Jeremiah 20: 1 – 18
Being Mocked
1 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.’? 7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the LORD was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. 10 For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.” 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, and see the mind and heart, let me see Your vengeance on them; For I have pleaded my cause before You. 13 Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers. 14 Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! 15 Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father, saying, “A male child has been born to you!” Making him very glad. 16 And let that man be like the cities which the LORD overthrew and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon, 17 Because he did not kill me from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always enlarged with me. 18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Do you feel hurt?
Have you been criticized badly? or humiliated by someone?
There is a great difference between constructive criticism that comes from family members or close friends who care about you and want to see you doing better in life and the other type of criticize that reflects insecurities and deep psychological issues.
Before you start looking for flaws in yourself when you get mocked you should first examine the person who mocked you to find out whether he or she is the one who really needs help or not.
Some reasons those who mock and humiliate you are the ones with the problems are;
1) Projecting their own flaws:
One of the best ways People who are so scared to admit the existence of their flaws is to deny their existence and reaffirm their self-deception by accusing others of having those flaws.
2) Too insecure to see you doing well:
Not everybody feels comfortable in his or her own life. Some people feel insecure to the extent that they can't tolerate seeing other people doing things right. By mocking those people and humiliating them the insecure person eases some of his emotional turbulence. It's a fact that cowards don't compliment others because they are too afraid to be left behind if people did what they believe they can't do themselves.
3) Failed to have a useful role in life:
If a person failed to make significant achievements in life, he is very likely to turn to useless victories if he was a coward. While brave people start again and keep trying to achieve their goals cowards go for cheap victories by criticizing any person who seems more successful or happier than them.
4) Very low self-esteem:
Why do people feel jealous of others? There are many reasons but the most popular one is believing that someone did what they can't do. Had a person been sure he can make that same achievement his friend did he would have hardly felt jealous of him. Those who have low self-esteem feel extremely jealous of people who do things they can't do and so find no better way to feel good than to mock them or humiliate them
5) Strong feeling of inferiority:
We all experience inferiority feelings at some points of our lives but the brave ones of us usually move in directions that helps them ease this inferiority. For example when a brave person finds that he is earning a very low salary compared to his friends he will usually use this inferiority as a motivating force to have a better career. But what if the person was inferior and too insecure to do that? He will just criticize and humiliate people to feel good because he can't do any better!
You should never take criticism personally because the world is full of people who disguise in the form of composed humans. In most cases you will be criticized or humiliated because of issues that the attacker suffers from and not because you are bad or defective.
Brave people are the ones who have the courage to follow their dreams.
So, now do you still think you should feel bad when you get mocked?
Our favorite prophet Jeremiah felt alone in the land and was obedient to do everything our Holy Father God Yahweh told him to do. In return he had to endure constant abuse. We will see that it got so bad he wanted to quit. Yet he couldn’t because of the Greatness of our Holy Creator.
The response to Jeremiah’s words was instantaneous and violent. He was arrested by the Temple authorities, physically abused and put in ‘the stocks’, an instrument probably designed to cause extreme discomfiture. Then on the next day he was brought out of the stocks and stood before the authorities, no doubt to be called to account. But Jeremiah was not to be intimidated by this and boldly declared to his adversaries what YHWH intended to do to them
1 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
This Pashhur must be distinguished from the one in chapter 21.1. He was clearly of high authority in the Temple and may have been the father of the Gedaliah spoken of in 38.1 (one of the ‘princes’ who opposed Jeremiah). It thus here indicates a leading priest in the Temple, possibly second only to the High Priest. He was probably responsible for maintaining order in the Temple which would explain why he became personally involved in Jeremiah’s case.
2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
This Pashhur publicly humiliated Jeremiah by ‘smiting’ him. The verb does not necessarily indicate a public beating but may possibly include it. It may be argued that he examined Jeremiah (who was engaged in controversy with the other prophets) based on Deuteronomy 25.1 and found him guilty and sentenced him to forty lashes. That would explain the mention of Jeremiah as ‘the prophet’. But however, that may be it certainly does indicate at a minimum a deliberate act of violence with the intention of humiliation. It may simply have been a backhanded blow across the face intended to show the victim as in the wrong. Afterwards he was put in ‘the stocks’ The idea would be to subject him to considerable discomfiture.
This is the first use of the term ‘prophet’ of Jeremiah. It may have been used here to bring out the appalling nature of Pashhur’s behavior (he was mistreating a prophet of YHWH!) It may possibly be a sneering identification given by Pashhur signifying ‘or so he calls himself’.
3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.
No doubt feeling that after a night in the stocks this ‘Jeremiah the Prophet’ would have learned his lesson Pashhur, on the following day, had him brought out from his miserable situation to be again arraigned before him. We are not told what occurred at the arraignment for what was considered as important was the use that Jeremiah made of it, for, no doubt to his horror and chagrin, Pashhur, who would have seen himself as the judge, discovered that it was as though he himself was on trial as Jeremiah pronounced judgment against him.
Jeremiah’s forthright opening words are significant. “YHWH has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.” Jeremiah was pointing out to Pashhur that whatever his parents might have called him God had now officially called him “Magor-missabib (fear is round about).” This particular phrase meaning ‘fear is round about’ was seemingly a standard saying at the time, and is used by Jeremiah a number of times. In 6.25 it indicates general uncertainty among the populace. In 20.10 it indicates Jeremiah’s own position of apprehension in the face of persecution. In 46.5 it indicates the terror of the Judean forces in the face of a rampant Egyptian army. In 49.29 it refers to the Arabians fleeing in terror from Nebuchadnezzar. It is also found in Psalm 31.13. In the Psalm it is used by the Psalmist at a time when the authorities took counsel against him and were scheming to take away his life. It was thus very appropriate in this case. The idea is therefore that Pashhur and his behavior will be the catalyst which will result in terror of all kinds for Judah.
4 For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword.
By bearing that name ‘Fear is round about’ from then on, a name given by YHWH, Pashhur was being made ‘a terror to himself and to his friends’. From then on, all who saw him would be reminded of the judgment of Jeremiah and of YHWH that was coming and would shiver in apprehension. It was a reminder that soon, within his own lifetime they would fall by the sword of their enemies, and Judah would be given into the hands of the King of Babylon who would carry them into exile or slay them with the sword. This is the first specific indicator in Jeremiah of who the invaders would be.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon.
And with the people would also depart their wealth. All the riches of the city, and all the precious things that it possessed, even all the treasures of the kings of Judah, would be given into the hands of the Babylonians who would take them ‘as a prey’ and as spoil. This had been destined from Hezekiah’s day and was only temporarily delayed by Josiah’s reforms
6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.’?
What was more, Pashhur himself and all his household including his family and servants, would go into captivity and would be taken to Babylon (in chains) and would die there and be buried along with all his friends. So much for the prophecies of deliverance, and the expectancy of a quick return emphasized by the false prophets Thus Pashhur had made himself the symbol of all the terrors coming on Judah.
While up to this point Jeremiah had been sneered at and jeered at he had never had to suffer physical violence, having been sacrosanct as a prophet of YHWH. This experience thus came to him as something of a shock (he did not realize that it was the indicator of more to come) and makes him consider what is happening to him. In consequence he now grumbles at YHWH Whom he sees as having forced him into his present position and points out that it is the very message of ‘violence and destruction’ that YHWH has given him that is bringing him into disrepute. Nevertheless, he admits that he cannot help speaking out, even when he is thinking of not doing so, because YHWH’s word burns in him like a fire forcing him to do so.
But then in his wavering his thoughts turn on YHWH and he is encouraged as he recognizes that he need not fear because YHWH is with him as One Who Is mighty and terrible, One Who causes his foes to stumble so that they will be utterly put to shame, and he calls on Him to avenge Himself on those who have mistreated His prophet so that he himself may see it, and ends up by praising YHWH for his deliverance from the hand of evildoers.
7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the LORD was made to me a reproach and a derision daily.
In his distress at what he has just gone through Jeremiah reprove YHWH with the fact that it is YHWH Who has put pressure on him to do the things that he has done. He points out that he had not wanted to do it, but that YHWH was stronger than he was and had prevailed. Consequently, he had become a laughingstock, and was being mocked, because whenever he had spoken it had been of ‘violence and destruction’, (while as far as his hearers could see, nothing like that was in sight). Thus, it was the word of YHWH that he was proclaiming which had been the reason why he was being reproached and derided all day.
We too can find that at times people will mock us for our insistence on the fact that God will one day judge us and that that judgment may be imminent. And when we do so and feel that possibly we might be wise to desist, we should remember that, even though he was jeered at, Jeremiah’s words came true, and when they did how the people must have wished that they had listened.
9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.
And yet Jeremiah admitted that he had not been able to help speaking up, because whenever he determined that he would not do so, and that he would no longer speak in YHWH’s Name, possibly because he had felt that it was hopeless, he had discovered that a fire was burning within him, shut up in his bones (a Hebraism for his inner self), so that not only did he grow tired of resisting it but in fact found himself completely unable not to speak.
10 For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”
Even the men of his peace (courteous acquaintances, that is, those more moderate people who had always in the past greeted him with the words ‘peace be with you’) had in the end yielded to popular opinion and had agreed that if others denounced him they would do so as well. They had not felt able to stand out against the swell that was against him.
Meanwhile those who had been constantly on the watch for his fall (said hopefully, ‘perhaps he will be ‘persuaded’ (entrapped and seduced) into saying something wrong’. Their hope was that they could goad Jeremiah into saying something foolish by which he could be condemned with the result that they would be able to prevail against him and take their revenge on him.
11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
As so often in prayer when the soul is facing seemingly insoluble problems, light suddenly breaks through and Jeremiah immediately feels encouraged as he contemplates YHWH. Why is he talking so foolishly when he knows that YHWH is with him and that YHWH is the Mighty and Terrible One? In the light of what He is his persecutors no longer seem terrible. Rather it is they who will stumble and not prevail, for they will be utterly put to shame because they have not dealt wisely (by listening to the word of YHWH), a shame which will result in everlasting dishonor which will never be forgotten.
12 But, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, and see the mind and heart, let me see Your vengeance on them; For I have pleaded my cause before You.
His rise from despondency continues as he cries to YHWH of Hosts, the One Who tries the righteous and sees men’s hearts and minds, to let him finally see His vengeance on them because he has revealed his case to Him.
13 Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
And he finishes his prayer on a note of general praise as he calls on men to sing to YHWH and to praise Him, because he has delivered the soul of the needy (in this case himself) from the hands of evildoers.
This passage closes off the section with a heart-rending call by Jeremiah that the day of his birth be cursed, along with all who assisted in ensuring his survival, on the grounds that it would have been better for him to have been left in the womb than ever to have seen daylight. It is clear from what he says that even more shame must have been heaped on him to such an extent that it has become almost unbearable. It sums up how arduous he was finding his ministry to be. He has almost reached the end of his rope.
It is a reminder that those who serve God in dark times do not come off lightly. They simply have to persevere whatever happens. As he had stated, he would carry on prophesying because it was forced upon him but let none think that he was enjoying it.
14 Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! 15 Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father, saying, “A male child has been born to you!” Making him very glad. 16 And let that man be like the cities which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning
and the shouting at noon, 17 Because he did not kill me from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always enlarged with me. 18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Familiar with the scenes which regularly took place on the birth of a newborn son, Jeremiah pictures his own birth in those terms and curses the very day. His mother would have been thrilled and would have blessed the day, as would her relatives, while the good news would have been speedily carried by a messenger to the waiting father, resulting in great gladness of heart. But Jeremiah calls for the day now to lose its blessedness, and for a curse to come upon it.
So bitter are his feelings about that day that he calls for the man who bore the news of his birth to be like Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities which YHWH overthrew (Genesis 19.29), something which YHWH, he points out, carried through without any thought of retraction. So, Jeremiah says, let Him now show the same constancy in destroying the messenger who bore the news of his birth. The reference to the crying of lamentation in the morning, followed by the shouting at noontide as the invaders break in, indicates that he expects it to happen when his prophecies are fulfilled in the overthrow of the city. And the man was to experience this fate because he had failed to show mercy in preventing the birth of Jeremiah. Better far, he claims, would it have been if he had died in his mother’s womb, rather than coming forth into life where it would involve such shame and trouble.
We must not take the curse as intended too seriously. Jeremiah understood to curse his father and mother would have been a heinous offence and so he was looking for substitutes. But he would not really have expected anyone genuinely to accept the thought that God would punish a man for allowing a baby to be born normally (the opposite position being that He would have blessed him had he murdered the young Jeremiah). He is rather using the idea in order to express the depths of his grief.
With these words ends the series of more general undated prophecies of Jeremiah, and it is noteworthy that from this point onwards we hear no more complaints from him, despite all that he will later go through. Having come struggling through his own Gethsemane he becomes a man of steel.
