What does Jeremias Chapter 20 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Phassur’s stocks and announced fate precede personal lament. Fire in heart and bones follows attempted silence. Praise and birth-day curses retain separate edition explanations.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 20 identifies Phassur son of Emmer as priest and chief in the Lord's house. He strikes Jeremias and puts him in stocks at the upper Benjamin gate. At the next light he releases him; the Lord's new name is fear on every side, separately explained by the edition. His friends fall by sword before his eyes; Juda is delivered to Babylon's king for captivity and sword, and substance, labor, precious things and royal treasures are spoiled. Phassur and his house go captive; he and the friends to whom he prophesied lies die and are buried in Babylon.

Jeremias says the Lord deceived and prevailed over him, with derision following speech of iniquity and devastation. The edition explains concealed great evils. Resolving not to speak leaves fire in heart and bones that he cannot bear. Familiar men who remained beside him watch for deception and revenge. The Lord is a strong warrior; persecutors fall, fail to understand and receive everlasting reproach. Jeremias entrusts his cause and asks to see vengeance, with the edition distinguishing zeal for justice. He calls for praise for delivery of the poor.

He curses his birth day and the messenger who gladdened his father with news of a son, wishing that messenger like overthrown cities with morning cry and noonday howl. He asks why he was not slain in the womb, with mother as grave and everlasting conception, and why he emerged to sorrow and shame. The edition identifies figurative expression of great evils; it does not explicitly certify a sinless response or a Job comparison.

The story inside

Opening: Phassur’s stocks and announced fate precede personal lament. Development: Fire in heart and bones follows attempted silence. Conclusion: Praise and birth-day curses retain separate edition explanations.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Phassur’s stocks and announced fate precede personal lament.
2
Fire in heart and bones follows attempted silence.
3
Praise and birth-day curses retain separate edition explanations.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 85985–85994
20:1. Now Phassur the son of Emmer, the priest, who was appointed chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words. 20:2. And Phassur struck Jeremias the prophet, and put him in the stocks, that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord. 20:3. And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out of the stocks. And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy name Phassur, but fear on every side.
Lines 85996–85999
Phassur.... This name signifies increase and principality: and therefore is here changed to Magor-Missabib, or fear on every side: to denote the evils that should come upon him in punishment of his opposing the word of God.
Lines 86017–86025
20:7. Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughingstock all the day, all scoff at me. Thou hast deceived, etc.... The meaning of the prophet, is not to charge God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission, the greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was to bring upon him.
Lines 86031–86033
20:9. Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
Lines 86040–86050
20:11. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach, which never shall be effaced. 20:12. And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them: for to thee I have laid open my cause. Let me see, etc.... This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill will, but zeal of justice.
Lines 86055–86060
20:14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me, be blessed. Cursed be the day, etc.... In these, and the following words of the prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him.