Jeremiah 20:1-18--Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

Jeremiah 20
English Standard Version

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur
20 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

7 O LORD, you have deceived me,
    and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
    and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
    everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
    I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
    a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering.
    Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
    say all my close friends,
    watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
    therefore my persecutors will stumble;
    they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
    for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
    will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,
    who sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.

13 Sing to the LORD;
    praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
    from the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day
    on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
    let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
    making him very glad.
16 Let that man be like the cities
    that the LORD overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
    and an alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me in the womb;
    so my mother would have been my grave,
    and her womb forever great.
18 Why did I come out from the womb
    to see toil and sorrow,
    and spend my days in shame?

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Jeremiah being a priest would have been under the authority of the high priest.  It would seem that this man Pashhur who was persecuting Jeremiah was not the high priest but instead a leader among the priests (remember they were divided into different "orders" at the time of David).  This priest saw Jeremiah prophesying in the Temple and was displeased with the message that he brought, so he beat him and put him in stocks publicly above the Benjamin Gate (one of the gates of the Temple).  Once Jeremiah was set free, he prophesied against Pashhur saying that he would be seen as a terror on the people and would be taken into captivity and die in captivity.  He would have to witness everyone knew be killed or captured and the Temple and the city he loved be destroyed by the Babylonians.  All the wealth of the kings and even the wealth of the Temple would be unable to keep him from the LORD's judgment.

Pashhur is rebuked for the false prophecy that he offered saying that what Jeremiah said through the Word of the LORD would not come to pass.  He game people false hope when they needed to repent.  That is why people would denounce him when judgment finally came upon them.  They will cry out that they never should have believed Pashhur.