Jeremiah 20, The Prophet’s Anguish

Verywllmind.com notes: “A mood swing is a fast, significant change in mood. The “mood swing” phenomenon is a common concept used to describe rapidly and intensely fluctuating emotions. People often describe mood swings as a “roller coaster” of feelings from happiness and contentment to anger, irritability, and even depression. A person may recognize something that has triggered a shift in their mood, such as a stressful event at work.” Jeremiah had a significantly stressful event at work.

^20:1 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at Yahweh’s temple. ³ The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. ⁴ For this is what Yahweh says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. ⁵ I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

After Jeremiah’s dramatic tour with a delegation of elders and priests, first to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, where grotesque idolatry was practiced, and then to the Temple, all the way describing the judgment God was sending on the city, Pashhur, the chief executive priest under the high priest, has Jeremiah arrested, beaten, and put in the stocks. What was the charge? Because he released him the next day.

Jeremiah prophesies doom for Pashhur, saying God has given him a new name, Terror on Every Side, the thing Jeremiah has preached is coming. And for the first time Jeremiah mentions who the invader is going to be, the king of Babylon. Pashhur will be exiled to Babylon for his false prophesying.

⁷ You deceived me, Yahweh, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. ⁸ Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of Yahweh has brought me insult and reproach all day long. ⁹ But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. ¹⁰ I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹ But Yahweh is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. ¹² Yahweh Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause. ¹³ Sing to Yahweh! Give praise to Yahweh! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.

Jeremiah is not without damage. He is struggling with how God persuaded him to be His spokesman, as if he was forced or deceived into it. He wasn’t, but that is how he feels. Because of the message he has been preaching Jeremiah has been insulted, despised, beaten, held in custody, and treated as a pariah. Even his friends have rejected him, hoping he will be tricked into saying something that will constitute him a treasonous traitor and dealt with.

But he can’t help speak God’s word. It compels him. So he prays for his persecutors to be judged and to let him see it. He praises Yahweh for rescuing him from the wicked, though he has been scarred in the process.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! ¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!” ¹⁶ May that man be like the towns Yahweh overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. ¹⁷ For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. ¹⁸ Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? (Jeremiah 20)

Like Job and Elijah, Jeremiah is still hating his life and uses a common rhetorical complaint about wishing he had never been born. He has prophesied the destruction of Judah as Yahweh told him to, but it has yet to come about, and he feels he is ending his days in shame. It is fascinating that Yahweh has allowed Jeremiah to disclose in his prophetic utterances just how he is struggling with his lot in life. It is possible that Jeremiah’s struggle is a reflection of Yahweh’s struggle with punishing His people.

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Discussion Questions:

1. How similarly to Jeremiah have you dealt with times of depression and hurt?
2. What do you think of the suggestion that Jeremiah’s pain is reflective of God’s pain at judging His people?
3. Have you had a Pashhur in your life? Is so, why, if not, why not?
4. What does Jeremiah’s openness teach us?