_Pashur the son of Immer_ Pashur was not the immediate son of Immer, but of Melchiah, as is expressly mentioned 1 Chronicles 9:12, and hereafter, Jeremiah 21:1. Immer was one of his predecessors, and head of the sixteenth sacerdotal class, 1 Chronicles 24:14. Pashur was not high-priest, as some of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then Pashur smote Jeremiah_, &c. He thought, no doubt, that Jeremiah's speaking so plainly of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and of the miseries which should befall it, deserved that he should be arrested and put in confinement, to prevent his speaking thus freely: and accordingly he treats him as the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jeremiah said, The Lord hath not called_ Rather, _doth not call thy name Pashur; but Magor-missabib_ That is, _Terror on every side_, or, _Terror to all around_, as the name is explained in the next verse. God's giving him this name: signifies his changing the circumstances or condition of the pers... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Lord, thou hast deceived me_, &c. This is a very harsh and improper translation of the prophet's words, פתיתני ואפת, which properly and literally signify, _Thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded._ Some, to make the sense more clear, supply a few words, and make the whole sentence stand thus;... [ Continue Reading ]
_For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil_ Or, rather, as Houbigant renders it, _For since I spake, and cried against iniquity, and denounced desolation, the word of the Lord_, &c. Blaney's translation is nearly to the same sense: _For as often as I speak, whether I cry out against... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I heard the defaming of many_ The slanderous, injurious reports that were raised concerning me; _fear on every side_ Hebrew, _magor-missabib;_ as if he had said, The name given to Pashur would have suited me; fear, or cause for fear, was on every side of me. These words are found verbatim in th... [ Continue Reading ]
_But, O Lord, that triest the righteous_ That triest their faith and patience, in order to the farther purification of their souls, and the increase of these and all their other graces; or, who takest cognizance of them, and of every cause in which they are interested; and who dost not judge in thei... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cursed be the day_, &c. If the reader be surprised at this sudden change of the prophet's discourse, from joyful thanks for deliverance to bitter complaints, he must observe that the order of time is not strictly observed in the prophetic writings, nor does the discourse always go on in a regular s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cursed be the man_, &c. As in the forms of rejoicing upon a birth-day they blessed every person and thing concerned in the birth, and said, _Blessed be the womb that bare thee_, and the like, and he that brought the joyful news was always rewarded, so in the forms of sorrow for the miserable they u... [ Continue Reading ]