Jeremiah 20:1-6

C. The Arrest of the Prophet Jeremiah 19:14 to Jeremiah 20:6

TRANSLATION

(14) And Jeremiah went from Topheth where the LORD had sent him to prophesy and he stood in the court of the house of the LORD and spoke unto all the people. (15) Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to bring against this city and against her cities all the evil which I have spoken concerning it for they have stiffened their neck that they might not hear My words. (1) Now Pashur the son of Immer, the priest who was chief overseer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. (2) Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks which were in the upper Benjamin Gate which was in the house of the Lord. (3) And it came to pass the next morning that Pashur released Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said unto him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur but Magormissabib. (4) For thus says the LORD: Behold, I am about to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies and your eyes shall see it. And all Judah I will give into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall take them captive into Babylon or he shall smite them with the sword. (5) And I will give away all the wealth of this city and all the fruit of her labor and all her precious things: and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies. They shall plunder them and take them and bring them to Babylon. (6) And you, Pashur, and all the inhabitants of your house shall go into captivity; and you shall go to Babylon and there you shall die and there you shall be buried both yourself and all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.

COMMENTS

The prophet had pronounced his message of doom so courageously and boldly that no one dared to interrupt him or raise a hand against him. So he leaves the valley of Hinnom and returns to the Temple area to preach to the throngs there (Jeremiah 19:14). It is impossible to determine whether Jeremiah 19:15 is merely a summary of what Jeremiah said in the court of the Temple or whether on the other hand he had only begun to preach when he was interrupted. The former alternative seems more likely. In either case the message preached in the Temple court was one of judgment. Pashur the priest who was chief overseer in the house of the Lord heard that sermon (Jeremiah 20:1). Pashur was second in authority to the high priest (Jeremiah 29:26). His duty was to see that no unauthorized person entered the Temple area and that no disturbance was committed within the courts. Pashur smote Jeremiah which probably means that the prophet was scourged with forty stripes (Deuteronomy 25:3). He then ordered that Jeremiah be put in the stocks. The exact nature of this instrument of torture is not clear but the Hebrew word suggests a device which distorts or twists the body, or forces it into a cramped posture. The stocks are mentioned again in Jeremiah 29:26. The Book of Chronicles refers to a house of stocks (2 Chronicles 16:10), so apparently the punishment was not uncommon. But in the case of Jeremiah the stocks were in public, in the upper Benjamin gate which was in the house of the Lord (Jeremiah 19:2). The tribe of Benjamin lay north of Jerusalem. Thus this gate was probably on the north side of the Temple. The phrase which was in the house of the Lord serves to distinguish this gate from the city gate of the same name (Jeremiah 37:13; Jeremiah 38:7). This is probably the same gate called by Ezekiel the higher gate (Jeremiah 9:2) which was built by king Jotham (2 Kings 15:35). It probably was one of the main gates leading from the Temple area to the city proper.

When Jeremiah was released from the stocks the next morning he had a special message for Pashur. The Lord has not called your name Pashur but Magor-missabib (Jeremiah 19:3). Pashur's new name means terror round about. This symbolic name signifies one who is surrounded by horror on all sides and who becomes an object of horror and fear to himself and to others. Pashur would live to see his friends slain by the sword and the rest of the men of Judah either slain or taken captive to Babylon (Jeremiah 19:4). All the wealth of the nation will be given by the Lord to the enemies of Judah and the national treasures will be taken to Babylon along with the captives (Jeremiah 19:5). Pashur himself and the members of his household would be taken to Babylon where they would all die and be buried. For a misguided patriot like Pashur the worst fate imaginable would be to die and be buried in a foreign land. It is not the personal mistreatment of Jeremiah that brought about this extreme prophecy of personal doom to Pashur. Rather it is the fact that he had prophesied lies (Jeremiah 19:6). What the nature of these lies were cannot be ascertained from the account.

Some have conjectured that Pashur was the leader of the pro-Egyptian party in Judah. Perhaps this would account for his fierce opposition to Jeremiah. His pro-Egyptian policy led to national and personal disaster and caused the terror which was about to come upon the land. In Jeremiah 29:26 Pashur's office is filled by a fellow named Zephaniah. This would suggest that Jeremiah's prophecy had already been fulfilled. No doubt Pashur was taken captive either in the deportation of 605 B.C. or in the deportation of 597 B.C. The latter is more likely.