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 (Jer 18:18).
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.
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 "Jer 15:18")
(d) You thrust me forth to this work against my will.
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.
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 (Isa 29:21).
20:11g 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.
20:14h 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, Jer 15:10).
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,
(Ge 19:25).
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.
