Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 20

Verse 2

20:2 Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the {a} stocks that [were] in the high gate of Benjamin, which [was] by the house of the LORD.

(a) Thus we see that the thing which neither the king nor the princes nor the people dared to undertake against the prophet of God, this priest as a chief instrument of Satan first attempted, read Jeremiah 18:18 .

Verse 6

20:6 And 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 shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy {b} friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

(b) Who have allowed themselves to be abused by your false prophecies.

Verse 7

20:7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was {c} deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast {d} prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

(c) In this appears the impatiency which often overcomes the servants of God when they do not see their labours profit, and also feel their own weakness. See Geneva "Jeremiah 15:18"

(d) You thrust me forth to this work against my will.

Verse 8

20:8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and {e} spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach to me, and a derision, daily.

(e) He shows that he did his office in that he reproved the people of their vices and threatened them with God’s judgments: but because he was derided and persecuted for this, he was discouraged, and would have stopped preaching, except that God’s spirit forced him to it.

Verse 10

20:10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. {f} Report, [say they], and we will report it. All my friends watched for my fall, [saying], Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

(f) Thus the enemies conferred together to know what they had heard him say, that they might accuse him of it, read Isaiah 29:21 .

Verse 11

20:11 {g} But 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.

(g) Here he shows how his faith strove against temptation and sought the Lord for strength.

Verse 14

20:14 {h} Cursed [be] the day in which I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

(h) How the children of God are overcome in this battle of the flesh and the Spirit, and into what inconveniences they fall till God raises them up again: read Job 3:1, Jeremiah 15:10 .

Verse 16

20:16 And let that man be as the {i} cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon;

(i) Alluding to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:25 .

Verse 17

20:17 Because he slew me not at my birth; or that my mother might have been my grave, and she had not been {k} delivered.

(k) Meaning that the fruit of it might never come to profit.