CHAPTER 20

(605 B.C.)

JEREMIAHS IMPRISONMENT

¹Now Pashur the son of Immer the Priest, who was also chief governor in the House of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. (As evil as this man was, he was still chief governor in the House of the LORD. Too much and too often the religious hierarchy, typified by Pashur, persecutes the true followers of the Lord, typified by Jeremiah. This evil man felt he had to stop the preaching of Jeremiah.)

²Then Pashur smote 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. (Pashur, the chief officer of the Temple, scourged Jeremiah, as the Apostle Paul afterwards was scourged, and then, without any Scriptural warrant, condemned him, for about twenty-four hours, to the torture of the stocks. This was a beam of timber with five holes in it, through which the head, the hands, and the feet were thrust, thus bending the body so as to cause great suffering.

So it was with Christ! His greatest enemies were the ruling religious order of His day. They opposed Him bitterly then, and they oppose Him bitterly now!)

³And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib. (Pashur means security on every side, while Magor-missabib means terror on every side. The words of Verses 3 through 6 were not the hot-tempered utterance of the Prophet, but the solemn warnings of Jehovah.)

⁴For 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 behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. (I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends, refers to the coming Judgment heaped upon those who listen to Pashur rather than to Jeremiah.)

⁵Moreover I will deliver all the strength of the city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. (The strength and labor pertain to the wealth obtained by the people of Judah and Jerusalem. It would all be forfeited to the king of Babylon. Therefore, they would now lose all the things for which they sold their souls, as all such things are always lost!)

⁶And you, Pashur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity: and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and shall be buried there, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies. (The terrible punishment inflicted upon Jeremiah by Pashur little quenched the ardor of the Prophet. His Message is as straightforward now as it was before, and even more so, if possible! This time the Message is directed to Pashur and pulls no punches.)

JEREMIAHS COMPLAINT

⁷O LORD, You have deceived me, and I was deceived: You are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me. (The twice-used word deceived, in the Hebrew, is patha, which would have been better translated persuaded, as it was in Prov. 25:15. Jeremiah is referring to his original call and the powerful persuasive force used by the Lord regarding his call.)

⁸For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the Word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. (The subject of his preaching is expressed in the two words, violence and spoil. This oppression and robbery of the poor so deeply stirred him that he shouted aloud against it, but the only response to his outcries was that he was had in derision daily, and everyone laughed at him.)

⁹Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His Name. But His Word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. (In view of the terrible opposition, even bodily harm, the Prophet actually stopped preaching, at least for a while. The cause of the opposition was Him and His Name.

However, he found it impossible to cease from preaching. The fire of the Divine Wrath against sin burned so fiercely within him that he could not help but resume his work.)

¹⁰For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. (The defaming and fear have relation to the Prophet. Denounce and we will denounce him are the words of his enemies encouraging one another and his pretended friends to entice him to a moral lapse or a charge of heresy against the Law of Moses, and so to denounce him to the judges and have him put to death, or at least destroy any influence he may have.)

¹¹But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible One: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. (The idea of this Verse is that the persecution of Jeremiah by his enemies hastened their destruction and deepened their punishment. As such, the Holy Spirit says it shall never be forgotten!)

¹²But, O LORD of Hosts, Who tries the righteous, and sees the reins and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them: for unto You have I opened my cause. (The words, You try the righteous, and see the reins and the heart, refer back to his severe persecutions and why they were allowed to take place. This phraseology proves that Jeremiah understands, at least as far as one can understand, the Ways of the Lord in allowing such persecution.)

¹³Sing unto the LORD, praise you the LORD: for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. (Here, Faith gives the victory, foresees the judgment, and sings.)

¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bore me be blessed. (Verses 14 through 18, as far as the time frame is concerned, do not follow Verse 13, but in fact precede it. These words were uttered by the Prophet most probably when suffering the torment of the stocks.)

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto you; making him very glad.

¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide (Jeremiah is quoting from Job 3:3-12. Deep emotion expresses itself in the language suggested by the moment. The Prophet, even though retouching the discourses, would leave much of the original expression.

The modern Christian, filled with Faith, would have a tendency to demean the Prophet for uttering such words; however, in every human life, even the Godliest, there must be some encouragement in order for the effort to continue. Jeremiah had none! No one complimented him on his Message! Even those who claimed friendship, as outlined in Verse 10, were secretly plotting his overthrow!

Therefore, the question does not pertain itself to the venting of discouragement by the Prophet, but rather that he was able to do as well as he did!);

¹⁷Because He killed me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. (The idea is that inasmuch as they were going to kill him anyhow, it would be better, or so he thought, had he died in the womb. As stated, this was no doubt said while he was in the stocks and after having experienced the terrible beating. At this time, his faith is sorely tested. He is wondering if God has forgotten His Promise made to him that over him his enemies would not prevail [1:19].)

¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? (This Verse is not a statement but rather a question, and it is answered in the Thirteenth Verse.)