Dual Panel1The priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,
2and had him flogged and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate, in the house of the LORD.
3When next morning Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him: The LORD has called you not Pashhur but Magor-missabib.
4For these are the words of the LORD: I shall make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; they will fall by the sword of the enemy before your very eyes. I shall hand over all Judah to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon or put them to the sword.
5I shall give all this city's store of wealth and riches and all the treasures of the kings of Judah to their enemies; they will seize them as spoil and carry them off to Babylon.
6You, Pashhur, and all your household will go into captivity. You will come to Babylon; there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have been a false prophet.
Jeremiah's lament
7YOU HAVE duped me, LORD, and I have been your dupe; you have outwitted me and prevailed. All the day long I have been made a laughing-stock; everyone ridicules me.
8Whenever I speak I must needs cry out, calling, “Violence!” and “Assault!” I am reproached and derided all the time for uttering the word of the LORD.
9Whenever I said, “I shall not call it to mind or speak in his name again,” then his word became imprisoned within me like a fire burning in my heart. I was weary with holding it under, and could endure no more.
10For I heard many whispering, “Terror let loose! Denounce him! Let us denounce him.” All my friends were on the watch for a false step, saying, “Perhaps he may be tricked; then we can catch him and have our revenge on him.”
11But the LORD is on my side, a powerful champion; therefore my persecutors will stumble and fall powerless. Their abasement will be bitter when they fail, and their dishonour will long be remembered.
12But, LORD of Hosts, you test the righteous and search the depths of the heart. To you I have committed my cause; let me see your vengeance on them.
13Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD; for he rescues the poor from those who would do them wrong.
14A curse on the day when I was born! The day my mother bore me, may it be for ever unblessed!
15A curse on the man who brought word to my father, “A child is born to you, a son,” and gladdened his heart!
16May that man fare like the cities which the LORD overthrew without mercy. May he hear cries of alarm in the morning and uproar at noon,
17since death did not claim me before birth, and my mother did not become my grave, her womb great with me for ever.
18Why did I come from the womb to see only sorrow and toil, to end my days in shame?