will come and there you will die and there you yourself will be buried with all your lovers,+ because you have prophesied to them in falsehood.’”+
7 You have fooled me, O Jehovah, so that I was fooled. You used your strength against me, so that you prevailed.+ I became an object of laughter all day long; everyone is holding me in derision.+ 8 For as often as I speak, I cry out. Violence and despoiling are what I call out.+ For the word of Jehovah became for me a cause for reproach and for jeering all day long.+ 9 And I said: “I am not going to make mention of him, and I shall speak no more in his name.”+ And in my heart it proved to be like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I got tired of holding in, and I was unable [to endure it].*+ 10 For I heard the bad report of many.+ There was fright all around.* “TELL out, that we may tell out about him.”+ Every mortal man bidding me “Peace!”*—they are watching for my limping:+ “Perhaps he will be fooled,+ so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge upon him.” 11 But Jehovah was with me+ like a terrible mighty one.+ That is why the very ones persecuting me will stumble and not prevail.+ They will certainly be put to much shame, because they will not have prospered. [Their] indefinitely lasting humiliation will be one that will not be forgotten.+
12 But you, O Jehovah of armies, are examining the righteous one;+ you are seeing the kidneys* and the heart.+ May I see your vengeance upon them,+ for to you I have revealed my case at law.+
13 Sing to Jehovah, YOU people! Praise Jehovah! For he has delivered the soul of the poor one out of the hand of evildoers.+
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the day that my mother gave me birth not become blessed!+ 15 Cursed be the man* that brought good news to my father, saying: “There has been born to you a son, a male!” He positively made him rejoice.+ 16 And that very man must become like cities that Jehovah has overthrown while He has felt no regret.+ And he must hear an outcry in the morning and an alarm signal at the time of midday.+
17 Why did he not definitely put me to death from the womb, that my mother should become to me my burial place and her womb be pregnant to time indefinite?+ 18 Why is it that I have come forth from the very womb+ in order to see hard work and grief+ and that my days should come to their end in mere shame?+