Jeremiah 20:3

3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "Pashhur is not the name the LORD has ¹called you, but rather * ²Magor-missabib.

Jeremiah 20:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 20:3

And it came to pass on the morrow
After the prophet was put into the stocks; so that he was there all night: that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks;
either to bring him before the priests, or the sanhedrim, to be examined; or in order to dismiss him, being either admonished by his friends, or convicted in his own conscience that he had done a wrong thing; then said Jeremiah unto him;
when he had brought him out, not being at all intimidated by him, and having a word from the Lord for him: the Lord hath not called thy name Pashur;
which, according to Jerom, signifies "blackness of mouth"; and, according to others, "diffusing paleness"; one that terrified others, and made their faces look pale; but now it should be otherwise, and he himself should be filled with terror, and have paleness of thee: but, according to a late etymologist, it signifies one abounding or "increased in liberty" ^F24, who in a little time would become a captive; for it is not suggested hereby that he should no more be called by this name, but that he should be in a condition which would not answer to it, but to another, as follows: but Magormissabib;
or, "fear round about"; signifying that terrors should be all around him, and he in the utmost fright and consternation. The Septuagint version renders it "one removing"; changing from place to place; that is, going into captivity; a stranger and wanderer, as the Syriac version. The Targum is,

``but there shall be gathered together against thee those that kill with the sword round about;''

meaning the Chaldeans, which would make him a "Magormissabib".

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 (vp) "abundantiam" , & (rwx) liberum sonat", Hiller. Onomast. Sacr. p. 302. Paschchur, "auctus libertate", ib. p. 904.

Jeremiah 20:3 In-Context

1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD , heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,

2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD .

3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib.

4 "For thus says the LORD , 'Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword.

5 'I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 8:3; Hosea 1:4, 9
• 2. Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:10

Footnotes

• [a] I.e. terror on every side