Jeremiah 20

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

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

5 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.

6 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.’”

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.”

11 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.

12 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.

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

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

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

16 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,

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

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

Around Jeremiah 20

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Jeremiah as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

Before Jeremiah can speak, God has already spoken of him: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” That is how the book tells his calling, and the calling is heavy. He prophesied in Judah’s last decades, up to and beyond the destruction of Jerusalem. He calls the people to turn back to God, and he warns that the temple will not protect them. Kings, priests and other prophets oppose him. The book lets us hear his own anguished prayers, so that we see not only the message but the man who had to carry it.

In the middle of the warnings stands a promise. God says he will make “a new covenant”, and of his law he says, “I will write it in their heart” (31:31 to 34).

Background

Jeremiah’s ministry ran from about 627 to after 586 before Christ. His scribe Baruch wrote down his words. The book is not in time order, so a reader should expect to move back and forth across those years. The ancient Greek version is shorter than the Hebrew and arranged differently, and it shows that the book itself was handed down with care.

How Christians read it

The promise of a new covenant is taken up at the Last Supper and quoted in full in Hebrews 8. Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible. In its setting it is addressed to a whole people in exile and comes with the news that they will stay there for seventy years, which guards against reading it as a promise of quick relief.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 20 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes