Jeremiah 20-22 - Burning Fire Shut Up in My Bones

From today's Bible reading:

Jeremiah 20:

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

Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD.

The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him:

The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side. For thus says the LORD:

Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword.

Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon.

And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

O LORD, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.

If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.

Jeremiah 21:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:

Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls.

And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.

I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.

Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.

Thus says the LORD:

Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war.

For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

Jeremiah 22:

Thus says the LORD:

Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?

And they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.

I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, I will not listen.

This has been your way from your youth,
that you have not obeyed my voice.

The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
and your lovers shall go into captivity;
then you will be ashamed and confounded
because of all your evil.

Why are he and his children hurled and cast
into a land that they do not know?

O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!