The big picture
Jeremiah 20 places public humiliation and private lament in the same chapter without forcing either one to explain the other away. Pashur, a priest and temple official, strikes Jeremiah and confines him in stocks for speaking the warning from chapter 19. Release does not produce retraction. Jeremiah names Pashur "terror on every side" and announces Babylonian captivity. Then the speech turns inward. Jeremiah accuses God of overpowering him, says the word has made him a daily object of ridicule, and describes silence as impossible because the word becomes fire shut up in his bones. Confidence follows as he declares that his persecutors will not prevail and calls for praise. Yet praise does not get the final line. Jeremiah curses the day of his birth and asks why he ever came from the womb to see sorrow and shame. The Book of Jeremiah leaves that last question unanswered, refusing a neat progression from despair to triumph.
In this chapter
- The Official Who Confines a Word Receives a New Name Jeremiah 20:1-6
Pashur's position makes the punishment more than a private assault.
- Speaking Hurts, and Silence Burns Jeremiah 20:7-10
Jeremiah's complaint begins with language too sharp to turn into a pleasant description of vocation.
- The One Who Prevails Is Now Beside Him Jeremiah 20:11-13
The vocabulary of prevailing turns around.
- The Chapter Refuses an Easy Last Note Jeremiah 20:14-18
The chapter ends by moving backward to the day Jeremiah entered the world.
Scripture beside the summary
Jeremiah · King James Version · 18Jeremiah 20:1-6
The Official Who Confines a Word Receives a New Name
Pashur's position makes the punishment more than a private assault. He is both a priest and a chief officer in the temple, and he uses that institutional authority to strike Jeremiah and place him in stocks near the house of the Lord. The Book of Jeremiah does not describe the apparatus closely enough to justify reconstructing the prophet's exact posture, but it does establish a night of public confinement for the message just spoken. When Pashur releases him, Jeremiah does not soften the warning. He gives the official a new name, Magor-missabib, "terror on every side," and places him inside the disaster he tried to suppress. Friends will fall before him, Judah will go to Babylon, and the city's wealth will be carried away. Pashur himself will die and be buried in Babylon. His offense also includes false prophecy, so the chapter joins coercive authority with misleading religious speech in one official.
Deep dive
Pashur is both a priest and an officer in the Lord's house. His response connects institutional authority with bodily punishment: he strikes Jeremiah and places him in stocks near the temple. The account identifies the public location but does not describe the device closely enough to reconstruct Jeremiah's exact posture. What it does establish is a night of confinement for speaking the preceding prophecy.
Release the next day brings no retraction. Jeremiah renames Pashur Magormissabib, meaning terror on every side. The explanation turns that name into a future he will witness: friends killed before his eyes, Judah given to Babylon, and the city's labour and treasure carried away. The official who sought to restrain the warning is placed inside it.
Pashur's own end is specified as death and burial in Babylon, together with the captivity of his household. His friends are also described as recipients of his false prophecy, so the charge reaches beyond misuse of administrative power to misleading speech. The Pashur in chapter 21 has a different named father and should not simply be identified with this son of Immer. Jeremiah is encountering more than one official bearing the same name.
Words to trace: Pashur, Babylon, Jeremiah, LORD, house, carry
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 20:1
Immer was the head of the sixteenth priestly course (1 Chronicles 24:14). A “chief governor” in the temple kept order there, and 29:26 shows what that office included: putting any man “that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet” in prison and in the stocks. Pashur was doing his job.
- Jeremiah 20:2
This is the first time the book calls him “Jeremiah the prophet”, and the title arrives in the verse where he is beaten. The upper gate of Benjamin was a temple gate on the north side, probably the one Jotham built (2 Kings 15:35), and it faced the territory of Jeremiah’s own tribe.
- Jeremiah 20:3
The new name, magor missaviv, is a phrase Jeremiah had already used as a cry of alarm in 6:25; it returns in 20:10 and against Egypt and Kedar in 46:5 and 49:29. Psalm 31:13 has it too. “On the morrow” means the stocks held him through a night.
- Jeremiah 20:4
Babylon is named here for the first time in the book. Until now the enemy has been “the north”, a direction; from this verse it has a king and a capital. Pashur’s sentence is to watch: “thine eyes shall behold it”.
- Jeremiah 20:5
Four kinds of wealth are listed: stored strength, the earnings of labour, precious things, and the royal treasuries. Isaiah had told Hezekiah a century earlier that everything in his house “shall be carried into Babylon” (2 Kings 20:17).
- Jeremiah 20:6
Pashur was also a prophet of lies, a voice of the “assured peace” of 14:13. His end resembles that of Amaziah, priest of Bethel, who tried to silence Amos and was told he would die “in a polluted land” (Amos 7:17). To be buried outside the land was itself a curse.
Jeremiah 20:1-6
King James Version1Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
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.
3And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.
4For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine 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.
5Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this 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.
6And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Jeremiah 20:7-10
Speaking Hurts, and Silence Burns
Jeremiah's complaint begins with language too sharp to turn into a pleasant description of vocation. The KJV has him say, "thou hast deceived me," followed by the claim that God was stronger and prevailed. The underlying verb can carry senses such as persuade, entice, or deceive, but the next words keep the accusation from becoming mild. Jeremiah experiences his calling as something he could not master and now lives under daily ridicule because of it. He tries to solve the problem by refusing to speak, only to discover that silence hurts in another direction. The word becomes a burning fire shut up in his bones until holding it back is unbearable. Fire here is not comfortable enthusiasm. It is the pressure of a message that wounds him when spoken and burns when withheld. Even familiar companions watch for him to stumble, hoping to entice and overcome him. "Terror on every side" has become both his proclamation and his environment.
Deep dive
The KJV's "thou hast deceived me" preserves the accusation's sharp edge. The Hebrew verb pathah can mean persuade, entice, or deceive; interpreters differ over how strongly to render it here. Yet the following words about strength and prevailing prevent a bland reading. Jeremiah describes himself as overpowered and exposed to daily ridicule. The statement is his anguished address to God, not a detached declaration that every part of his accusation has been endorsed.
The word as fire is often detached from this setting and made into a pleasant image of enthusiasm. Here its setting is an attempted refusal to continue. Speaking has brought reproach, but withholding speech proves physically unbearable in the description. The prophet is caught between public derision and an inward pressure he cannot master. Fire names that conflict, not merely his enjoyment of the task.
The final verse draws his familiar companions into the danger. They watch for a stumble and hope that he can be enticed and overcome, repeating the language of the opening complaint. "Fear on every side" also echoes the name pronounced upon Pashur. Jeremiah announces terror to the official while experiencing its surrounding pressure himself; the judgment he carries does not leave him untouched by the world in which he speaks.
Words to trace: cried, daily, deceived, derision, LORD, report
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 20:7
“Deceived” is pathah, the word for enticing a young woman in Exodus 22:16 and for the lying spirit that enticed Ahab to battle in 1 Kings 22:20–22. “I was deceived” is the same verb in the passive: Jeremiah says he was drawn in and let himself be.
- Jeremiah 20:8
“Violence and spoil”, chamas and shod, was the burden of every speech, the same pair he had heard in the city’s streets in 6:7. To cry “violence” was the cry of a man being robbed, as Job says, “I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard” (Job 19:7).
- Jeremiah 20:9
“Shut up” is atsur, restrained, the word the book later uses of Jeremiah himself “shut up” in the court of the prison (33:1) and barred from the temple (36:5). Here the confinement runs the other way: the word is locked in him. “Weary with forbearing” means exhausted from holding it in.
- Jeremiah 20:10
The first half matches Psalm 31:13, “I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side”. “Familiars” is literally men of my peace, friends one greets with shalom. “Halting” is limping. “Report, say they” shows them building a case, eager for any word to denounce.
Jeremiah 20:7-10
King James Version7O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
8For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
9Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
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.
Jeremiah 20:11-13
The One Who Prevails Is Now Beside Him
The vocabulary of prevailing turns around. Jeremiah has just said that God prevailed over him, while his enemies hope they can prevail against him. Now he declares that the Lord is with him as a mighty and terrible defender, and therefore his persecutors will not prevail. The same divine strength that made the commission inescapable is now named as the reason hostile people will not determine its end. His appeal remains judicial rather than sentimental. He asks the Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous and sees the inward parts and heart, to judge the case he has opened before him. Then praise suddenly rises: "Sing unto the LORD." The line can sound like a resolution, but the Book of Jeremiah refuses to let it function that way. The next section curses Jeremiah's birth. Confidence and praise are genuine here, yet their presence does not erase the anguish that follows or prove that the prophet's inner conflict has been permanently settled.
Deep dive
The vocabulary of prevailing shifts its alignment. Jeremiah first complained that God had prevailed over him; then his enemies hoped to prevail against him. Now he declares that they will not prevail because the Lord stands with him as a mighty defender. The same divine strength that made the commission impossible to escape is named as the reason persecution will not have its desired outcome.
The appeal remains judicial and severe. God examines the inward parts and the heart, and Jeremiah has opened his cause before him. His request to see vengeance is not dissolved into the language of praise that follows. The two belong to the same claim that the poor person's life is delivered from evildoers.
Verse 13 sounds like a conclusion because its call to sing follows the complaint's movement toward confidence. The Book of Jeremiah does not stop there. The next words curse the day of birth. The praise is real within the passage, but its placement prevents it from being used to erase what follows or to prove that the prophet's anguish has now been permanently settled.
Words to trace: LORD, ashamed, cause, confusion, delivered, everlasting
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 20:11
“Mighty terrible one” is gibbor arits. Arits is the word for “the terrible” in 15:21, the ruthless men Jeremiah was promised rescue from. Now the ruthless one is God, and he is on Jeremiah’s side. The persecutors “stumble”, the halting they hoped to see in him.
- Jeremiah 20:12
The prayer repeats 11:20 nearly word for word, with one change: there God “judgest righteously”, here he “triest the righteous”. “Opened my cause” is galah, to uncover, a case laid bare before the judge with nothing held back.
- Jeremiah 20:13
“The poor” is evyon, the needy man with nothing to bargain with, a word the Psalms use for those God rescues (Psalm 35:10). Jeremiah counts himself one. The verse has the shape of a hymn, the only line of the chapter that could be sung in the temple.
Jeremiah 20:11-13
King James Version11But 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.
12But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
13Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Jeremiah 20:14-18
The Chapter Refuses an Easy Last Note
The chapter ends by moving backward to the day Jeremiah entered the world. He does not curse God or his parents. He curses the day of his birth and the messenger who made his father glad by announcing a son. The good news of that day is reread through the pain of the life that followed, until the messenger's joy itself becomes unbearable to remember. Jeremiah's wish that he had never emerged from the womb is extreme, but the Book of Jeremiah records no attempt here to harm himself and gives no instruction built from the wish. It preserves desperate speech from a man asking why his life had to begin. The womb image carries special force because chapter 1 used the same place to describe divine knowledge and appointment before birth. Jeremiah 20 imagines that womb instead as a grave. The calling announced before his birth and the lament against that birth now stand side by side, and the chapter offers no explanatory sentence after the final question.
Deep dive
The curse moves backward toward an event no present action can undo. Jeremiah does not curse God or his parents here. He curses the day of his birth and the man who brought his father the welcome news. The joy attached to that announcement is the very thing his present speech cannot bear. What had been a glad beginning is reread through the suffering that followed.
The wish that the messenger had prevented his life is extreme, and the comparison with overthrown cities extends the language of judgment into his lament. The text does not record an attempt by Jeremiah to harm himself or report these words as an instruction to act. It records a desperate wish never to have entered the life he is now enduring.
The womb carries particular force within this book. Chapter 1 placed Jeremiah's appointment before his birth; chapter 20 imagines the womb instead as a grave. These are not two incidental references to the same body. The opening assurance of a life known and appointed by God now stands beside that life's cry against its own beginning. The chapter ends with the question still sounding. There is no supplied explanation, rebuke, or reassuring reply after it.
Words to trace: womb, born, Cursed, mother, always, bare
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 20:14
Job opens his lament in almost the same way: “Let the day perish wherein I was born” (Job 3:3). Jeremiah curses a date on the calendar, not a person, and asks only that it never be blessed, stopping short of cursing God or his mother.
- Jeremiah 20:15
A father did not attend a birth; news of a son was carried to him by a messenger who expected a reward for good tidings. “A man child” stresses the male heir. “Making him very glad” uses the root of simchah, the gladness whose voice 16:9 says will cease.
- Jeremiah 20:16
“The cities which the LORD overthrew” are Sodom and Gomorrah; “overthrew” is haphak, the verb of Genesis 19:25. The cry in the morning and shouting at noon are the alarms of a city under attack all day, a messenger who brought good news made to hear only bad.
- Jeremiah 20:17
The logic is deliberately impossible: the messenger came after the birth and could not have prevented it. “Always great with me” is literally a womb pregnant for ever, an endless waiting in which the child is neither born nor lost.
- Jeremiah 20:18
“Labour and sorrow” are amal and yagon, toil and grief. The chapter ends on “shame”, boshet, the fate Jeremiah wished on his persecutors in verse 11. The next chapter leaps forward years to Zedekiah’s reign; the book is arranged by theme, not by date.
Jeremiah 20:14-18
King James Version14Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
15Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; 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;
17Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
18Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Identify the historical crisis, covenant failure, warning, and promised hope.
- Distinguish the prophet’s immediate audience from later biblical connections.
- Do not turn present-day headlines into confident fulfillment claims without textual evidence.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Jeremiah 20?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Jeremiah 20 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: Jeremiah 20 develops its own movement around LORD, Pashur, Babylon, Jeremiah, hand?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
