Why does Jeremiah ask the Lord not to be a terror to him?

Jeremiah’s lament turns to a plea. Be not a terror to me. The more literal sense of the Hebrew word hatat, translated as terror is to be shattered or dismayed. When the Lord commissioned Jeremiah, he warned him that he would dismay Jeremiah if he allowed himself to be dismayed by the people who opposed him (see Jeremiah 1:17). It seems to Jeremiah now that that the Lord will dismay him even though he has spoken the Lord’s word faithfully in the face of opposition.¹ Instead, Jeremiah declares that the Lord is his refuge in the day of disaster. The Lord is the one who can keep him safe from his enemies. He is pleading with the Lord to be faithful to his promise to be with him in his ministry.