Jeremiahchapter 20
18 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter records the first time Jeremiah was beaten and put in the stocks, in the last decades of the kingdom. The man who did it was the chief officer of the temple, responsible for order in its courts. A night in the stocks at a busy gate was meant to shame as well as hurt. The chapter then turns to the prophet's own words, spoken to God alone. Listen for the fire he cannot hold in, and for the praise and the curse that stand side by side. It is the last and most bitter of his prayers in this part of the book.
Context
- Who
- Worshippers who saw the prophet locked in a public frame overnight
- What
- An account of Jeremiah's beating and night in the stocks, his word against Pashhur, and his lament to God.
- Where
- The house of the LORD in Jerusalem, at the Upper Gate of Benjamin where the stocks stood.
- When
- The last decades of the kingdom of Judah, about 609 to 597 BC.
- Why
- To show what faithfulness cost the prophet, and to keep his honest complaint and his trust together.
Historical context
Pashhur is introduced by his job: chief officer in the house of the LORD, the man responsible for order in the temple precinct. He had a police function and used it. This is the first recorded time Jeremiah is physically punished, and the man who does it is not a pagan but the temple's own head of security.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The stocks were not a pair of ankle holes. The device named here twisted the body, the neck, arms and legs forced into a bent position and held there, so that a night in it left a man in agony and unable to stand straight afterwards. It was set at the upper Benjamin Gate, a busy entrance, because humiliation in front of the crowd was half the punishment.
The new name Jeremiah gives Pashhur, Terror on Every Side, is a phrase from the invasion oracles. Renaming a man was a prophetic act with legal weight in that culture, it announced what he would become.
The second half of the chapter is the rawest private writing in the book. The prophet says he was deceived and overpowered, that he is laughed at all day, that he tried to quit and found the word like fire shut up in his bones, and that his friends were watching for him to slip so they could denounce him. He ends by cursing the day he was born and the man who brought his father the news of a son.
Significance
First hearers saw the state of the nation in one image: the man telling the truth locked in a frame at the gate, and the temple's own officer holding the key.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
What they were not spared is the cost. In the same chapter he sings that the LORD is with him like a dread warrior and then wishes he had never been born. Both are left standing, side by side, without an apology.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Jeremiah 20, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 26 of Jeremiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
On the new name of Pashhur, Rashi reads the old one two ways. By one it means a great man and the son of nobles. By the other it means cut off and black (Rashi on Jeremiah 20:3:2). Jeremiah's complaint he reads as his own. God enticed him "to go on your mission", and every time he speaks it is to cry violence and spoil (Rashi on Jeremiah 20:7:1 and 20:8:1).
On the curse of his birth day Rashi reports that Hilkiah was fleeing from Manasseh, "who was slaying the prophets" (Rashi on Jeremiah 20:14:1). The toil and grief of the last verse are "The destruction of the Temple" (Rashi on Jeremiah 20:18:1).
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 20:1:1, 20:4:1 and 20:6:1. The same holds for Radak on Jeremiah 20:1:1, 20:2:1, 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:12:1 and 20:13:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 30 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 4 in the Talmud and 26 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 4:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 8:3:11. On verse 5 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 77:5. On verse 6 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 96:5, Jerusalem Talmud Ketubot 12:3:13, Jerusalem Talmud Kilayim 9:3:13, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayechi 6:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 3:5 and Pesikta Rabbati 1:1. On verse 7 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 26, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 22:15, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 30:8:1, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Yirmiyahu, Introduction 2 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:14.
It also holds Pesikta Rabbati 21:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 26:1 there. On verse 9 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Bava Kamma 6:4:3, Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1, Kohelet Rabbah 8:8:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 23:26:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:13:2. On verse 11 it holds Midrash Tehillim 118:13. On verse 13 it holds Midrash Tehillim 120:1 and Midrash Tehillim 146:1. On verse 14 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 64:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 5:10 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations, Introduction 1.
It also holds Otzar Midrashim, The Aleph Bet of ben Sira, The Alphabet of ben Sira, (alternative version) 2, Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 7 6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 111:10 there.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 20:2:1 to 20:18:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 20:1:1, 20:4:1 and 20:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 20:1:1, 20:2:1, 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:12:1 and 20:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/20.json, the 30 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 20: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Pashhur Puts the Prophet in Stocks and Is Renamed Terror
Jeremiah 20:1-3
When Pashhur the priest, the son: Pashhur the priest hears Jeremiah preach the Topheth sign and moves against him himself. He has Jeremiah “beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin,” a public restraint beside the temple. Released the next day, Jeremiah gives him a new name, “Magor-missabib,” terror on every side.
Jeremiah 20:1
“Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest,.... Not the immediate son of Immer, but one that descended from him after many generations; for Immer was a priest in David's time, to whom the sixteenth course of the priests fell by lot, 1Ch 24:14; who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord; the temple; not the high priest, since he was of the course of Immer; perhaps he was the head of the course to which he belonged, the chief of the priests of that course. The Targum calls him the "sagan" of the priests.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 20:1
“Pashur, the father probably of the Gedaliah mentioned in Jer 38:1, was the head of the 16th course (shift) of priests (marginal reference); the other Pashur Jer 21:1 belonged to the fifth course, the sons of Melchiah. Both these houses returned in great strength from the exile. See Ezr 2:37-38. Chief governor - Or, “deputy governor.” The Nagid or governer of the temple was the high priest 1Ch 9:11, and Pashur was his Pakid, i. e., deputy (see Jer 1:10 note).”
he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten: Albert Barnes notes Jeremiah is called the prophet here for the first time, since Pashhur's blow broke the respect owed to that office. Barnes traces the word for the stocks to a root meaning to twist, so the body was held bent. Pashhur, Matthew Henry notes, was a fellow priest.
Jeremiah 20:2
“Put him in the stocks - Probably such a place near the gate as we term the lock-up, the coal-hole; or it may mean a sort of dungeon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:2
“Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet,.... Either with his fist, or with a rod, while he was prophesying, to stop his mouth, and hinder him from going on, and to show his resentment, and influence, the people not to believe him; or he ordered him to be smitten and scourged by some inferior officer.”
The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah: Adam Clarke gives the sense of the name Pashhur as safety on every side. The LORD replaces it: “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,” which means terror on every side. Albert Barnes notes Jeremiah uses the phrase five times, likely as a watchword taken from Psalm 31:13.
Jeremiah 20:3
“Magor-missabib - See Jer 6:25 note. Jeremiah uses it no less than five times, having probably adopted it as his watchword from Psa 31:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:3
“It seems to be a proverbial expression, bespeaking a man not only in distress but in despair, not only in danger on every side (that a man may be and yet by faith may be in no terror, as David, Ps. iii. 3 ), but in fear on every side, and that a man may be when there appears no danger. The wicked flee when no man pursues, are in great gear where no fear is.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 20:4-6
For this is what the LORD: The new name becomes a sentence on Pashhur. It widens to the nation, “I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon,” and to all the wealth. Pashhur will go to Babylon and “die and be buried” there with “all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.”
Jeremiah 20:4
“A terror to thyself, and to all thy friends - Jeremiah plays upon the meaning of Magormissabib saying that Pusbur would be a terror to all around. It is remarkable that he prophesies no evil of Pashur Jer 20:6. His was to be the milder fate of being carried into captivity with Jehoiachin, and dying peaceably at Babylon Jer 20:6, whereas his successor Zephaniah was put to death at Riblah Jer 52:24, Jer 52:27. His punishment probably consisted in this.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:4
I will bring terror on thee and on all thy friends, that terror arising from thyself, namely, thy false prophecies. Thou and thy prophecies will be seen, to the dismay both of thee and thy dupes, to have caused their ruin and thine. MAURER'S translation is therefore not needed, "I will give up thee and all thy friends to terror."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I will give away all the wealth: Albert Barnes renders the wealth as the city's stores and its products as the gains of its citizens. The verse piles up four words of loss, and the royal treasures go with the rest. Babylon takes everything.
Jeremiah 20:5
“8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the L ORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. 9 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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:5
“All the strength - “All the stores.” The labors - The gains of the citizens.”
And you, Pashhur, and all who live: Albert Barnes places Pashhur in the war party, which held that an alliance with Egypt could let Judah resist Assyria. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take his lies as the claim that God would never leave the land without its priests and prophets, citing 18:18. His own house goes into exile.
Jeremiah 20:6
“And thou, Pashur-shall go into captivity - Thou shalt suffer for the false prophecies which thou hast delivered, and for thy insults to my prophet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:6
“Thus far is the doom of Pashur. Let persecutors read it, and tremble; tremble to repentance before they be made to tremble to their ruin. Did he aim to keep the people easy, to prevent the destruction that Jeremiah prophesied of, and by sinking his reputation to make his words fall to the ground?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A Burning Fire Shut Up in My Bones
Jeremiah 20:7-9
You have deceived me, O LORD: The confession opens: “You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived.” The word of the LORD has become to him “a reproach and derision all day long,” and “everyone mocks me.” When he resolves to be silent, he is “weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.”
Jeremiah 20:7
“The prophet says that he was deceived by the Lord because, when he heard the Lord say in the beginning, "I gave you as a prophet to the nations," and, again, "Behold, I establish you today over nations and over kingdoms, that you may uproot and destroy and overthrow and dissolve and build and plant," he believed that none of this was spoken against the people of Judea, but only against the various nations surrounding them, thus leading him to accept his prophetic mission willingly.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 4:22.2-4patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 20:7
“In the rest of the chapter we have an outbreak of deep emotion, of which the first part ends in a cry of hope Jer 20:13, followed nevertheless by curses upon the day of his birth. Was this the result of feelings wounded by the indignities of a public scourging and a night spent in the stocks? Or was it not the mental agony of knowing that his ministry had (as it seemed) failed?”
Jeremiah 20:7
“But Jeremiah misunderstood God's promise, which was not that he should have nothing to suffer, but that God would deliver him out of sufferings (Jer 1:19). deceived--Others translate as Margin, "Thou hast enticed" or "persuaded me," namely, to undertake the prophetic office, "and I was persuaded," that is, suffered myself to be persuaded to undertake what I find too hard for me.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
For whenever I speak, I cry out: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, following Maurer, read the line as a complaint: each time Jeremiah speaks, he must cry out about violence and destruction. Adam Clarke calls this the burden of his message. Matthew Henry notes the people mocked even his manner, a man who cried out whenever he spoke.
Jeremiah 20:8
“For since I spake, I cried out,.... Or, "when I speak, I cry" (a); whensoever I speak in the name of the Lord, and deliver message from him to the people, I lift up my voice and cry aloud, that all may hear and understand; and as showing zeal, fervour, and diligence: or, "I cry" with grief and trouble at the usage I meet with, and the contempt that is cast upon the word; or because of what I am obliged to declare to them, as follows.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 20:8
“Rather, "Whenever I speak, I cry out. Concerning violence and spoil, I (am compelled to) cry out," that is, complain [MAURER]. English Version in the last clause is more graphic, "I cried violence and spoil" (Jer 6:7)!”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 20:8
“Note, It is sad to think that, though divine revelation be one of the greatest blessings and honours that ever was bestowed upon the world, yet it has been turned very much to the reproach of the most zealous preachers and believers of it. Two things they derided him for:-- (1.) The manner of his preaching: Since he spoke, he cried out.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
His message becomes a fire burning in his heart, shut up in his bones, whenever he resolves to speak no more in His name. Adam Clarke reads that resolve as a plan to give up the prophet's office and go home. Ambrose reads the fire as the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah 20:9
“I wilt not make mention of him - I will renounce the prophetic office, and return to my house. As a burning fire shut up in my bones - He felt stings of conscience for the hasty and disobedient resolution he had formed; he felt ashamed of his own weakness, that did not confide in the promise and strength of God; and God’s word was in him as a strongly raging fire, and he was obliged to deliver it, in order to get rid of the tortures which he felt from suppressing the solemn message which God had given.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 20:10-13
For I have heard the whispering: The cry “Terror is on every side!” takes up magor missabib and now describes his own days: “All my trusted friends watch for my fall.” Against them he sets his confidence, “But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior,” so his persecutors “will stumble and will not prevail.”
Jeremiah 20:10
"And it became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it, because I heard the blame of many gathered round about." The blameless, the blessed Jeremiah (I speak with exception of this small sin and if he committed any other slight thing) was blamed by many. But the blame from the many was for him a commendation with God. For those who blamed him said, "Conspire, and let us all conspire against him, all the men his friends; watch his design, and he will be deceived."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 20patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 20:10
“GESENIUS not so well translates, according to Arabic idiom, "those guarding my side" (that is, my most intimate friends always at my side), in apposition to "familiars," and the subject of "say" (instead of "saying"). The Hebrew means properly "side," then "halting," as the halt bend on one side. enticed--to commit some sin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 20:10
“Here is an account of the temptation he was in under this affliction; his feet were almost gone, as the psalmist's, Ps. lxxiii. And this is that which is most to be dreaded in affliction, being driven by it to sin, Neh. vi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
But the LORD is with me: John Gill cites the Targum, which reads that the Word of the LORD is for his help. Matthew Henry notes that what is terrible in God comforts His servants, since it turns against those who terrify them. The fearsome warrior stands on Jeremiah's side.
Jeremiah 20:11
“Ashamed - That they should be ashamed of what they had done, or be brought to shame for what they had done; for prosper they should not: or they acted like fools, and did not deal prudently for themselves (so this word is translated, Isaiah lii, 13,) yea, they should become a reproach, and their reproach should be a lasting perpetual reproach that should not be forgotten.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:11
“But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one,.... The Targum is, "the Word of the Lord is for my help.'' "Mighty" to support, uphold, defend, and deliver him; and "terrible" to his enemies.”
O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous: The prayer repeats 11:20 almost word for word. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set God's testing of the righteous against the hasty judgments of men, and they link it to 17:10. Jerome notes that only the LORD can weigh righteousness, as only He sees the heart.
Jeremiah 20:12
The Lord alone is able to certify justice, in the same way that he alone sees the interior of a person's heart. Hence, Jesus knows the thoughts of people not as an acquired skill, as some allege, but because he is God by nature. Such is what the psalmist sings: "No living creature will be justified in your presence." If none of those living in virtue are justified, how much more true will this be of those who are dead from sin!
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 4:26.1-2patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 20:12
“He that tries the righteous tries the unrighteous too, and he is very well qualified to do both; for he sees the reins and the heart, he certainly knows men's thoughts and affections, their aims and intentions, and therefore can pass an unerring judgment on their words and actions.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 20:12
“For God does not hold out against his children when they beg his pity. And for you he will pray purely, held in high honor as an angel of God, and grieved not by you but for you. This is sincere repentance. "God is not mocked," nor does he give heed to vain words. For he alone searches the innermost recesses of the heart, and hears those that are in the fire, and listens to those who supplicate in the whale's belly and is near to all who believe, and far from the ungodly if they do not repent.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?patristic
Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD!: The prophet calls on all to sing to the LORD and praise the LORD, who rescues the life of the needy. Adam Clarke notes that his circumstances stayed the same, yet he exults in God's protection. Jerome reads the needy as the poor in spirit.
Jeremiah 20:13
“Sing unto the Lord - He was so completely delivered from all fear, that although he remained in the same circumstances, yet he exults in the Divine protection, and does not fear the face of any adversary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cursed Be the Day Wherein I Was Born
Jeremiah 20:14-18
Cursed be the day I was: The praise gives way to the bleakest lament: “Cursed be the day I was born!” He wishes he had died “in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave,” on the pattern of Job 3. The lament ends unanswered, showing the cost of the call at 1:5.
Jeremiah 20:14
“It seems to be a relation of the ferment he had been in while he was in the stocks, out of which by faith and hope he had recovered himself, rather than a new temptation which he afterwards fell into, and it should come in like that of David ( Ps. xxxi. 22 ), I said in my haste, I am cut off; this is also implied, Ps. lxxvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Cursed be the man who brought: John Gill notes that the word for news usually means good news, the kind a father hears when a son is born to him. Matthew Henry, quoting Gataker, notes that parents often greet a birth with great joy when they would mourn if they foresaw the misery ahead.
Jeremiah 20:15
“Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,.... The word signifies commonly good tidings, as the news of a child born, and especially a man child, is to its parent. The Septuagint use the same word the angel did, when he brought the tidings of the birth of Christ, Luk 2:10. This was still more foolish and sinful, to curse the man that carried the tidings of his birth to his father; who did a right thing, and what was acceptable, and perhaps might be a good man.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:15
“A man child is born - Borun is to thee a knave child. - Old MS. Bible. This is the old English word for man or servant; and is so used by Wiclif, Rev 12:6.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
May that man be like the cities: The cities are Sodom and Gomorrah, John Wesley notes. Wesley hears the cries at morning and noon as the shouts of enemies breaking in. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that terror by day is worse than the usual fears of the night, and they tie it to 18:22.
Jeremiah 20:16
“And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew,.... In his fury, as the Targum and Septuagint add.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:16
“The cities - Sodom and Gomorrah; by the cry in the morning and shouting at noon, he means the shouts and noises that enemies make when they break in upon a place.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
because he did not kill me: The curse falls on the messenger for failing to kill the child at birth. Matthew Henry notes that Jeremiah wishes he had shared the fate of the Hebrew infants in Egypt, slain as soon as they were born. The wish is for a life that never began.
Jeremiah 20:17
“He wishes the messenger of his birth had been better employed and had been his murderer; nay, that his mother of whom he was born had been, to her great misery, always with child of him, and so the womb in which he was conceived would have served, without more ado, as a grave for him to be buried in.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Why did I come out of the womb: John Gill reads trouble as the labor of office and sorrow as the scorn, and calls the wish a sign of a fretful spirit. Adam Clarke hears a man with comfort in neither his life nor his work. Matthew Henry calls it passion talking without reason.
Jeremiah 20:18
“Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow,.... "Labour" in performing his work and office as a prophet; and "sorrow" in suffering reproach, contempt, and persecution for it; which to avoid, he wishes he had never been born: a sign of a very fretful and impatient spirit, and of a carnal frame.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 20:18
“If there were not another life after this, we should be tempted many a time to wish that we have never known this; for our few days here are full of trouble. See the folly and absurdity of sinful passion, how unreasonably it talks when it is suffered to ramble. What nonsense is it to curse a day--to curse a messenger for the sake of his message!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.18.102; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.