Jeremiah 20

20:1-6 The persecution suffered by Jeremiah moved from words to action. Jeremiah was whipped and placed in stocks overnight on the charge that he had blasphemed the Temple. When he was released, Jeremiah gave his jailer a message of personal condemnation from the Lord.20:1-2 Pashhur, the head of the police who kept order in the Temple area, ranked second to the high priest in authority. Evidently, he had heard Jeremiah proclaim the Lord’s decree about the destruction of Jerusalem, including the Temple. He regarded it as such blasphemy that he thought Jeremiah should be punished.

20:3 The Man Who Lives in Terror: Cp. 46:5; Ps 31:13.

20:4-5 This is the first instance in which Jeremiah names Babylon as the country whose armies would invade Judah and take the people into exile. The invaders would take the precious jewels and gold and silver, leaving Judah without resources.

20:6 Pashhur would be confronted with the proof that he had been a false prophet.

20:7 you misled me: Jeremiah spoke of his calling from the Lord (1:5-10) using the same Hebrew word that elsewhere refers to sexual seduction (Exod 22:16).

20:8-9 Jeremiah found it impossible not to speak the words of God’s judgment, even though his messages turned him into a household joke (cp. Job 32:18-20; Ps 39:1-3; Acts 4:18-20).

20:10 The people sarcastically threw back on Jeremiah the name that he had given to Pashhur, The Man Who Lives in Terror (20:3). Even Jeremiah’s old friends looked for ways to twist his words and trip him up.

20:11 Jeremiah realized that God was like a great warrior standing at his side. Jeremiah’s persecutors were at a real disadvantage and would completely fail.

20:12 Jeremiah placed his complete trust in the Lord of Heaven’s Armies (see 5:14), who alone could carry out the vengeance due to the prophet’s enemies.

20:13 Suddenly, relief and joy came to Jeremiah’s soul; he recalled that even when he was poor and needy, the Lord had rescued him from his oppressors.

20:14-18 Jeremiah’s hope of deliverance did not negate the reality of his circumstances. Shocked by his persecution, Jeremiah wished that he were already dead or that he had never been born (cp. 16:3-4; Job 3).

20:16 The cities of old were probably Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24-29).

20:17-18 Jeremiah saw no meaning to his life.