Prophet Behind Bars

Jeremiah 20:2

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

There are a few dramatic firsts in chapter 20. Including the use of public incarceration as retribution against truth telling. 

As the prophetic protest of Jeremiah grows louder and more violent so does the opposition. The political background is the growing force and looming threat of the empire from the north that is slowly making its way towards Jerusalem - and is explicitly named and mentioned for the first time by Jeremiah in today’s story. Babylon is coming close. King Jehoiakim and his court are pro Egypt partnership, and plan to oppose Babylon with hopes of defeating the invaders , at all costs.  For Jeremiah this is not the wise move nor YHWH’s will. Surrender! He tells the people - prefer peaceful surrender over violent war and prefer Babylon over Egypt. His prophetic protests are against the pagan paths but also against the hierarchy’s choices that he predicate will only cause more damage than the Babylonian conquest already doomed to happen. 

Jeremiah stands in the temple court, broken bottle in hand, enraged against the people and the leaders, when the priests in charge take note and take over. 

Pashur, one of the leading priests whose name may actually be Egyptian, instructs the soldiers to beat Jeremiah and to place him in the public stockade - which shows up for the first time in the Hebrew Bible. (The only other time we’ve met such incarceration techniques was when Joseph, way back in Genesis, was placed in an Egyptian prison.) 

וַיַּכֶּ֣ה פַשְׁח֔וּר אֵ֖ת יִרְמְיָ֣הוּ הַנָּבִ֑יא וַיִּתֵּ֨ן אֹת֜וֹ עַל־הַמַּהְפֶּ֗כֶת אֲשֶׁ֨ר בְּשַׁ֤עַר בִּנְיָמִן֙ הָֽעֶלְי֔וֹן אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּבֵ֥ית יְהֹוָֽה׃

Pashhur thereupon had Jeremiah flogged and put inside the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the House of YHWH

Jeremiah 20:2

The definitive meaning of the Hebrew term used here ‘ma’ha’pechet’ isn’t clear and interpreters over the years suggested different versions of the type of public punishment restrains familiar in their day. 

Perhaps if Jeremiah has remained at the gates to the lower valleys of Jerusalem where rampant pagan practices still went on he would have avoided the watchful eyes of the authorities, but by choosing to stand right in the temple court and rile against the king and his court Jeremiah practiced civil disobedience and proved to be a real threat. Now he’s on display at one of the main gates of the city, a target for ridicule and rage. 

When he’s let free, a day later, his rage is louder yet, and for the first time he names Babylon as the threat that YHWH plans to punish Jerusalem with. In his bitterness, Jeremiah laments being born and moans his fate and that of the people whose end is near. He lashes out at Pashur, giving him a new name - trembling all around -- and warns him that like all the others he will end up as an exiled slave in Babylon. 

The prophet behind bars, incarcerated for truth-telling as a danger against the state will become a known trope in our history. And it’s still active today. 

Rev. Dr. King’s words from his famous letter, penned behind bars, reminds us today of Jeremiah’s rage and righteous protest, standing up for justice everywhere, even when paying the personal price for such truth. Who are the modern prophets who risk liberty and life to keep on saying and displaying what is wrong in our society? What can each of us, and all of us together, do daily to support, uphold and stand by those who fight the powers that deny our rights and a better future? 

As we end this Jewish year and prepare to cross the threshold into a better new year tomorrow - I hope we can find at least one way to pay attention to the prophets all around us, to the prices paid, and to how we can be offering more support and solutions, rather than being silent supporters of the ongoing problems that continue to punish our prophetic voices and avoid the real threat at our doors.  I hope we celebrate the courage and creative forces still so strong among us, calling on us to never give up and to keep believing in the greater good. 

Shana Tova!

Image: Alistair Grant, Jeremiah in Stocks, 1968

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