Jacob Prasch continues his exposition of Jeremiah 19 into the opening of Jeremiah 20, emphasizing that God’s announced judgment on Jerusalem was not something the Lord “wanted” but something forced by persistent refusal to repent, as the people made God’s house “alien” through idolatry, immorality, and the shedding of innocent blood—paralleling this with modern church apostasies (interfaith worship, homosexuality, and abortion). He develops the Gehenna/Valley of Hinnom background (Molech, Topheth, “field of blood”), treats the horrific cannibalism foretold in siege conditions as both historical reality and divine retribution for child sacrifice, and contrasts the “hosts of heaven” with “the Lord of Hosts” to argue against angel-veneration and “angelic revelation” religions (citing Colossians 2 and Hebrews 1). The passage then shifts to persecution: the priest Pashhur publicly beats and humiliates Jeremiah, prompting Jeremiah to pronounce a name-change oracle (“terror on every side”) and to predict Babylonian exile and death for Pashhur and his circle—using this as a template for how false prophets tell people what they want to hear, persecute true warning voices, and yet inevitably reap the same outcome when judgment arrives.
Peter 5:13 and Revelation 17–18 as the interpretive lens—before previewing continuation into Jeremiah 22.
