There Was In My Heart a Burning Fire ? in My Bones!

[Bible Speaks]

9 And I say “I will not mention him, nor speak again in his name”—and there is in my heart the like of a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I get worn out with holding in and cannot do it." (Jeremiah 20:9) NWT.   jw.org

“I Will Saturate the Tired Soul”
Jeremiah’s discouragement may, in part, have come from his hometown. He grew up in Anathoth. That was a Levite city a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. The prophet would have had acquaintances and perhaps relatives in Anathoth. Jesus said that a prophet has no honor in his homeland, and this was true of Jeremiah. (John 4:44) 

The townspeople went beyond being disinterested in or disrespectful of Jeremiah. At one point, God said that “the men of Anathoth” were “seeking for [Jeremiah’s] soul.” They belligerently said: “You must not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that you may not die at our hand.” What a threat from neighbors and possibly relatives, who should have been on his side!—Jer. 1:1; 11:21.

Jeremiah faced far more than verbal threats from people back home. One instance centered on a notable man in Jerusalem, a priest named Pashhur.* Upon hearing a divine prophecy, “Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him into the stocks.” (Jer. 20:1, 2) 

Those words probably meant far more than a slap on the face. Some conclude that Pashhur had Jeremiah beaten or flogged with up to 40 stripes. (Deut. 25:3) 

While Jeremiah was suffering physically, people may have been jeering him and screaming abuse, even spitting on him. It did not end there. Pashhur had Jeremiah put in “stocks” overnight. The Hebrew word used suggests that the body was twisted and bent. Yes, Jeremiah was cruelly forced to suffer a painful night, probably fastened in a wooden frame.

How did such treatment affect Jeremiah? He said to God: “I became an object of laughter all day long.” (Jer. 20:3-7) It even crossed his mind to cease speaking out in God’s name. 

You know, however, that Jeremiah could not and did not do that. Rather, the divine message he was commissioned to deliver was “like a burning fire shut up in [Jeremiah’s] bones,” and he had to speak for Jehovah.—Read Jeremiah 20:8, 9.

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Tap screen for fire ?