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Tuesday · Week 34
The Early Prophets

Jeremiah 19-20

Week 34 · about 8 min
  1. Wed: 2 Kings 22-25
  2. Thu: Hebrews 10-11
  3. Fri: Hosea 8-10

Jeremiah smashes a clay jar as a warning, and he’s beaten and put in the stocks for it.

Fire Shut Up in My Bones

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.

Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV)

God tells Jeremiah to buy a clay jar and take some of the leaders to the valley where children had been sacrificed to idols. There he smashes the jar: “Even so will I break this people.” A priest named Pashur has him beaten and locked in the stocks overnight. When he’s let out, Jeremiah gives Pashur a new name that means “terror on every side.” Then he prays his most honest prayer. He feels deceived by God and mocked by everyone. He decided to quit speaking for God, but the word burned in him like fire, and he couldn’t hold it in. The same chapter has a line of praise and a curse on the day he was born.

Reflect: Has God ever put something in you that you couldn’t keep quiet about?

Jeremiah 19

1Thus saith Jehovah: Go and buy a potter's earthen flagon, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

2and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the pottery-gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

3and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle;

4because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place from me, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

5and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it up into my mind:

6therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.

7And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their life, and their carcases will I give as food to the fowl of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth.

8And I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing; every one that passeth by shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

10And thou shalt break the flagon in the sight of the men that go with thee,

11and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury.

12Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, and make this city as Topheth.

13And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be as the place of Topheth, defiled, all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of the heavens, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.

14And Jeremiah came from Topheth, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah's house, and said to all the people,

15Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her cities all the evil that I have spoken against it; for they have hardened their necks, not to hear my words.

Jeremiah 20

1And Pashur the son of Immer, the priest -- and he was chief officer in the house of Jehovah -- heard Jeremiah prophesy these things.

2And Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah.

3And it came to pass the next day, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks; and Jeremiah said unto him, Jehovah hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.

4For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I 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 see 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 smite them with the sword.

5And, I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah, will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

6And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophesied falsehood.

7Jehovah, thou hast enticed me, and I was enticed; thou hast laid hold of me, and hast prevailed; I am become a derision the whole day: every one mocketh me.

8For as oft as I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and spoil; for the word of Jehovah is become unto me a reproach and a derision all the day.

9And I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: but it was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I became wearied with holding in, and I could not.

10For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side: Report, and we will report it. All my familiars are watching for my stumbling: Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall take our revenge on him.

11But Jehovah is with me as a mighty terrible one; therefore my persecutors shall stumble and shall not prevail; they shall be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered: it shall be an everlasting confusion that shall not be forgotten.

12And thou, Jehovah of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

13Sing ye unto Jehovah, praise Jehovah, for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

14Cursed be the day wherein I was born; let not the day wherein my mother bore 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 Jehovah overthrew, and repented not; and let him hear a cry in the morning, and a shouting at noonday,

17because he slew me not from the womb. Or would that my mother had been my grave, and her womb always great with me!

18Wherefore came I forth from the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?

Darby Translation (Darby). Public domain.