CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Jeremiah 20 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/20.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/jeremiah/20-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Jeremiah 20</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/19.htm" title="Jeremiah 19">◄</a> Jeremiah 20 <a href="../jeremiah/21.htm" title="Jeremiah 21">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/jeremiah/20.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">Jeremiah and Pashhur</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the LORD, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the LORD’s Temple.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>The next day, when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the LORD has changed your name. From now on you are to be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city—the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings—will be carried off to Babylon. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>As for you, Pashhur, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything would be all right.’”</p><p class="hdg">Jeremiah’s Complaint</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>O LORD, you misled me,</p><p class="line2">and I allowed myself to be misled.</p><p class="line1">You are stronger than I am,</p><p class="line2">and you overpowered me.</p><p class="line1">Now I am mocked every day;</p><p class="line2">everyone laughs at me.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>When I speak, the words burst out.</p><p class="line2">“Violence and destruction!” I shout.</p><p class="line1">So these messages from the LORD</p><p class="line2">have made me a household joke.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD</p><p class="line2">or speak in his name,</p><p class="line1">his word burns in my heart like a fire.</p><p class="line2">It’s like a fire in my bones!</p><p class="line1">I am worn out trying to hold it in!</p><p class="line2">I can’t do it!</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>I have heard the many rumors about me.</p><p class="line2">They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.”</p><p class="line1">They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.”</p><p class="line2">Even my old friends are watching me,</p><p class="line2">waiting for a fatal slip.</p><p class="line1">“He will trap himself,” they say,</p><p class="line2">“and then we will get our revenge on him.”</p><p class="b"/><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior.</p><p class="line2">Before him my persecutors will stumble.</p><p class="line2">They cannot defeat me.</p><p class="line1">They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated.</p><p class="line2">Their dishonor will never be forgotten.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>O LORD of Heaven’s Armies,</p><p class="line1">you test those who are righteous,</p><p class="line2">and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets.</p><p class="line1">Let me see your vengeance against them,</p><p class="line2">for I have committed my cause to you.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Sing to the LORD!</p><p class="line2">Praise the LORD!</p><p class="line1">For though I was poor and needy,</p><p class="line2">he rescued me from my oppressors.</p><p class="b"/><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Yet I curse the day I was born!</p><p class="line2">May no one celebrate the day of my birth.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>I curse the messenger who told my father,</p><p class="line2">“Good news—you have a son!”</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Let him be destroyed like the cities of old</p><p class="line2">that the LORD overthrew without mercy.</p><p class="line1">Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,</p><p class="line2"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>because he did not kill me at birth.</p><p class="line1">Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb,</p><p class="line2">that her body had been my grave!</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/20-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Why was I ever born?</p><p class="line2">My entire life has been filled</p><p class="line2">with trouble, sorrow, and shame.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">20:3 </span><span class="ft">Hebrew </span><span class="it">Magor-missabib,</span><span class="ft"> which means “surrounded by terror”; also in 20:10.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../jeremiah/19.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Jeremiah 19"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Jeremiah 19" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../jeremiah/21.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Jeremiah 21"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Jeremiah 21" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/jeremiah/20-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="../sidemenu.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>