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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 said the LORD, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, 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 gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee:

3and say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; thus saith the LORD 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, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

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

6therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The 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 to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

8And I will make this city an astonishment, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby 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 every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall straiten them.

10Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

11and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD 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 the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth:

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

14Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house, and said to all the people:

15Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they might not hear my words.

Jeremiah 20

1Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

2Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the LORD.

3And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

4For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will 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 behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

5Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all the gains thereof, and all the precious things thereof, yea, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

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

7O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughingstock all the day, every one mocketh me.

8For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and spoil: because the word of the LORD is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day.

9And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in mine heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain.

10For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my halting; peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

11But the LORD is with me as a mighty one and a terrible: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonour which shall never be forgotten.

12But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

13Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

14Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare 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 the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontide;

17because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother should have been my grave, and her womb always great.

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

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.