Jeremiah 20: A Burning Fire Shut Up in My Bones

"Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then 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. And 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" (20:1–3).

"O 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. For 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. Then 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" (vv. 7–9).

"For 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. But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble… Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers" (vv. 10–13).

"Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad… Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave… Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?" (vv. 14–18).

Stocks and the temple police

Pashhur was paqid nagid, "chief overseer," in the temple, responsible for order in its courts; Jeremiah 29:26 shows that such an officer had authority to put "every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet" in the stocks and collar. The mahpekhet (from a root "to turn, twist") held the body in a cramped position. The "high gate of Benjamin" was a temple gate facing north toward Benjamin's territory (compare 37:13; 38:7). A bulla reading "[belonging] to Gedaliah son of Pashhur" was found in the City of David in 2008 (reported; C check). Jeremiah 38:1 names a Gedaliah son of Pashhur among Zedekiah's officials, but the book has more than one Pashhur (the son of Immer here; the son of Malchiah in 21:1 and 38:1), and it does not say which was Gedaliah's father. The bulla fits the names of Jeremiah's Jerusalem; it does not identify the priest of chapter 20.

"Thou hast deceived me" (20:7)

Pittah means to entice or persuade, often by deception: it is used of seducing a virgin (Exodus 22:16), of Delilah enticing Samson (Judges 16:5), and of the spirit that enticed Ahab's prophets with a lie (1 Kings 22:20–22). Chazaq, "thou art stronger than I," is used of overpowering someone by force (Deuteronomy 22:25). Jeremiah says that God enticed him into his calling and then overpowered him. In v. 10 his enemies use the same verb: "perhaps he will be enticed." Translators have tried to soften the line ("you persuaded me"), but the Greek (in Giguet: "vous m'avez trompé"), the Latin ("seduxisti me") and the KJV all keep the force. Interpreters differ: some hear a charge that God misled him about what the call would cost; some hear the language of seduction as a metaphor for an overwhelming love; some modern scholars hear the vocabulary of sexual violence and argue that the text should be read with that horror in view. The site does not choose a single reading, and does not soften the words.

Praise, then a curse

Verse 13 ends the sixth confession in praise; verses 14–18 follow with a curse on the day of birth and no answer from God. Scholars disagree about the order. Some think two separate poems have been placed together; some that the curse was put last deliberately, so that the personal poems of chapters 11–20 end in darkness; some read the sequence as true to experience, where praise does not end anguish. Job 3 also curses the day of birth with similar images; Job's date is uncertain and the site does not claim that one text borrows from the other. See "Jeremiah's Confessions."

Hebrew and Greek

In 20:3 the Greek renames Pashhur "Exile" (Giguet: "l'exilé"), not "Terror on every side"; the Greek also lacks "on every side" (missaviv) here, while the Hebrew uses the phrase as a refrain (6:25; 20:10; 46:5; 49:29). The confessions themselves (vv. 7–18) agree closely in Hebrew and Greek, and the two Qumran copies that preserve parts of vv. 7–9 and 13–18 (4QJer-a and 4QJer-c) agree with the Masoretic Text where letters survive. Jeremiah survives in two ancient Hebrew editions: the longer one preserved as the Masoretic Text (the basis of most Bibles) and a shorter one translated into Greek in the last centuries BC and also found, in fragments, among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Greek is not simply a damaged copy of the Hebrew: it often reflects a different Hebrew text. The site shows both, and weighs each difference on its own (see "Two Ancient Jeremiahs").