Jeremiah 20 · The Lantern

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

And Pashhur son of Immer the priest — and he was chief officer in the house of the LORD — heard Jeremiah prophesying these words.

And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the LORD.

And it was on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out from the stocks, and Jeremiah said to him: The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Terror All Around.

For thus says the LORD: See, I am making you a terror to yourself and to all who love you; and they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on. And all Judah I will give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will exile them to Babylon and strike them with the sword.

And I will give all the wealth of this city and all its labor and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies; and they will plunder them and take them and bring them to Babylon.

And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity; and to Babylon you will come, and there you will die and there you will be buried — you and all who love you, to whom you prophesied in falsehood.

Jeremiah’s Complaint

You enticed me, LORD, and I was enticed; you were strong for me and prevailed. I have become laughter all the day; all of it mocks me.

For as often as I speak, I cry out; violence and devastation I call. For the word of the LORD has become to me a reproach and a derision all the day.

And so far as the literal truth is concerned, it is useful to recount what things Jeremiah suffered among the people, with respect to which he said, "And I said, I will not speak, nor will I call on the name of the Lord." And again, elsewhere, "I was continually being mocked." And how great sufferings he endured from the then king of Israel are written in his prophecy.

For not only did he bear those things nobly which happen to the body, the afflictions, and whatever he enumerated, but those also which touch the soul; for neither are these wont to disturb slightly.

Jeremiah says here, in effect: "As I am crying out and saying that the Babylonian army is coming and that the sword of the enemy will plunder us all, the word of the Lord is turned against me as a derision and a reproach, since they believe that the tardiness of a prophecy's fulfillment is tantamount to a lie.

And I said: I will not remember him, and I will not speak again in his name — and it was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.

That people, then, was sick; manifold diseases were in the people that had been called the people of God. God sent them physicians, the prophets. One of the physicians was Jeremiah too; he reproved the sinners, wishing to turn back those who were doing evil.

Indeed, Christ, loving Moses, appeared to him in fire. And Jeremiah, having in himself the gift of divine love, said: "And there was a fire inflaming in my bones: and I was dissolved on every side, and I cannot bear it." Therefore, good charity having the wings of a burning fire, which flies through the chests and hearts of the saints, and consumes whatever is material and eart…

For they do not make their journey upon the royal highway as other men, but these giants select for themselves short-cuts, whereby gloriously they journey swiftly to the Heavenly mansions. For this hope so inflames them, as with fire, that they cannot rest from their incessant and headlong course on account of their joy.

For I heard the whispering of many — Terror All Around! Tell, and let us tell of him! Every man of my peace, keepers of my stumbling: Perhaps he will be enticed, and we will prevail against him and take our vengeance on him.

But the LORD is with me like a ruthless mighty one; therefore my pursuers will stumble and will not prevail. They are utterly ashamed, for they had no insight — an everlasting humiliation that will not be forgotten.

But Jeremiah says concerning these who conspire, "And the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior." If we become such as we ought to be, and receive that fire coming upon us for our sins, as upon Jeremiah and those like him, the Lord thereafter becomes with us "as a mighty warrior." And "therefore they persecuted and could not understand" [the Jews who persecuted him: "they were gr…

(Verse 11.) All the men, who were peaceful towards me, and guarding my side: if we are deceived in any way, let us prevail against him, and achieve vengeance from him. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior.

"They shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood everlasting reproach." The second error concerns fatal necessity, as regarding the constellations: if a man is born under such a constellation, he will necessarily be a thief, or evil, or good.

And LORD of hosts, testing the righteous, seeing kidneys and heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have revealed my case.

For God does not hold out against his children when they beg his pity. And for you he will pray purely, held in high honor as an angel of God, and grieved not by you but for you. This is sincere repentance. "God is not mocked," nor does he give heed to vain words.

"The Lord," then, "of hosts" is with us, "who tests just things, understanding reins and hearts." The Lord tests just things and rejects unjust things, and he is, so to name it, a moneychanger of just and unjust things; and this Lord is also "one who understands reins and hearts." I inquire how "to understand reins and hearts" differs, and "to examine hearts and reins" is anoth…

The Lord alone is able to certify justice, in the same way that he alone sees the interior of a person's heart. Hence, Jesus knows the thoughts of people not as an acquired skill, as some allege, but because he is God by nature.

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

Cursed is the day on which I was born; the day my mother bore me — let it not be blessed.

For neither would so great and such a prophet — I mean Jeremiah, who was "sanctified in the womb" of his mother and "consecrated a prophet unto the nations" — have set down anything emptily in books that were to remain forever, unless it contained something secret and full of vast mysteries, when he says: "Cursed be the day in which I was born, and the night in which they said:…

(Verse 14 and following) Cursed be the day in which I was born, the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man (or person) who brought the news to my father, saying, 'A male child is born to you,' and made him rejoice as if with joy.

The apostle says, "God commends his charity toward us, because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more now that we are justified in his blood shall we be saved through him from the wrath." Of this wrath he says, "We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest." Of this wrath Jeremiah says, "Cursed be the day when I was born." Of this wrath holy Job says…

Cursed is the man who brought the news to my father, saying, A male son is born to you — making him very glad.

And let that man be like the cities the LORD overthrew and did not relent; and let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war shout at the time of noon,

because he did not put me to death from the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb pregnant forever.

Why is it that I came out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and my days are finished in shame?

Jeremiah20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

Jeremiah’s Complaint