And Pashur the son of Immer, the priest -- and he was chief officer in the house of Jehovah -- heard Jeremiah prophesy these things.
Jeremiah had just smashed a clay jar in the Valley of Hinnom and repeated his warning in the temple court. The first man to answer him was not a foreign king but an officer of God's own house — a man whose own name would change by morning.
Pashur's title sounds military. One reference work traces the same word and shows where this officer's authority actually lay:
The word used for the "captain of the temple" literally means "the leader of an army." It is also applied to magistrates, Acts 16:20. But the captain of the temple had charge not of the soldiers, but of the priests and Levites: compare Numbers 3:32; 1 Chronicles 9:11; Jeremiah 20:1.
Jeremiah's words did not stay in the valley. The report reached the temple, and the officer there answered with force:
Jeremiah had broken the jar in the Valley of Hinnom in front of the elders and priests. On his return he stands again in the court of the Temple and warns the people of coming judgment. Pashur, a priest and chief officer in the house of God, hears him prophesy these things. He strikes him and puts him in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin. The stocks were instruments of torture. Jeremiah on this occasion has to endure them for the rest of the day and the following night. These were hours of physical and mental suffering.
Pashur and Jeremiah came from the same priestly family. One commentator finds that sad pattern right through Scripture:
As to the priests, we see a picture which, sadly, is only too common all through the Bible… Pashur, like Jeremiah, was of the priestly family. His sin brought judgment upon him, as Jeremiah 20 records. He is a striking example.
Writers group the whole episode under this heading — a prophet handled roughly by the men who ran the worship:
Then we have a historical passage (Jeremiah 19:14 — 20:18), dealing with the persecution of the prophet by the priests. Now Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, was extremely vexed, and he used personal violence towards the prophet.
Pashur silenced the prophet, and then received a new name himself. It turned his old name upside down:
Pashur struck Jeremiah and put him in the stocks (Jeremiah 20:2). But he himself is made a sign. Though his name Pashur meant "Prosperity round about," it becomes Magor-Missabib, meaning "Fear round about." There is something startling and sharply fitting about naming like this in the Scriptures of Truth — the naming of the omniscient God, we might say. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends.
The hard message came from a heart that was anything but hard:
He did not steel his heart against the persecution at all. His mouth was like one of steel, no doubt. But his heart was very soft indeed. It felt deep agony because of what he had to say against his adversary. So the very man who seemed as if nothing could bend him was in truth bound in the greatest grief before God. At last he pours it out to the Lord.
Jeremiah's night in the stocks was not the last of its kind. And God does not rescue every sufferer:
All through the centuries many believers have suffered torture. Stephen was stoned at Jerusalem. Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned at Philippi… Even today many children of God are tormented in various countries. As we read in Hebrews 11:33-38, some are delivered and escape the edge of the sword; others are tortured, undergo trials, are slaughtered, or wander about. The mystery of God allows John the Baptist to perish in prison while Peter is rescued.
- Office. Pashur's rank put him over the priests and Levites. The opposition to God's word came from the top of God's own house.
- Blow. He heard the warning about the broken jar. He gave back a beating and a night in the stocks.
- Name. "Pashur" meant "Prosperity round about." It became Magor-Missabib, "Fear round about" — God's own naming of the man.
- Heart. His mouth was steel, but his heart stayed soft. He poured his grief out to the Lord, not into hardness against his persecutor.
- Line. Stephen, Paul and Silas, believers today: some are rescued, some are not. Jeremiah in the stocks stands at the head of that line.
And Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah.
Jeremiah has just smashed a clay jar in the Valley of Hinnom and gone back to the temple court to repeat God's sentence on the city. There the chief officer of the temple answers his sermon with fists and stocks, and the rest of the chapter shows what it did to the prophet inside.
The blow was a reply to a sermon. Pashhur (spelled Pashur by the writers quoted here) heard the message in public and answered it with his fists.
Jeremiah had broken the jar in the Valley of Hinnom in front of the elders and priests. He comes back, stands again in the court of the Temple, and warns the people of coming judgment. Pashur hears him prophesy these things. Pashur is a priest and chief officer in the house of God. He strikes Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin. This time Jeremiah has to endure them for the rest of the day and the following night.
The stocks were not a simple lock for the feet.
A wooden frame that fastened the feet, hands, and neck of a person so that his body was held bent. Jeremiah suffered this punishment.
The stocks did more than hurt. The gate where Pashur left him was public, so the crowd could watch and mock.
He strikes Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks. This must have been some form of cruel torture that left the victim helpless. It also left him open to the crude talk of the people who passed by and taunted him. Jeremiah stayed in this position all night before the high gate of Benjamin. In the morning he was set free.
This was not a fight between a prophet and an outsider. Both men belonged to the same priestly line, and the blow fell inside God's own house.
The priests give us a picture that is sadly all too common right through the Bible. "Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their evil, declares the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness" (Jer. 23:11-12). Pashur, like Jeremiah, came from the priestly family. His sin brought judgment on him, as Jeremiah 20 records.
The man who used his authority to silence a prophet found his own name taken from him the next morning.
Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. So he struck him and put him in the stocks (Jer. 20:2). But Pashur himself is made a sign. His name meant "Prosperity round about," yet it is changed to Magor-Missabib, which means "Fear round about." This kind of naming in the Scriptures is startling and sharply exact — it is the naming of God, who knows all things. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends.
In public nothing could bend Jeremiah. Inside, the attack cut deep.
Now Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, was furious, and he used personal violence against the prophet… This attack by Pashur opens up Jeremiah's deep inner feeling. His words are very beautiful to my mind. He did not harden his heart against the persecution in any way. His mouth was like a mouth of steel, no doubt. But his heart was very soft, and it felt deep agony because of what he had to say against his enemy.
The collapse is not where the chapter leaves him. Out of the same trial comes song.
Still, the prophet takes hold of himself again. In the middle of so many trials, the Lord is with him (v. 11-13). The sense of God's presence even moves him to sing, to praise, and to look ahead to the deliverance (v. 13). The same was true of Paul and Silas in prison much later.
Jeremiah's night in the stocks was not the last of its kind. God does not give every sufferer the same outcome.
All through the centuries many believers have suffered torture. Stephen was stoned at Jerusalem. Paul and Silas were beaten and put in prison at Philippi… Hebrews 11:33-38 tells us that some are rescued and escape the edge of the sword. Others are tortured, put through trials, killed, or left to wander. In the mystery of God, John the Baptist dies in prison while Peter is set free.
- Message — Pashur answered a sermon with his fists. Jeremiah paid for what he had just preached in the temple court.
- Stocks — a frame bent his body double at a public gate. Torture and mockery ran together through a whole night.
- Priest — the blow came from a man of Jeremiah's own priestly line. God found evil inside His own house.
- Name — by morning God renamed the prophet's tormentor. "Prosperity round about" became "Fear round about," a terror to himself and his friends.
- Song — the steel mouth hid a soft heart that broke in grief. Yet the Lord was with him, and the trial turned into praise, as it later did for Paul and Silas in prison.
And it came to pass the next day, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks; and Jeremiah said unto him, Jehovah hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.
Pashur, the temple's chief officer, had Jeremiah beaten and locked in the stocks overnight for preaching judgment on Jerusalem. The moment his feet are free, the prophet turns and gives his jailer a new name from God.
The punishment that precedes this verse was public and painful, and it was meant to break the prophet's nerve.
The stocks were instruments of torture. This time Jeremiah had to endure them for the rest of the day and the night that followed. These were hours of physical and mental suffering.
One writer fills in the scene, from the mocking crowd to the morning release.
He strikes Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks. This must have been some form of cruel torture that left the victim helpless. It also left him open to the crude abuse of the people who passed by and taunted him. Jeremiah stayed like this all night in front of the high gate of Benjamin. In the morning they let him go. He then speaks as only an inspired prophet can speak.
Jeremiah does not offer a nickname of his own. He says the LORD has named the man, and in Scripture naming is an act of authority.
God has authority to give names. The name God gives shows what He sees fit to express in the person who receives it. So a name says what someone is. He changed the names of some people: Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel. And He gave reasons why He changed them.
The force of the new name lies in the contrast with the old one. Commentators differ on what "Pashur" itself meant — one takes it as "most noble," another as "prosperity round about" — but they agree on the reversal it announces.
Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. So he struck him and put him in the stocks. But Pashur himself is made a sign. His name Pashur meant "Prosperity round about," yet it is changed to Magor-Missabib, which means "Fear round about." There is something startling and sharply expressive about this kind of naming in the Scriptures — the naming of the God who knows all things, we might say.
The new name reaches inside the man, and it fixes his end.
The margin reads "fear round about." The same Hebrew word is translated "fear on every side" in Jeremiah 20:10. God would make Pashur a terror to himself and to all his friends. He had prophesied lies, and he would die in Babylon.
Pashur held the office and gave the order. The new name tells him how briefly that power will last.
Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, was furious, and he used violence against the prophet with his own hands. Jeremiah tells him that his name will be called Magor-missabib, that is, Fear round about. This man was so bold against Jeremiah. Soon he would be humbled and filled with fear at what was about to happen to him.
This is not a man enjoying his revenge. The writers point to what it cost Jeremiah to say the words.
He did not steel his heart against the persecution at all. His mouth was like steel, no doubt, but his heart was very soft. It felt deep agony because of what he had to say against his enemy. So the very man who seemed unbendable was in truth held in the greatest grief before God.
He is not detached from the people he must warn.
Saying this was no routine duty for the prophet. He felt it all deeply. He felt it all the more because he knew how much this people and this city mattered to the Lord and to the whole world. He loved them, and he knew how the Lord loved them. But he also knew that the judgment had to come.
- Stocks — Pashur's power lasted one day and one night of public torture. Then the prisoner walked free and spoke the real sentence.
- Naming — God has the authority to give names, and the name He gives says what He sees. Jeremiah only passes on the LORD's verdict.
- Reversal — the name that meant prosperity or nobility becomes "Fear round about." The man's own name now announces his end.
- Inward — the terror is not only around Pashur but in him. God makes him a terror to himself and to all his friends.
- Cost — the prophet's mouth was like steel, but his heart was soft. He spoke the judgment in grief, because he loved the people it fell on.
For thus saith Jehovah Behold, I make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall see [it]; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall smite them with the sword.
Pashhur, a priest and chief officer of the temple, had Jeremiah beaten and locked in the stocks all night for preaching judgment. The next morning the freed prophet answers with a sentence from God: a new name for Pashhur, a sword for his friends, and Babylon for the whole nation.
Pashhur's blow came after a day of public warning in the temple court. The punishment that followed was not a token one.
Jeremiah had broken the jar in front of the elders and priests in the Valley of Hinnom. On his way back he stands again in the court of the Temple and warns the people of coming judgment. Pashur, a priest and chief officer in the house of God, hears him say these things. He strikes him and puts him in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin. The stocks were instruments of torture. This time Jeremiah has to bear them for the rest of the day and the night that followed. These were hours of physical and mental suffering. Their effect on his soul comes out in chapter 20:10-18.
Pashhur's name changed that morning. The new name was a sign, and it carried his whole future inside it.
Pashur himself is made a sign. His name Pashur meant "Prosperity round about," but it now becomes Magor-Missabib, meaning "Fear round about." There is something startling and sharply fitting about this kind of naming in the Scriptures of Truth — the naming of the God who knows all things, we might say. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends. And because he had prophesied lies, he and his family would be taken captive to Babylon, and would die and be buried there (v. 6).
Commentators differ on what the old name meant. Some read it as "prosperity round about," others as "most noble." They agree on the reversal, and on the man's silence as he heard it.
His name Pashur (which means "most noble") should now be "Magor-missabib," which means "terror on every side." The prophet foretells the terrible fate of Pashur and his household. Pashur is speechless, perhaps already struck with terror, as he looks into the flashing eyes of the man of God and listens to the fiery words.
Pashhur had prophesied lies, and he was not the only one. Men who promise safety in God's name meet a judgment shaped by their own promise.
Jeremiah lays before the Lord the thing that misled the people most, and that troubled him most of all. … The false prophets must be the first to fall by the very disaster they promised the people would escape. And the people must learn how foolish it is to trust man's promises, through their own deserved ruin.
The second half of the verse widens from one man to the whole nation. Why would God hand His own people over to a wicked empire?
God told His prophet Jeremiah to submit to the king of Babylon. That was the only path of safety, and the only way to honour Him. The king of Babylon might be very wicked. But God's people were wicked too. God gave them into the hands of the king of Babylon as a judgment on their evil.
Pashhur would soon be the frightened one. But saying so cost the prophet who said it.
This man who was so bold against Jeremiah would soon be a humbled and frightened man, because of what was about to come upon him. The attack by Pashur leads Jeremiah to open up his deep inward feeling. … He could not steel his heart against the persecution. His mouth was like steel, no doubt, but his heart was very soft, and he went through deep agony because of what he had to say against his enemy.
- Name — God renamed Pashhur "fear round about." The name was the verdict: the terror he inflicted came back on him.
- Lie — Pashhur had prophesied lies. Those who promise safety in God's name fall first by the disaster they denied.
- Sword — The terror was not only inward. He would watch his friends fall to their enemies' swords.
- Babylon — Judah's captors were wicked, yet God Himself handed the nation over to them, judging its evil.
- Messenger — The man with a mouth like steel had a soft heart; announcing this ruin left him in deep agony.
And, I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah, will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Pashhur, a priest and chief officer in the temple, had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks overnight for preaching judgment. Released the next morning, the prophet answered with a word about everything Jerusalem had stored up — and about who would hand it over.
The beating did not soften the message or shorten it. One writer shows the result. The attacker got a new name, and the forecast of loss grew more exact:
This chapter brings out the persecution by Pashur the son of Immer the priest, chief officer in the house of Jehovah. He struck Jeremiah and put his feet in the stocks. But the next morning the prophet gave his adversary a name from Jehovah: Magor-missabib, that is, fear round about. With it came an even more precise threat of swift judgment on all Judah, on the strength of the city, and on the treasures of the kings, which were to go to Babylon.
The man who tried to shut the prophet's mouth ended up inside the prophecy.
God renamed Pashhur, and the new name became the shape of his future.
Pashur himself becomes a sign. Though his name Pashur meant "Prosperity round about," God changes it to Magor-Missabib, meaning "Fear round about." There is something startling and sharply expressive about this kind of naming in the Scriptures of Truth. It is the naming of the all-knowing God, we might say. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends.
The verse does not speak in general terms. It names them one by one: wealth, gains, prized belongings, royal treasure — all into the enemy's hand:
God would give all the wealth of the guilty city to their enemies. They would carry its strength, its riches, its gains, its precious things and all the treasures of the kings of Judah away to Babylon.
Where the ESV reads "wealth" and "prized belongings," the older translation here says "strength" and "precious things." Note also the word "guilty." The loss is not bad luck in war. It is a sentence on a city God had warned again and again.
In the verse God gives the wealth "into the hand of their enemies." The enemy plunders, but only what God hands over. Jeremiah gives the king of Babylon a surprising title:
This book speaks about forty times of Nebuchadnezzar, whom the Lord calls "My Servant." God raised him up to carry out His judgment on Israel, and on other nations too. The Lord says, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, My Servant: … and all nations shall serve him." God gives him this dominion; He takes it away from Israel.
Long before, King Hezekiah showed his storehouses to envoys from Babylon. He then heard what that display would cost:
"Behold," says He, "the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord." … All was to go to that very Babylon whose ambassadors had trapped him. Everything his poor heart might boast of before the men of this world had to go to ruin. He had displayed his treasures to the world, and the world was about to carry off those very treasures. But the "peace and truth" — the treasures he had in God — "the world could neither give nor take away." It was "a better and an enduring substance" because it was "in heaven."
- Blow. Striking the messenger silenced nothing. The word only grew sharper and more exact.
- Name. God renamed a man. "Prosperity round about" became "Fear round about" — a terror to himself and his friends.
- Wealth. Wealth, gains, prized belongings, royal treasure — God lists every stored-up thing of a guilty city and hands it over.
- Hand. The Lord calls Babylon's king "My Servant" — the plunderer carries off only what God gives him.
- Keeping. The world carried off what Hezekiah showed it; the treasure he held in God the world could neither give nor take away.
And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophesied falsehood.
Pashur the priest had beaten Jeremiah and locked him in the stocks. Now he hears his own future: exile, death and burial in Babylon, with his household and every friend who had believed his comfortable message.
This sentence comes with a new name. One writer explains both names, and why the lies end in Babylon:
Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, heard that Jeremiah was prophesying these things. So he struck him and put him in the stocks (Jer. 20:2). But he himself becomes a sign. His name Pashur meant "Prosperity round about." It is changed to Magor-Missabib, meaning "Fear round about." This kind of naming in the Scriptures of Truth is startling and sharply fitting — the naming of the all-knowing God, we might say. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends. He had prophesied lies. So he and his household would go captive to Babylon, and die and be buried there (v. 6).
Commentators differ on what Pashur's own name meant, though they agree on the new one:
His name Pashur (which means "most noble") should now be "Magor-missabib," which means "terror on every side."
The threat to Pashur does not stand alone. It is delivered with a wider announcement about the city he served:
The next day the prophet gave his adversary a name from Jehovah: Magor-missabib, that is, fear round about. With it came a still more precise threat of swift judgment on all Judah. The strength of the city and the treasures of the kings would go to Babylon.
He promised his hearers safety from the very thing that now takes him. One writer states the rule behind that reversal:
The false prophets must be the first to fall by the very evil they promised the people would escape. And the people must learn the folly of listening to man's promises, through their own righteous ruin.
Pashur was a priest, from the same family line as the prophet he had struck:
As to the priests, we see a picture which, sadly, is only too common all through the Bible. "Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their evil, declares the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness." Pashur, like Jeremiah, was of the priestly family. His sin brought judgment upon him, as Jeremiah 20 records. He is a striking example.
Speaking this sentence did not leave Jeremiah unmoved. The words were firm, but the man who spoke them was in pieces:
This attack by Pashur leads Jeremiah to unfold his deep inward feeling. His language is very beautiful to my mind. There was no steeling of his heart against the persecution. His mouth was like one of steel, no doubt. But his heart was very soft indeed. It went through deep agony because of what he had to say against his adversary. So the man who seemed as if nothing could bend him was in truth held in the greatest grief before God. At last he pours it out to the Lord.
The grief did not have the last word. Another writer points to the praise that follows:
This is always the way with the one who has first-hand, conscious dealings with the blessed God. Mere theology never produces this. The prophet continues his glad strain: HALLELUJAH! he cries; and he gives a very good reason for such glad praise. "He has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers"!
- Name. "Prosperity round about" becomes "Fear round about." God renames the man after what is coming to him.
- Terror. The name comes true in him first. He becomes a terror to himself and to his friends.
- Road. The fear ends in exile. Pashur and his household go to Babylon, with the city's treasures, and there he dies and is buried.
- Cause. The reason given is his lying message. Those who promise safety in God's name fall first by the very evil they denied.
- Contrast. Office was no shield. God judges a priest in His own house, while the beaten prophet ends up praising Him for delivering the needy.