Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in Yahweh’s house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in Yahweh’s house. On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib. For Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword. Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies. They will make them captives, take them, and carry them to Babylon.
You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity. You will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.’ ”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6 Jeremiah relates here what sort of reward he had…
Jeremiah relates here what sort of reward he had received for his prophecy, — that he had been smitten and cast into prison, not by the king or by his courtiers, but by a priest who had the care of the Temple. It was a grievous and bitter trial when God’s servant found that he was thus cruelly treated by one of the sacred order, who was of the same tribe, and his colleague; for the priests who were then in office had not been without right appointed, for God had chosen them. As, then, their authority was founded on the Law and on God’s inviolable decree, Jeremiah might well have been much terrified; for this thought might have occurred to him, — “What can be the purpose of God? for he has set priests of the tribe of Levi over his Temple and over his whole people. Why, then, does he not rule them by his Spirit? Why does he not render them fit for their office?
Why does he suffer his Temple, and the sacred office which he so highly commends to us in his Law, to be thus profaned? or why, at least, does he not stretch forth his hand to defend me, who am also a priest, and sincerely engaged in my calling?” For we know that God commands in his Law, as a proof that the priests had supreme power, that whosoever disobeyed them should be put to death.
Read full note →
(Deuteronomy 17:12.) “Since, then, it was God’s will to endue the priests with so much authority and power, why therefore did he not guide them by his grace, that they might faithfully execute the office committed to them?”
Nor was Jeremiah alone moved and shaken by this trial, but all who then truly worshipped God. Small, indeed, was the number of the godly; but there was surely no one who was not astonished at such a spectacle as this.
Pashur was not the chief priest, though he was of the first order of priests; and it is probable that Immer, his father, was the high priest, and that he was his vicar, acting in his stead as the ruler of the Temple. However this may have been, he was no doubt superior, not only to the Levites, but also to the other priests of his order. Now this person, being of the same order and family, rose up against Jeremiah, and not only condemned in words a fellow-priest, but treated him outrageously, for he smote the Prophet. This was unworthy of his station, and contrary to the rights of sacred fellowship; for if the cause of Jeremiah was bad, yet a priest ought to have pursued a milder course; he might have cast him into prison, that if found guilty, he might afterwards be condemned. But to smite him was not the act of a priest, but of a tyrant, of a ruffian, or of a furious man.
We may hence learn in what a disorder things were at that time; for in a well-ordered community the judge does not leap from his tribunal in order to strike a man, though he might deserve a hundred deaths, as regard ought to be had to what is lawful. Now, if a judge, whom God has armed with the sword, ought not thus to give vent to his wrath and without discretion use the sword, it is surely a thing wholly inconsistent with the office of a priest. Then the state of things must have been then in very great disorder, when a priest thus disgraced himself. And from his precipitant rage we may also gather that good men were then very few. He had been chosen to preside over the Temple; he must then have excelled others not only as to his station, but also in public esteem and in the possession of some kind of virtues. But we see how he was led away by the evil spirit.
These things we ought carefully to consider, for it happens sometimes that great commotions arise in the Church of God, and those who ought to be moderators are often carried away by a blind and, as it were, a furious zeal. We may then stumble, and our faith may wholly fail us, except such an example as this affords us aid, which shews clearly that the faithful were formerly tried and had their faith exercised by similar contests. It is not then uselessly said that Pashur smote Jeremiah Had he struck one of the common people, it would have been more endurable, though in that case it would have been an act wholly unworthy of his office; but when he treated insolently the servant of God, and one who had for a long time discharged the prophetic office, it was far less excusable. This circumstance, then, ought to be noticed by us, that the priest dared to strike the Prophet of God.
It then follows that Jeremiah was cast by him into prison But we must notice this, that he had heard the words of Jeremiah before he became infuriated against him. He ought, doubtless, to have been moved by such a prophecy; but he became mad and so audacious as to smite God’s Prophet. It hence appears how great is the stupidity of those who have once become so hardened as to despise God; for even the worst of men are terrified when God’s judgment is announced. But Pashur heard Jeremiah proclaiming the evil that was near at hand; and yet the denunciation had no other effect on him but to render him worse. As, then, he thus violently assailed God’s Prophet, after having heard his words, it is evident that he was blinded by a rage wholly diabolical. We also see that the despisers of God blend light with darkness, for Pashur covered his impiety with a cloak, and hence cast Jeremiah into prison; for in this way he shewed that he wished to know the state of the case, as he brought him out of prison the following day. Thus the ungodly ever try to make coverings for their impiety; but they never succeed. The hypocrisy of Pashur was very gross when he cast Jeremiah into prison, in order that he might afterwards call him to defend his cause, for he had already smitten him. This great insolence, then, took away every pretense for justice. It was therefore extremely frivolous for Pashur to have recourse afterwards to some form of trial for deciding the case.
The word מהפכת, mephicat, is rendered by some, fetter; and by others, stocks; and they think it to be a piece of wood, with one hole to confine the neck, and another the feet. But I know not whether this is suitable here, for Jeremiah says that it was in the higher gate of Benjamin. This certainly could not be properly said of fetters, or of chains, or of stocks. It then follows that it was a prison. He mentions the gate of Benjamin, as it belonged to that tribe; for we know that a part of Jerusalem was inhabited by the Benjamites. They had two gates, and this was the higher gate towards the east. He says that it was opposite the house of Jehovah; for besides the court there were many small courts, as it is well known, around the Temple. It follows: —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 6 Thus we see that the thing which neither the…
Thus we see that the thing which neither the King, nor the princes, nor the people durst enterprise against the Prophet of God, this Priest as a chief instrument of Satan first attempted, read Jer. 18:18.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Jer 20:1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the…
Jer 20:1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who [was] also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Ver. 1. Now Pashur the son of Immer,] i.e., One of the posterity of Immer, after many generations. See 1Ch 24:14.
Read full note →
Who was also chief governor.] Not high priest, as some have said, but a principal priest, haply the head of the sixteenth course; or, as Junius and others think, the high priest’s vicar, or second. Such as was Eleazar to Aaron his father. {Num 4:16}
Heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.] Or, Heard Jeremiah prophesying; and having gall in his ears, as they say some creatures have, he was galled at the hearing of so smart a truth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–6 The course of Immer was the sixteenth course of…
The course of Immer was the sixteenth course of the priests, as we read in 1Ch 24:14.
Pashur was his son, that is, descended from him through many generations. It is neither much material for us to know, nor very easy to determine, in what sense he is called the
Read full note →
chief governor of the temple, whether he was deputy to the high priest, or the head of his course, which at that time waited in the temple, or had some place as captain of the temple, to take notice of any disorders should be committed there, contrary to the law. Certain it is he was no high priest, for then he could not have been one of the course of Immer.
Heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things; either he heard Jeremiah himself, (which is most probable,) or somebody told him what Jeremiah had prophesied in the temple, which was within his charge and jurisdiction.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and…
Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the fruits of that displeasure, Jer 20:1, Jer 20:2. This Pashur was a priest, and therefore, one would think, should have protected Jeremiah, who was of his own order, a priest too, and the more because he was a prophet of the Lord, whose interests the priests, his ministers, ought to consult. But this priest was a persecutor of him whom he should have patronized. He was the son of Immer; that is, he was of the sixteenth course of the priests, of which Immer, when these courses were first settled by David, was father (Ch1 24:14), as Zechariah was of the order of Abiah, Luk 1:5. Thus this Pashur is distinguished from another of the same name mentioned Jer 21:1, who was of the fifth course. This Pashur was chief governor in the temple; perhaps he was only so pro tempore - for a short period, the course he was head of being now in waiting, or he was suffragan to the high priest, or perhaps captain of the temple or of the guards about it. Act 4:1. This was Jeremiah's great enemy. The greatest malignity to God's prophets was found among those that professed sanctity and concern for God and the church. We cannot suppose that Pashur was one of those ancients of the priests that went with Jeremiah to the valley of Tophet to hear him prophesy, unless it were with a malicious design to take advantage against him; but, when he came into the courts of the Lord's house, it is probable that he was himself a witness of what he said, and so it may be read (Jer 20:1), He heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. As we read it, the information was brought to him by others, whose examinations he took: He heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things, and could not bear it, especially that he should dare to preach in the courts of the Lord's house, where he was chief governor, without his leave. When power in the church is abused, it is the most dangerous power that can be employed against it. Being incensed at Jeremiah, 1. He smote him, struck him with his hand or staff of authority. Perhaps it was a blow intended only to disgrace him, like that which the high priest ordered to be given to Paul (Act 23:2), he struck him on the mouth, and bade him hold his prating. Or perhaps he gave him many blows intended to hurt him; he beat him severely, as a malefactor. It is charged upon the husbandmen (Mat 21:35) that they beat the servants. The method of proceeding here was illegal; the high priest, and the rest of the priests, ought to have been consulted, Jeremiah's credentials examined, and the matter enquired into, whether he had an authority to say what he said. But these rules of justice are set aside and despised, as mere formalities; right or wrong, Jeremiah must be run down. The enemies of piety would never suffer themselves to be bound by the laws of equity. 2. He put him in the stocks. Some make it only a place of confinement; he imprisoned him. It rather seems to be an instrument of closer restraint, and intended to put him both to pain and shame. Some think it was a pillory for his neck and arms; others (as we) a pair of stocks for his legs: whatever engine it was, he continued in it all night, and in a public place too, in the high gate of Benjamin, which was in, or by, the house of the Lord, probably a gate through which they passed between the city and the temple. Pashur intended thus to chastise him, that he might deter him from prophesying; and thus to expose him to contempt and render him odious, that he might not be regarded if he did prophesy. Thus have the best men met with the worst treatment from this ungracious ungrateful world; and the greatest blessings of their age have been counted as the off-scouring of all things. Would it not raise a pious indignation to see such a man as Pashur upon the bench and such a man as Jeremiah in the stocks? It is well that there is another life after this, when persons and things will appear with another face.
II. God's just displeasure against Pashur, and the tokens of it. On the morrow Pashur gave Jeremiah his discharge, brought him out of the stocks (Jer 20:3); it is probable that he continued him there, in little-ease, as long as was usual to continue any in that punishment. And now Jeremiah has a message from God to him. We do not find that, when Pashur put Jeremiah in the stocks, the latter gave him any check for which he did; he appears to have quietly and silently submitted to the abuse; when he suffered, he threatened not. But, when he brought him out of the stocks, then God put a word into the prophet's mouth, which would awaken his conscience, if he had any. For, when the prophet of the Lord was bound, the word of the Lord was not. What can we think Pashur aimed at in smiting and abusing Jeremiah? Whatever it is, we shall see by what God says to him that he is disappointed.
Read full note →
1. Did he aim to establish himself, and make himself easy, by silencing one that told him of his faults and would be likely to lessen his reputation with the people? He shall not gain this point; for, (1.) Though the prophet should be silent, his own conscience shall fly in his face and make him always uneasy. To confirm this he shall have a name given him, Magor-missabib - Terror round about, or Fear on every side. God himself shall give him this name, whose calling him so will make him so. It seems to be a proverbial expression, bespeaking a man not only in distress but in despair, not only in danger on every side (that a man may be and yet by faith may be in no terror, as David, Psa 3:6, Psa 27:3), but in fear on every side, and that a man may be when there appears no danger. The wicked flee when no man pursues, are in great gear where no fear is. This shall be Pashur's case (Jer 20:4): "Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself; that is, thou shalt be subject to continual frights, and thy own fancy and imagination shall create thee a constant uneasiness." Note, God can make the most daring sinner a terror to himself, and will find out a way to frighten those that frighten his people from doing their duty. And those that will not hear of their faults from God's prophets, that are reprovers in the gate, shall be made to hear of them from conscience, which is a reprover in their own bosoms that will not be daunted nor silenced. And miserable is the man that is thus made a terror to himself. Yet this is not all; some are very much a terror to themselves, but they conceal it and seem to others to be pleasant; but, "I will make thee a terror to all thy friends; thou shalt, upon all occasions, express thyself with so much horror and amazement that all thy friends shall be afraid of conversing with thee and shall choose to stand aloof from thy torment." Persons in deep melancholy and distraction are a terror to themselves and all about them, which is a good reason why we should be very thankful, so long as God continues to us the use of our reason and the peace of our consciences. (2.) His friends, whom he put a confidence in and perhaps studied to oblige in what he did against Jeremiah, shall all fail him. God does not presently strike him dead for what he did against Jeremiah, but lets him live miserably, like Cain in the land of shaking, in such a continual consternation that wherever he goes he shall be a monument of divine justice; and, when it is asked, "What makes this man in such a continual terror?" it shall be answered, "It is God's hand upon him for putting Jeremiah in the stocks." His friends, who should encourage him, shall all be cut off; they shall fall by the sword of the enemy, and his eyes shall behold it, which dreadful sight shall increase his terror. (3.) He shall find, in the issue, that his terror is not causeless, but that divine vengeance is waiting for him (Jer 20:6); he and his family shall go into captivity, even to Babylon; he shall neither die before the evil comes, as Josiah, nor live to survive it, as some did, but he shall die a captive, and shall in effect be buried in his chains, he and all his friends. Thus far is the doom of Pashur. Let persecutors read it, and tremble; tremble to repentance before they be made to tremble to their ruin.
2. Did he aim to keep the people easy, to prevent the destruction that Jeremiah prophesied of, and by sinking his reputation to make his words fall to the ground? It is probable that he did; for it appears by Jer 20:6 that he did himself set up for a prophet, and told the people that they should have peace. He prophesied lies to them; and because Jeremiah's prophecy contradicted his, and tended to awaken those whom he endeavoured to rock asleep in their sins, therefore he set himself against him. But could he gain his point? No; Jeremiah stands to what he has said against Judah and Jerusalem, and God by his mouth repeats it. Men get nothing by silencing those who reprove and warn them, for the word will have its course; so it had here. (1.) The country shall be ruined (Jer 20:4): I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. It had long been God's own land, but he will now transfer his title to it to Nebuchadnezzar, he shall be master of the country and dispose of the inhabitants some to the sword and some to captivity, as he pleases, but none shall escape him. (2.) The city shall be ruined too, Jer 20:5. The king of Babylon shall spoil that, and carry all that is valuable in it to Babylon. [1.] He shall seize their magazines and military stores (here called the strength of this city) and turn them against them. These they trusted to as their strength; but what stead could they stand them in when they had thrown themselves out of God's protection, and when he who was indeed their strength had departed from them? [2.] He shall carry off all their stock in trade, their wares and merchandises, here called their labours, because it was what they laboured about and got by their labour. [3.] He shall plunder their fine houses, and take away their rich furniture, here called their precious things, because they valued them and set their hearts so much upon them. Happy are those who have secured to themselves precious things in God's precious promises, which are out of the reach of soldiers. [4.] He shall rifle the exchequer, and take away the jewels of the crown and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. This was that instance of the calamity which was first of all threatened to Hezekiah long ago as his punishment for showing his treasures to the king of Babylon's ambassadors, Isa 39:6. The treasury, they thought, was their defence; but that betrayed them, and became an easy prey to the enemy.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest,.... Not…
Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest,.... Not the immediate son of Immer, but one that descended from him after many generations; for Immer was a priest in David's time, to whom the sixteenth course of the priests fell by lot, Ch1 24:14;
who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord; the temple; not the high priest, since he was of the course of Immer; perhaps he was the head of the course to which he belonged, the chief of the priests of that course. The Targum calls him the "sagan" of the priests. There was such an officer, who was called the "sagan" or deputy to the high priest, who upon certain occasions acted for him; and some think that this man was in the same office; though others take him to be the same with the captain of the temple, Act 4:1. Who
Read full note →
heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things; some that heard him in the court of the temple prophesying of the evil that should come upon the city, and places adjacent to it, went and told the chief governor of it. Though the words may be rendered, "now Pashur heard (u)----Jeremiah prophesying these things"; he heard him himself; either he was one of the ancients of the priests that went with him to Tophet, and heard him there; or, however, when he came from thence, and stood and prophesied in the court of the temple, he heard him.
(u) "audivit autem", Paschchurus, Schmidt; "audiens autem", Paschhur, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Pashur smiting Jeremiah for this prophecy, receives a new…
Pashur smiting Jeremiah for this prophecy, receives a new name, and fearful doom, ver. 1-6. Jeremiah's impatience under their treachery and contempt, ver. 7-10. Rejoices in hope of vengeance, ver. 11-13. Curses his birth, ver. 14-18.
Immer - The course of Immer was the sixteenth course of the priests, 1 Chron. xxiv, 14. Pashur was his son, that is descended from him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6 Jeremiah, on account of his prophesying evil concerning Judah
CHAPTER XX
Jeremiah, on account of his prophesying evil concerning Judah
Read full note →
and Jerusalem, is beaten and imprisoned by Pashur, chief
governor of the temple, 1, 2.
On the following day the prophet is released, who denounces the
awful judgments of God which should fall upon the governor and
all his house, as well as upon the whole land of Judah, in the
approaching Babylonish captivity, 3-6.
Jeremiah then bitterly complains of the reproaches continually
heaped upon him by his enemies; and, in his haste, resolves to
speak no more in the name of Jehovah; but the word of the Lord
is in his heart as a burning flame, so that he is not able to
forbear, 7-10.
The prophet professes his trust in God, whom he praises for his
late deliverance, 11-13.
The remaining verses, which appear to be out of their place,
contain Jeremiah's regret that he was ever born to a life of so
much sorrow and trouble, 14-18.
This complaint resembles that of Job; only it is milder and
more dolorous. This excites our pity, that our horror. Both are
highly poetical, and embellished with every circumstance that
can heighten the colouring. But such circumstances are not
always to be too literally understood or explained. We must
often make allowances for the strong figures of eastern poetry.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX
Verse 1. Pashur - chief governor] Pashur was probably one of the chief priests of the twenty-four classes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Jer 20:1. Pashur the son of Immer — Pashur…
Jer 20:1. Pashur the son of Immer — Pashur was not the immediate son of Immer, but of Melchiah, as is expressly mentioned 1Ch 9:12, and hereafter, Jer 21:1. Immer was one of his predecessors, and head of the sixteenth sacerdotal class, 1Ch 24:14. Pashur was not high-priest, as some of the ancients have thought, but only captain, or overseer of the temple. In this capacity he had power to arrest and put in prison the false prophets, and those who caused any disturbance in the temple. This matter is further explained, by Blaney, thus: “The priests being distributed, by David, into twenty-four courses, under as many heads of families, and each of these courses officiating by turns in the temple service; the heads of each course were governors of the sanctuary; or, according to our translation, of the house of God. The meaning then will be, that these heads of the courses had not only the chief ordering of the service of the sanctuary, but were invested also with authority, at least within the precincts of the temple, to maintain peace and good order there. These persons I consider as being the same with those who in the New Testament are styled αρχιερεις, chief priests, being next in dignity and power to the high-priest. Pashur, it seems, was the head of the course of Immer. So that, if the course of Immer was at that time upon duty, Pashur was at the same time the acting ruler or commander in the temple. And this I conceive to be implied in the words here used, נגיד, implying his authority to command, and פקיד, that he was then in the exercise of it; and by virtue of that authority he took upon him to punish Jeremiah as a disturber of the peace. I have given this officer, or magistrate,” (namely, in his translation,) “the military title of commanding officer, because it was usual to consider the temple as a kind of garrison, held by high-priests under military subordination. And for this reason, no doubt, we find him called by the name of στρατηγος του ιερου, captain of the temple, Act 4:1; Act 5:24; Act 5:26. In Luk 22:52, captains, στρατηγοι, are spoken of, in the plural number; which may perhaps be thus accounted for. As on the great festivals, not only the priests of the ordinary course, but the whole body of priests, were called upon to assist in the sacrifices; so on account of the multitudes that flocked to the temple at these times, the guards were also necessarily doubled, and, of course, a greater number of captains were on constant duty; and many, if not all these, came to assist in apprehending Jesus, as on a service which might be esteemed hazardous, on account of the number of his disciples.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Pashur, the father probably of the Gedaliah mentioned in…
Pashur, the father probably of the Gedaliah mentioned in Jer 38:1, was the head of the 16th course (shift) of priests (marginal reference); the other Pashur Jer 21:1 belonged to the fifth course, the sons of Melchiah. Both these houses returned in great strength from the exile. See Ezr 2:37-38.
Chief governor - Or, “deputy governor.” The Nagid or governer of the temple was the high priest 1Ch 9:11, and Pashur was his Pakid, i. e., deputy (see Jer 1:10 note). Zephaniah held this office Jer 29:26, and his relation to the high priest is exactly defined 2Ki 25:18; Jer 52:24. The Nagid at this time was Seraiah the high priest, the grandson of Hilkiah, or (possibly) Azariah, Hilkiah’s son and Jeremiah’s brother 1Ch 6:13, Ezr 7:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6 Son, or descendant. His father was Melchia, chap. xxi.…
Son, or descendant. His father was Melchia, chap. xxi. 1., and 1 Paralipomenon ix. 12. (Calmet) --- Chief: high priest, (Theodoret) or rather a chief officer, (chap. xxix. 25.) or prince, (Matthew xxvi. 27.; Tolet.; Grotius) whose duty it was to take up impostors. He treated Jeremias in this light. (Calmet) --- See Luke xxii. 52. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–6 The fact that Pashur was of the same order…
The fact that Pashur was of the same order and of the same family as Jeremiah aggravates the indignity of the blow (Kg1 22:24; Mat 26:67).
stocks--an instrument of torture with five holes, in which the neck, two hands, and two feet were thrust, the body being kept in a crooked posture (Jer 29:26). From a Hebrew root, to "turn," or "rack." This marks Pashur's cruelty.
Read full note →
high--that is, the upper gate (Kg2 15:35).
gate of Benjamin--a gate in the temple wall, corresponding to the gate of Benjamin, properly so called, in the city wall, in the direction of the territory of Benjamin (Jer 7:2; Jer 37:13; Jer 38:7). The temple gate of Benjamin, being on a lofty position, was called "the high gate," to distinguish it from the city wall gate of Benjamin.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6 THE OPPOSITION AND THE PUNISHMENT OF PASHUR, Jer_20:1-6.
THE OPPOSITION AND THE PUNISHMENT OF PASHUR, Jer_20:1-6.
1. Pashur — Many individuals of this name are mentioned, but none can be certainly identified with this one. It is possible, and indeed probable, but by no means certain, that he is the one mentioned in Jer_38:1, as the father of Gedaliah. The Pashur of the following chapter is another person. This one seems to have stood at the head of the sixteenth course of priests, (1Ch_24:14,) called sons of Immer, who was their ancestor in David’s time. Of this house ten hundred and fifty-two men returned from the exile.
Read full note →
Chief governor — The epithet “chief” implies that there were many. He was the temple governor, and in dignity ranked next to the high priest. See Jer_29:25-26; Jer_52:24.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6 Jer_20:1. Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest]…
Jer_20:1. Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest] The name seems to have been a common one. In Jer_21:1 and Jer_38:1 a P. “son of Malchiah” is mentioned, and in the latter v. we find a third (possibly, however, identical with the present one), who was father of Gedaliah. Doubt has been thrown on the authentic character of this passage, inasmuch as in later times Immer (Ezr_2:37; Ezr_10:20; Neh_7:40; Neh_11:13) and apparently Pashhur (see on Ezr_2:38 in C.B.) were the names of priestly families, while in Jeremiah they are personal names. Moreover, since in b.c. 537 the priestly house of Immer was 1052 strong (Ezr_2:37 and so Neh_7:40), it cannot have been named after the father of this P. But “son of Immer,” as Co. points out, may only mean a member of the family named after him as ancestor. Du. maintains that there is no room for the P. of the text here, as Jer_29:26 shews that the predecessor of the Zephaniah, there mentioned as holding the same office, was not P. but Jehoiada. Erbt, on the other hand, points out that the office need not be the same, for in Jer_52:24 we find that Zephaniah is but one of several officers of the Temple, and so, at the time to which Jer_29:26 belongs, may have been the chief of the three “keepers of the door,” and not successor to the office here held by Pashhur.
chief officer] lit. overseer, ruler, but the latter word in MT. “is probably a gloss, identifying Jeremiah’s ‘overseer’ (see Jer_29:26) with the ‘ruler’ often mentioned in later times in connexion with the Temple, 1Ch_9:11 (= Neh_11:11); 2Ch_31:13; 2Ch_35:8.” Dr.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–6 (1) Pashur the son of Immer.—The description must be…
XX.
(1) Pashur the son of Immer.—The description must be remembered as distinguishing him from the son of Melchiah of the same name in Jer_21:1. We may probably identify him with the father of the Gedaliah named in Jer_38:1 as among the “princes” that at a later date opposed the prophet’s work, and with the section of the priesthood, the sixteenth, named in 1Ch_24:14, as headed in the time of David by Immer. The name here (like that of “the sons of Korah”) may indicate simply the fact that he belonged to this section; or, possibly, the name of the patriarch (so to speak) who gave its name to it may have re-appeared from time to time in the line of his descendants. The name of Pashur appears again, after the Captivity, in Ezr_2:37-38.
Read full note →
Chief governor.—Better, deputy-governor. The word for governor is Nâgid, and this office was assigned to the high priest as the “ruler of the house of God” (1Ch_9:11; 2Ch_31:13). In the case of Zephaniah, who appears as Nâgid in Jer_29:26, it was given to him as the “second priest” (2Ki_25:18; Jer_52:14). Next in order to him was the Pakid, the deputy, or, perhaps, better, superintendent. Here Pashur is described by the combination of the two titles, possibly as implying that he was invested, though a “deputy,” with the full powers of the “governor.” By some commentators, however, the relation of the two words is inverted, the Nâgid being added to the Pakid, to imply that Pashur was the chief warden or overseer. As such, on either view, the act and the words of Jeremiah came under his official notice. That such words should be spoken in the court of the Temple to the multitude assembled there was, we must believe, something new, and Pashur was resolved at any cost to prevent its repetition.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6 The continuation of the preceding narrative. Pashur the son…
The continuation of the preceding narrative. Pashur the son of Trainer. This man belonged to the sixteenth of the sacerdotal families or classes. (1Ch_24:14) Another of the same name is referred to in Jer_21:1 (see note). The one here mentioned was "chief overseer"; (there were several inferior overseers, 2Ch_31:13) the eminence of the position appears from the fact that Zephaniah. (Jer_52:24) Heard that Jeremiah prophesied; rather, heard Jeremiah prophesying.
Vers. 1-6. Pashur.
Read full note →
At length the smoldering opposition to Jeremiah breaks out into open persecution. Hitherto, though he has been answered by words (Jer_18:18) and threatened with violence, no overt act has been committed. Secret enemies have elaborated dark designs, which are alarming enough but come to no serious issue. But now violent hands are laid upon the prophet; and it is not an obscure band of illegal conspirators who contrive evil against him, but the official head of the temple guards formally arrests him and executes upon him the recognized punishment of a criminal. This action bears testimony to the excitement produced by the burning words of the discourse in the valley of Hinnom. So overawing were the utterances of the prophet that no one dared to touch him then; but when he confirmed them in the temple courts the circumstances were altered, and, either from alarm or from rage, Pashur, the chief of the temple police, laid hold of the prophet and brought him to severe punishment. The conduct of Pashur and the fate that is threatened him deserve our careful examination.
I THE CONDUCT OF PASHUR.
1. Pashur was a priest and of high rank in the service of the temple of Jehovah. Such a man should have been able to recognize a true prophet of Jehovah as his fellow-servant. Yet he was first in persecuting him. Official religious positions are no guarantees for spiritual wisdom. But it is scandalous when the professed leaders of the Church are foremost in resisting the declaration of Divine truth and the execution of the will of God.
2. Pashur was a responsible officer of justice. Such a man should not have allowed himself to be carried away by a flood of popular indignation, influences of class jealousy, or impulses of personal spite, Judicial crimes are always the most atrocious crimes. They poison justice at its very Fountain, they abuse high trusts, they disorganize society, and all this in addition to the inherent wickedness of the acts, which is the same in all who commit them with similar motives.
3. Pashur replied to the words of prophecy with the arm of force. He could not answer Jeremiah, so he attempted to repress him. Unable to refute the arguments of the prophet, he endeavored to restrain the utterance of them. Here we recognize the folly, the injustice, and the cruelty of such persecution: the folly, for to silence a voice is not to destroy the unpleasant truth it declares; injustice, for nothing can be more unfair than to do violence to a man for uttering words which we cannot deny to be rote; and cruelty, for it is a man"s duty to make known what he believes to be important truths.
II THE THREATENED FATE OF PASHUR. Jeremiah stood alone, unpopular and unprotected. Pashur was strong in the powers of office and supported by the sentiment of the country. Yet the prophet was more than a match for the officer. Sensitive and naturally retiring, Jeremiah was bold in the conviction of truth, the sense of duty, and the consciousness of the Divine presence. Pashur"s policy proved a failure. Jeremiah was not silenced by scourge and stocks. Either Pashur had too much sense of justice leg. to retain the prophet in prison, or he feared that such an action would be recognized as illegal and damage his position, or he thought the severe but brief corporal punishment of the prophet sufficient. Jeremiah was set at liberty on the day after he was arrested, and then, instead of cautiously measuring his language, he boldly threatened Pashur with a share of suffering in the coming calamity. This was peculiar. Pashur was not to experience the worst, but to witness it.
1. He was to be punished by fear. Tyrants are cowards. A long-enduring, harassing fear is more painful to bear than a short, sharp, visible trouble. Many evils are worse in prospect than in experience. Courage and active resistance may make the facing of danger easy, but to be haunted with vague terrors, powerless to do anything to avert them, lashed and stung by innumerable ideal and therefore intangible torments, this is torture. You can fight a foe of flesh and blood, but a fear is like a ghost. The blow aimed at it passes through it, and it remains still glaring at its victim till his blood freezes with horror. May God deliver us from the awful punishment of an eternal fear!
2. He was to see the words of the prophet verified by experience. He tried to silence the warning voice; he could not stay the approaching evil. They who have rejected warnings will be dismayed and confounded when they see them realized in facts.
3. He was to witness the calamity of his nation. Probably there was a genuine love of his country in this man. His attack on Jeremiah may have been influenced by a sincere desire for the national welfare. But if so he had put his country before his God. His punishment would come in the humiliation of his nation. Patriotism is no excuse for resisting the will of God. The godless patriot may be punished by seeing the troubles that are brought on his country through its irreligion.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-3. The behavior of the wicked towards the truth.
I THEY REGARD THE TRUTH AND ITS MINISTERS AS THEIR GREATEST ENEMIES. If Pashur had known better he would have refrained from such exhibitions of temper. The prophet would then have been accounted the greatest benefactor of his country. Not the soldier on the battlefield nor the statesman in the councils of empire could have rendered so signal a service as Jeremiah did in simply but persistently telling the truth. Much of what he said was patent to every honest observer. By saying what he did the prophet did not bring into existence that which did not exist before; and, if it really existed, it was better that it should be recognized and reckoned with. The evils he denounced were the real enemies of the country, and not those who pointed them out and suggested their reform. It is, however, unpleasant to the carnal mind to have its faults and sins exposed. With many the calamity is not that evil should be done, but that it should be found out.
II THEY ARE NOT SCRUPULOUS AS TO THE MEANS THEY EMPLOY TO SILENCE THEM. He smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks." These means of punishment were at hand, and he used them at once. It was legal power used illegally, or law employed to the detriment of righteousness. Passionate hatred is shown by the whole course of action. Could anything else be expected of those who tried to subvert righteousness? They must needs do it unrighteously. Even the condemnation of Christ was legal only in appearance.
III THE BEHAVIOR OF THE OPPONENTS OF THE TRUTH IS FREQUENTLY CONDEMNED BY ITS OWN INCONSISTENCY AND VACILLATION. "It came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks.
1. The course dictated by passion is seen to be impolitic and foolish.
2. The guilty intention is weakened by the outcries of conscience. It is this conscience which makes cowards of us all or heroes. Here it led to vacillation, which discredited the policy to which Pashur was already committed, and made its author ridiculous. This is one of the reasons why men can do nothing against the truth. It shines by its own light and confounds the machinations that have been wrought in darkness.
3. Truth has a powerful ally in the bosoms of its worst enemies.
IV OPPOSITION TO THE TRUTH IS CERTAIN TO FAIL. "Then said Jeremiah unto him," etc. (ver. 3). The prophet is only the more vehement and enthusiastic. Ill-timed antagonism to his message has provoked him to coin a nickname for Pashur, which linked the impending judgment inseparably with his memory. It was a bad eminence richly deserved. He was to be the refutation of himself, to see all his predictions falsified, and to reap the curses of those he had deceived as they perished in their sins. How often in his disgraceful exile he must have wished he had let the messenger of God alone. M. (Act_5:38, Act_5:39)
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-6. A changed name and a dreadful doom.
The change here, from Pashur to Magor-Missabib, reminds us of other divinely indicated changes of name in Scripture; e.g. from Abram to Abraham, from Jacob to Israel, from Simon to Peter, from Zacharias to John. These changes, however, were indicative of advancement and honor; were suggestive of the rise out of nature into grace. But here is a name which becomes at once the memorial of great wickedness and of the sure judgment following upon it.
I THE NAME BEFORE THE CHANGE. Whatever doubt there may be as to the precise signification of the name Pashur, it seems quite clear that the very meaning of the word had in it something peculiarly honorable. The man himself belonged to a privileged order and held an office of influence and honor; and the name must have been given to him because of something auspicious in the circumstances of his birth. An honorable name is an advantage to its bearer, and to a certain extent also a challenge. He who bears it may so live that in the end there will be the greatest contrast between the name and the character. A less suggestive name, one less provocative of contrasts, might have saved Pashur from the new and portentous name which, once given, would never be forgotten. We are bound to consider well the associations which will gradually gather around the name we happen to bear. Now, at least, the particular name has very little signification in itself; but the longer we bear it the more significant it becomes to all who know us. Every time it is mentioned it brings to mind, more or less, our character. Even on prudential considerations one must ever become increasingly careful of what he does, for a single act may obliterate all the associations of respect and confidence which belong to his name. Instead of becoming, what every one may become, the object of respect and confidence to at least a few, he may end in being an object of execration far and wide.
II WHAT BROUGHT THE CHANGE. His treatment of Jeremiah. His treatment of him, bear in mind, as a prophet. We feel that Jeremiah was not put in prison on even a plausible allegation that he was an evildoer. That he was a false prophet was the only possible charge to lay against him. Now, Pashur must have known that he himself was a false prophet, speaking as God"s truth what was only the fabrication of his own self-willed and deceitful heart. If Jeremiah was speaking falsehood, Pashur"s duty was to convince him of error, and show the people that he was either a fanatic or a mere impostor. We are not allowed to suppose that what Pashur did he did from some excusable outbreak of zeal on behalf of the building of which he was custodian. A great punishment from the hand of God always argues a correspondingly great offence. It is not so amongst men; there may be a great punishment and a very small offence; sometimes, indeed, no offence at all, measured by the highest law. But when God punishes severely it lets in light upon the character of him whom he punishes. We know that Pashur must have been a bad man; we know it as well as if all his iniquity had been detailed in the most forcible language.
III THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHANGE. We have not information enough to give us the exact meaning of Pashur; and one might almost think this was meant to heighten the certainty as to the meaning of Magor-Missabib. At present Pashur was in a position of comparative security. If security can be claimed for anything in this world, it seems sometimes to belong to such as hold official positions. But with regard to Pashur all depended on the continuance of Jerusalem. The Lord"s house where he was governor was to be destroyed, and then where would he be? Hitherto Pashur has been a nameless unit, involved, but not peculiarly involved, in the general doom. But now he has a prediction all to himself. Henceforth he will be known, must be known, as the man whom Jeremiah threatened with this new and dreadful name. Evidently the name stuck. Some speakers and writers have had this power of giving names that stick. It is not an enviable one, and has often been cruelly used. But God, on whose lips it will always be rightly used, can make it to serve good purposes. The best proof that the name stuck is seen in this, that the prophet"s enemies tried straightway to fix the name on him (ver. 10). But everything depends on who gives a name. Jeremiah"s enemies might speak of terror, but they could not terrify. God both spoke of terror and in due time brought the terrifying realities around the doomed man. There was nothing at present, and might not be for some time, to show what was coming. But God can wait. We have no doubt that in due time Pashur was forced to the confession that the name was fully justified. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah 20
CHAPTER XIII
JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION
Read full note →
Jeremiah 20
THE prophet has now to endure something more than a scornful rejection of his message. "And Pashchur ben Immer the priest" (he was chief officer in the house of Iahvah) "heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. And Pashchur smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks, which were in the upper gate of Benjamin in the house of Iahvah." Like the priest of Bethel, who abruptly put an end to the preaching of Amos in the royal sanctuary, Pashchur suddenly interferes, apparently before Jeremiah has finished his address to the people; and enraged at the tenour of his words, he causes him-"Jeremiah the prophet," as it is significantly added, to indicate the sacrilege of the act-to be beaten in the cruel Eastern manner on the soles of the feet, inflicting probably the full number of forty blows permitted by the Law (Deuteronomy), and then leaving him in his agony of mind and body, fast bound in "the stocks." For the remainder of that day and all night long the prophet sat there in the gate, at first exposed to the taunts and jeers of his adversaries and the rabble of their followers, and as the weary hours slowly crept on, becoming painfully cramped in his limbs by the barbarous machine which held his hands and feet near together, and bent his body double. This cruel punishment seems to have been the customary mode of dealing with such as were accounted false prophets by the authorities. It was the treatment which Hanani endured in return for his warning to king Asa, {2Ch_16:10} some three centuries earlier than Jeremiahs time; and a few years later in our prophets history, an attempt was made to enforce it again in his case. {Jer_29:26} Thus, like the holy apostles of our Lord, was Jeremiah "counted worthy to suffer shame" for the Name in which he spoke; {Act_5:40-41} and like Paul and Silas at Philippi, after enduring "many stripes" his feet were "made fast in the stocks". {Act_16:23-24} The message of Jeremiah was a message of judgment, that of the apostles was a message of forgiveness; and both met with the same response from a world whose heart was estranged from God. The heart that loves its own way is only at ease when it can forget God. Any reminder of His Presence, of His perpetual activity in mercy and judgment, is unwelcome, and makes its authors odious. From the outset, transgressors of the Divine law have sought to hide "among the trees of the garden"-in the engrossing pursuits and pleasures of life-from the Presence of God.
Pashchurs object was not to destroy Jeremiah, but to break his spirit, and discredit him with the multitude, and so silence him forever. But in this expectation he was as signally disappointed as his successor was in the case of St. Peter. {Act_5:24; Act_5:29} Now as then, Gods messenger could not be turned from his conviction that "we ought to obey God rather than men." And as he sat alone in his intolerable anguish, brooding over his shameful wrongs, and despairing of redress, a Divine Word came in the stillness of night to this victim of human tyranny. For it came to pass on the morrow that Pashchur brought Jeremiah forth out of the stocks; and Jeremiah said unto him, Not Pashchur (as if "Glad and free")-but Magormissabib-("Fear on every side") "hath Jehovah called thy name!" Sharpened with misery, the seers eye pierces through the shows of life, and discerns the grim contrast of truth and appearance. Before him stands this great man, clothed with all the dignity of high office, and able to destroy him with a word; but Iahvahs prophet does not quail before abused authority. He sees the sword suspended by a hair over the head of this haughty and supercilious official; and he realises the solemn irony of circumstance, which has connected a name suggestive of gladness and freedom with a man destined to become the thrall of perpetual terrors. "For thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, I am about to make thee a Fear to thyself and to all thy lovers; and they will fall by the sword of their foes, while thine eyes look on!" This "glad and free" persecutor, wantoning in the abuse of power, blindly fearless of the future, is not doomed to be slain out of hand; a heavier fate is in store for him, a fate prefigured and foreshadowed by his present sins. His proud confidence is to give place to a haunting sense of danger and insecurity; he is to see his followers perish one after another, and evermore to be expecting the same end for himself: while the freedom which he has enjoyed and abused so long, is to be exchanged for a lifelong captivity in a foreign land. "And all Judah will I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will transport them to Babylon, and smite them with the sword. And I will give all the store of this city" (the hoarded wealth of all sorts, which constitutes its strength and reserve force) "and all the gain thereof" (the produce of labour) "and all the value thereof" (things rare and precious of every kind, works of the carvers and the goldsmiths and the potters and the weavers art); "and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their foes, that they may spoil them and take them and bring them to Babylon."
"And for thyself, Pashchur, and all that dwell in thine house, ye shall depart among the captives; and to Babylon thou shalt come, and there thou shalt die, and there be buried, thyself and all thy lovers, to whom thou hast prophesied with untruth," or rather "by the Lie," i.e., "by the Baal." {Jer_2:8; Jer_23:13; Jer_12:16}
The play on the name of Pashchur is like that on Perath (chapter 13), and the change to Magormissabib is like the change of Tophet into "Valley of Slaughter" (chapter 19). Like Amos, {Amo_7:16} Jeremiah repeats his obnoxious prophecy, with a special application to his cruel persecutor, and with the added detail that all the wealth of Jerusalem will be carried as spoil to Babylon; a detail in which there may lie an oblique reference to the covetous worldliness and the interested opposition of such men as Pashchur. Riches and ease and popularity were the things for which he and those like him had bargained away their integrity, prophesying with conscious falsehood to the deluded people. His "lovers" are his partisans, who eagerly welcomed his presages of peace and prosperity, and doubtless actively opposed Jeremiah with ridicule and threats. The last detail is remarkable, for we do not otherwise know that Pashchur affected to prophesy. If it be not meant simply that Pashchur accepted and lent the weight of his official sanction to the false prophets, and especially those who uttered their divinations in the name of "the Baal," that is to say, either Molech, or the popular and delusive conception of the God of Israel, we see in this man one who combined a steady professional opposition to Jeremiah with power to enforce his hostility by legalised acts of violence. The conduct of Hananiah on a later occasion, {Jer_28:10} clearly proves that, where the power was present, the will for such acts was not wanting in Jeremiahs professional adversaries.
It is generally taken for granted that the name of "Pashchur" has been substituted for that of "Malchijah" in the list of the priestly families which returned with Zerubbabel from the Babylonian captivity {Ezr_2:38; Neh_7:41; cf. 1Ch_24:9} but it seems quite possible that "the sons of Pashchur" were a subdivision of the family of Immer, which had increased largely during the Exile. In that case, the list affords evidence of the fulfilment of Jeremiahs prediction to Pashchur. The prophet elsewhere mentions another Pashchur, who was also a priest, of the course or guild of Malchijah, {Jer_21:1; Jer_38:1} which was the designation of the fifth class of the priests, as "Immer" was that of the sixteenth. {1Ch_24:9; 1Ch_24:14} The prince Gedaliah, who was hostile to Jeremiah, was apparently a son of the present Pashchur. {Jer_38:1}
It is not easy to determine the relation of the lyrical section which immediately follows the doom of Pashchur, to the preceding account (Jer_20:7-8). If the seventh verse be in its original place, it would seem that the prophets word had failed of accomplishment, with the result of intensifying the unbelief and the ridicule which his teachings encountered. There is also something very strange in the sequence of the thirteenth and fourteenth verses (Jer_20:13-14), where, as the text now stands, the prophet passes at once, in the most abrupt fashion imaginable, from a fervid ascription of praise, a heartfelt cry of thanksgiving for deliverance either actual or contemplated as such, to utterances of unrelieved despair. I do not think that this is in the manner of Jeremiah; nor do I see how the violent contrast of the two sections (Jer_20:7-13 and Jer_20:14-18) can fairly be accounted for, except by supposing either that we have here two unconnected fragments, placed in juxtaposition with each other because they belong to the same general period of the prophets ministry; or that the two passages have by some accident of transcription been transposed, which is by no means an uncommon occurrence in the MSS. of the Biblical writers. Assuming this latter as the more probable alternative, we see in the entire passage a powerful representation of the mental conflict into which Jeremiah was thrown by Pashchurs highhanded violence and the seeming triumph of his enemies. Smarting with the sense of utter injustice, humiliated in his inmost soul by shameful indignities, crushed to the earth with the bitter consciousness of defeat and failure, the prophet, like Job, opens his mouth and curses his day.
1. Cursed be the day wherein I was born!
The day that my mother bare me,
Let it not be blest!
2. Cursed be the man who told the glad tidings to my father.
There is born to thee a male child;
Who made him rejoice greatly.
3. And let that man become like the cities that Iahweh overthrew, without relenting,
And let him hear a cry in the morning,
And an alarm at the hour of noon!
4. For that he slew me not in the womb,
That my mother might have become my grave,
And her womb have been laden evermore!
5. "O why from the womb came I forth
To see labour and sorrow,
And my days foredone with shame?"
These five triplets afford a glimpse of the lively grief, the passionate despair, which agitated the prophets heart as the first effect of the shame and the torture to which he had been so wickedly and wantonly subjected. The elegy, of which they constitute the proem, or opening strophe, is not introduced by any formula ascribing it to Divine inspiration; it is simply written down as a faithful record of Jeremiahs own feelings and reflections and self-communings, at this painful crisis in his career. The poet of the book of Job has apparently taken the hint supplied by these opening verses, and has elaborated the idea of cursing the day of birth through seven highly wrought and imaginative stanzas. The higher finish and somewhat artificial expansion of that passage leave little doubt that it was modelled upon the one before us. But the point to remember here is that both are lyrical effusions, expressed in language conditioned by Oriental rather than European standards of taste and usage. As the prophets were not inspired to express their thoughts and feelings in modern English dress, it is superfluous to inquire whether Jeremiah was morally, justified in using these poetic formulas of imprecation. To insist on applying the doctrine of verbal inspiration to such a passage is to evince an utter want of literary tact and insight, as well as adhesion to an exploded and pernicious relic of sectarian theology. The prophets curses are simply a highly effective form of poetical rhetoric, and are in perfect harmony with the immemorial modes of Oriental expression; and the underlying thought, so equivocally expressed, according to our ways of looking at things, is simply that his life has been a failure, and therefore it would have been better not to have been born. Who that is at all earnest for Gods truth, nay, for far lower objects of human interest and pursuit, has not in moments of despondency and discouragement been overwhelmed for a time by the like feeling? Can we blame Jeremiah for allowing us to see in this faithful transcript of his inner life how intensely human, how entirely natural the spiritual experience of the prophets really was? Besides, the revelation does not end with this initial outburst of instinctive astonishment, indignation, and despair. The poem is succeeded by a psalm in seven stanzas of regular poetical form-six quatrains rounded off with a final couplet-in which the prophets thought rises above the level of nature, and finds in an overruling Providence both the source and the justification of the enigma of his life.
1. Thou enticedst me, Iahvah, and I was enticed,
Thou urgedst me, and didst prevail!
I am become a derision all the day long.
Every one mocketh at me.
2. For as oft as I speak, I cry alarm,
Violence and havoc do I proclaim
For Iahvahs word is become to me a reproach,
And a scoff all the day long.
3. And if I say, I will not mind it,
Nor speak any more in His Name;
Then it becometh in my heart like a burning fire prisoned in my bones.
And I weary of holding it in and am not able.
4. For I have heard the defaming of many, the terror on every side!
All the men of my friendship are watching for my fall;
Perchance he will be enticed, and we shall prevail over him,
And take our revenge of him.
5. Yet Iahvah is with me as a dread warrior,
Therefore my pursuers shall stumble and not prevail;
They shall be greatly ashamed, for that they have not prospered,
With eternal dishonour that shall not be forgotten.
6. And Iahvah Sabaoth trieth the righteous,
Seeth the reins and the heart;
I shall see Thy revenge of them,
For unto Thee have I committed my quarrel.
7. "Sing ye to Iahvah, acclaim ye Iahvah!
For He hath snatched the poor mans life out of the hand of evildoers."
The cause was of God. "Thou didst lure me, Iahvah, and I let myself be lured; Thou urgedst me and weft victorious." He had not rashly and presumptuously taken upon himself this office of prophet; he had been called, and had resisted the call, until his scruples and his pleadings were overcome, as was only natural, by a Will more powerful than his own. {Jer_1:6} In speaking of the inward persuasions which determined the course of his life, he uses the very terms which are used by the author of Kings in connection with the spirit that misled the prophets of Ahab before the fatal expedition to Ramoth Gilead. "And he said, Thou shalt entice, and also be victorious". {1Ki_22:22} Iahvah, therefore, has treated him as an enemy rather than a friend, for He has lured him to his own destruction. Half in irony, half in hitter complaint, the prophet declares that Iahvah has succeeded only too well in His malign purpose: "I am become a derision all the day long; Every one mocketh at me."
In the second stanza, the thought appears to be continued thus: "Thou overcamest me; for as often as I speak," I am a prophet of evil, "I cry alarm" (ez aq; cf. ze aqah, Jer_20:16); I proclaim the imminence of invasion, the "violence and havoc" of a ruthless conqueror. "Thou overcamest me" also, in Thy purpose of making me a laughing stock to my adversaries: "for Iahvahs word is become to me a reproach, and a scoff all the day long" (the relation between the two halves of the stanza is that of coordination; each gives the reason of the corresponding couplet in the first stanza). His continual threats of a judgment that was still delayed, brought upon him the merciless ridicule of his opponents.
Or the prophet may mean to complain that the monotony of his message, his ever-recurring denunciation of prevalent injustice, is made a reproach against him. "For as often as I speak I make an outcry" of indignation at foul wrongdoing; {Gen_4:10; Gen_18:21; Gen_19:13} "wrong and robbery do I proclaim" {Hab_1:2-3} -the oppression of the poor by the covetous and luxurious ruling classes. A third view is that Jeremiah complains of the frequent attacks upon himself: "For as often as I speak I have to exclaim; Of assault and violence do I cry"; but the first suggestion appears to suit best, as giving a reason for the ridicule which the prophet finds so intolerable. {cf. Jer_17:15}
The third stanza carries this plea for justice a step further. Not only was the prophets overwhelming trouble due to his having yielded to the persuasions and promises of Iahvah; not only has he been rewarded with scorn and the scourge and the stocks for his compliance with a Divine call. He has been in a manner forced and driven into his intolerable position by the coercive power of Iahvah, which left him no choice but to utter the word that burnt like a fire within him. Sometimes his fears of perfidy and betrayal suggested the thought of succumbing to the insuperable obstacles which seemed to block his path; of giving up once for all a thankless and fruitless and dangerous enterprise: but then the inward flame burnt so fiercely that he could find no relief for his anguish but by giving it vent in words. {cf. Psa_39:1-3}
The verse finely illustrates that vivid sense of a Divine constraint which distinguishes the true prophet from pretenders to the office. Jeremiah does not protest the purity of his motives; indirectly and unconsciously he expresses it with a simplicity and a strength which leave no room for suspicion. He has himself no doubt at all that what he speaks is "Iahvahs word." The inward impulse is overpowering; he has striven in vain against its urgency; like Jacob at Peniel, he has wrestled with One stronger than himself. He is no vulgar fanatic or enthusiast, in whom rooted prejudices and irrational frenzies overbalance the judgment, making him incapable of estimating the hazards and the chances of his enterprise; he is as well aware of the perils that beset his path as the coolest and craftiest of his worldly adversaries. Thanks to his natural quickness of perception, his developed faculty of reflection, he is fully alive to the probable consequences of perpetually thwarting the popular will, of taking up a position of permanent resistance to the policy and the aims and the interests of the ruling classes. But while he has his mortal hopes and fears, his human capacity for anxiety and pain; while his heart bleeds at the sight of suffering, and aches for the woes that thickly crowd the field of his prophetic vision; his speech and his behaviour are dominated, upon the whole, by an altogether higher consciousness. His emotions may have their moments of mastery; at times they may overpower his fortitude, and lay him prostrate in an agony of lamentation and mourning and woe; at times they may even interpose clouds and darkness between the prophet and his vision of the Eternal; but these effects of mortality do not last: they shake but cannot loosen his grasp of spiritual realities; they cannot free him from the constraining influence of the Word of Iahvah. That word possesses, leads him captive, "triumphs over him," over all the natural resistance of flesh and blood; for he is "not as the many" (the false prophets) "who corrupt the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, he speaks." {2Co_2:14; 2Co_2:17}
And still, unless a man be thus impelled by the Spirit; unless he have counted the cost and is prepared to risk all for God; unless he be ready to face unpopularity and social contempt and persecution; unless he knows what it is to suffer for and with Jesus Christ; I doubt if he has any moral right to speak in that most holy Name. For if the all-mastering motive be absent, if the love of Christ constrain him not, how can his desires and his doings be such as the Unseen Judge will either approve or bless?
The fourth stanza explains why the prophet laboured, though vainly, to keep silence. It was because of the malicious reports of his utterances, which were carefully circulated by his watchful antagonists. They beset him on every side; like Pashchur, they were to him a "magor-missabib," an environing terror, {cf. Jer_6:25} as they listened to his harangues, and eagerly invited each other to inform against him as a. traitor (The words "Inform ye, and let us inform against him!" or "Denounce ye, and let us denounce him!" may be an ancient gloss upon the term dibbah, " ill report," "calumny"; Gen_37:2; Num_13:32; Job_17:5. For the construction, cf. Job_31:37. They spoil the symmetry of the line. That dibbah really means "defaming," or "slander," appears not only from the passages in which it occurs, but also from the Arabic dabub, " one who creeps about with slander," from dabba, " to move gently or slowly about." The Hebrews ragal, riggel, " to go about slandering," and rakil, " slander," are analogous).
And not only open enemies thus conspired for the prophets destruction. Even professed friends {for the phrase, cf. Jer_38:22; Psa_41:10} were treacherously watchful to catch him tripping. {cf. Jer_9:2; Jer_12:6} Those on whom he had a natural claim for sympathy and protection, bore a secret and determined grudge against him. His unpopularity was complete, and his position full of peril. We have in the thirty-first and several of the following psalms outpourings of feeling under circumstances very similar to those of Jeremiah on the present occasion, even if they were not actually written by him at the same crisis in his career, as certain striking coincidences of expression seem to suggest. {Jer_20:10; cf. Psa_31:13; Psa_35:15; Psa_38:17; Psa_41:9; Jer_20:13 with Psa_35:9-10}
The prophet closes his psalm-like monologue with an act of faith. He remembers that he has a Champion who is mightier than a thousand enemies. Iahvah is with him, not with them; {cf. 2Ki_6:16} their plots, therefore, are foredoomed to failure, and themselves to the vengeance of a righteous God. {Jer_11:20} The last words are an exultant anticipation of deliverance.
We thus see that the whole piece, like a previous one, {Jer_15:10-21} begins with cursing and ends with an assurance of blessing.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. With…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. With chap. 20 the first section of this book closes. Probably this was Jeremiah’s last public prophecy in Jehoiakim’s reign, and formed the concluding entry in the “roll” which was read in part before Jehoiakim, and which Jehoiakim “cut with his penknife and cast into the fire” (chap. Jer_36:23). To that “roll,” which seems to have concluded with this emphatic prophecy as to the Babylonian Captivity (cf. Jer_20:4 with Jer_36:29), “many like words” were “added besides” (Jer_36:32); and these added words were the chapters following this twentieth, about whose dates there is no uncertainty, for each prophecy bears a special heading assigning the occasion and date of its utterance. This prophecy occurred at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim (see notes on chap. 18).
2. Contemporary Scriptures—The events came closely contiguous to the records in 2Ki_24:1; 2Ch_36:6.
Read full note →
3. National Affairs, and 4. Contemporaneous History (comp. notes on chap. 7). The capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar occurred early in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign.
5. Geographical References.—Jer_20:2. “The high gate of Benjamin.” There was the City gate of Benjamin on the city’s northern side, and towards the territory of Benjamin (Jer_7:2, Jer_37:13, Jer_38:7); and there was the Temple gate of Benjamin, which is here described—“which was in [not by] the house of the Lord.” This latter was called the “High gate” because situate on an eminence, and to distinguish it from the gate in the city wall.
6. Personal Allusions.—Jer_20:1. “Pashur the son of Immer the priest.” Pashur the priest was head of the sixteenth course of the priests (1Ch_24:14). Immer was one of the original governors of the Sanctuary, of whom there were twenty-four, sixteen sons of Eleazar, and eight sons of Ithamar (1Ch_24:14). “Pashur” was chief governor, and from comparison of Jer_29:25-26, with Jer_52:24, it appears that the temple-governor occupied rank second to that of the high priest; was deputy high priest (cf. 2Ki_25:18). Pashur was head of the twenty-four “guards” of the Temple, and had the right of apprehending any one committing what he thought an outrage within the precincts of the house of God; but the Sanhedrim alone had judicial power over those thus apprehended (comp. Jer_26:8; Jer_26:10; Jer_26:16). From words in the sixth verse—“thou hast prophesied lies”—it is evident that Pashur assumed prophetic functions; and most probably Pashur’s “friends” (Jer_20:5) formed a party in the Jewish state who clamoured for alliance with Egypt in order to resist the arms of Assyria, and of whom Pashur was the moving genius, indulging in sanguine predictions of security and success (vide chap. Jer_18:18, and Jer_5:31). Jer_20:5. “King of Babylon.” Nabopalassar was now king of the Babylonians. (Vide preliminary note on Contemporary History to chap. 1)
7. No Natural History allusions in this chapter.
8. Manners and Customs.—Jer_20:2. “Smote Jeremiah and put him in the stocks:” “Smote”—probably inflicting the legal “forty stripes save one.” “Stocks”—מַהְכָּכֶת, an instrument of torture, from הָפַךְ, to twist or rack. The body was held in a crooked position, the neck, hands, and feet were secured, and much pain was suffered. This cruel instrument is first alluded to in 2Ch_16:10, and there rendered “prison-house.”
9. Literary Criticisms.—Jer_20:3. “Magor-missabib.” (Vide Lit. Crit. on chap. Jer_6:25.) Pashur פַּשְׁחוּר, a compound word; פַשׁ, and חוּר,—probably meaning, though derivation is uncertain, “security (or prosperity, joy) around.” Jeremiah would be prone to play upon the meaning of the name he changed: the new name meant “Terror on every side.” Jeremiah uses this phrase in chap. Jer_6:25, Jer_20:3; Jer_20:10, Jer_46:5, Jer_49:29; Lam_2:22.
Jer_20:5. “Strength … labours:” Stores—provisions laid up in their magazines and granaries: and gains—fruits of industry, the profits or wealth of the community.
Jer_20:7. “Hast deceived:” from פָּתָח. Used in Piel both in a good and bad sense; to persuade, rendered in Jer_20:10 “enticed.” He was unwilling to undertake the prophetic office (chap. Jer_1:7), but God had persuaded him with promises (Jer_1:8; Jer_1:17-19), which, however, Jeremiah had misapprehended. God promised no immunity from abuse but that he should “prevail.”
“Daily:” all the day long.
Jer_20:8. “For since I spake, I cried out,” &c. “For as often as I speak or cry, I must cry concerning violence and ill-treatment.”—Lange. “Whenever I speak, I must shout; I must cry violence and spoil.” The two words “cried, cried,” are not the same in the Hebrew: the first means to complain, the second to call out, proclaim. “For as often as I speak I must complain; I call out violence and spoil.”—Speaker’s Com.
“Word of the Lord was made:” is made. “Daily”—all the day long.
Jer_20:9. “Then I said.… But his word was.” Better: “And when I say I will not, &c.—name, then it becometh in my heart,” &c.
“I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot (vide chap. Jer_6:11).
Jer_20:10. Read the verse thus. “For I hear the whispering (detraction, Henderson) of many, fear on every side [Magor-missabib, again]; (saying) Report ye, and we will report him. All my familiars [Lit. the men of my peace; Keil, every man of my friendship] watch for my halting” [my fall—Henderson]. Perhaps they say “he will be enticed,” &c.
Jer_20:11. “A mighty terrible one:” Rather, a formidable warrior.
“Ashamed, for they shall not prosper,” &c.: Rather, ashamed, because they have not acted wisely; with an everlasting reproach (disgrace) that shall never be forgotten.
Jer_20:12. “Opened my cause;” On Thee have I rolled my cause, committed it (cf. Jer_11:20).
HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 20
Section
Jer_20:1-6.
Persecution of the faithful prophet.
Section
Jer_20:7-13.
Complaining prayer merging into godly confidence.
Section
Jer_20:14-18.
An extravagant dirge over an unhappy life.
Section 1–6.—PERSECUTION OF THE FAITHFUL PROPHET
I. Pashur’s unjust displeasure against Jeremiah.
1. The impropriety of it. Pashur was a priest; and Jeremiah, being also of the priestly order, should have been protected by him. Moreover, the priests of Jehovah should have been prompt and zealous to second the work of a prophet of Jehovah.
2. The malignity of it. “A man’s foes are they of his own household.” Compare the action of Zedekiah (the false priest, 1Ki_22:24); and of those foul priests (Mat_26:67-68). “The greatest malignity to God’s prophets was found among those that professed sanctity and concern for God and His church.” Pashur found his own sanguine prophecies hereby refuted, and was wroth. (See Personal Allusions.)
3. The illegality of it. “Smote him,” perhaps with the hand or staff of authority, as afterwards Paul was smitten (Act_23:2). But Pashur had no right to administer justice (see note on verse under Personal Allusions). But rules of justice are set aside: “The enemies of piety would never allow themselves to be governed by the laws of equity.”
4. The cruelty of it. “Put in stocks:” and thus confined through the night into next day, exposed to public derision. “The best men have met with the worst treatment. It may well rouse pious indignation to see such a man as Pashur on the bench, and such a man as Jeremiah in the stocks! It is well that there is another life after this, when persons and things will appear with another face.”
II. God’s just displeasure against Pashur. Jeremiah “suffered and threatened not;” but when released, he came with a special message from Jehovah.
1. Did Pashur aim to make himself easy, by silencing one who told him his faults, and which endangered his reputation with the people? He shall not gain his point, for
(a.) Though the prophet should be silent, his own conscience shall make him uneasy. “Magor-missabib.” God can make a sinner a “terror to himself” (Jer_20:4). Persons in deep melancholy also become a terror “to all their friends” about them.
(b.) His friends, in whom he put confidence and studied to oblige in persecuting Jeremiah, shall all fail him (Jer_20:4).
(c.) The issue shall show his terror to be not causeless, for Divine vengeance awaited him (Jer_20:6). Let persecutors read the doom of Pashur and tremble; tremble to repentance before they be made to tremble to their ruin.
2. Did he aim to make the people easy by stopping Jeremiah’s warning prophecies? It appears from Jer_20:6 that he set himself up as a prophet, and told the people they should have peace. Yet the word of God will have its course.
(a.) The country shall be ruined: “I will give all Judah,” &c. (Jer_20:4).
(b.) The city shall be ruined (Jer_20:5). For the king of Babylon shall (1) seize their military stores, “the strength of the city;” (2) carry off their wares and merchandise, “their labours;” (3) plunder their fine houses of their “precious things;” (4) rifle the exchequer, the jewels of the crown and “all the treasures of the kings of Judah.” In part taken from Matthew Henry.
See Addenda: PERSECUTION OF GOD’S SERVANTS.
Section 7–13.—COMPLAINING PRAYER MERGING INTO GODLY CONFIDENCE
There are two interpretations of this outburst of intense emotion—
1. It might have been the result of feelings wounded by the indignities of the public smiting and a night spent in the stocks.
2. It was more probably the outcry of mental agony occasioned by the seeming failure of his ministry to recal his nation from ungodliness and ruin.
It should be noticed that though Jeremiah bows before God crushed by distress of spirit, he betrays nothing of this before the people, but stands before the multitude with heroic valour, warning prince, priest, and people of the doom their sins invoked.
I. A painful misapprehension of his prophetic mission.
1. In reference to what God had done with him. He avows that Jehovah had
(a.) Persuaded him into His service by assurances which had failed. He misread God’s promise (chap. Jer_1:8; Jer_1:18).
(b.) Constrained him wholly against his will to a painful mission. His timid nature shrank from hardship.
(c.) Exposed him to derision by deferring the fulfilment of his predictions. Jeremiah was in too great haste for God to vindicate His word.
2. In reference to what he should do for God. He was tempted
(a.) Temporarily to hold back from further witness for God. Not “mention His name.”
(b.) Forcibly to suppress the prophetic spirit within him. But it proved a “burning fire within his bones.”
(c.) He even “wearied” himself with the silence he imposed upon himself: but the word of God was mightier than his resolutions.
II. An alarming experience of abuse from his people.
1. Scornful defamation of his preaching (Jer_20:10). They seem to have summed up his preaching as being nothing but the reiteration of the words—“Magormissabib, i.e., “Fear on every side,” and derided him with it. He was a preacher of fear! The same appears from Jer_20:8—“Whenever I spake I proclaimed violence and spoil.” And the people laughed at him as a persistent croaker—prophet of evil. They whispered among themselves against him, “Here is ‘Fear-on-every-side’ preaching again!”
2. Virulent conspiracy against his person. They resolve to “report” his words to the authorities and the king, and so bring him into odium and punishment. Further, his “familiars” joined in the conspiracy, and while feigning to be “men of his peace,” yet sought occasion to betray him.
III. A triumphant assurance of Divine protection.
1. That Jehovah would defend him with terrible mightiness (Jer_20:11). He knew that the Lord was personally “with” him: on his side, to protect him, to make his word good, to ultimately vindicate him against “defamation” and “derision,” and to smite terror into his antagonists.
2. That his persecutors would be defeated with terrible disgrace. Their impotent malice and crafty designs shall fail against Jeremiah; while their own overthrow shall involve them in greatest shame and perpetual distress.
IV. A confident surrender of his cause to God.
1. His inmost heart was opened fully to Him (Jer_20:12).
(a.) God knew him thoroughly: saw all the thoughts and feelings which moved within him; could therefore judge him righteously.
(b.) To God he entrusted himself: rolled his cause on Him. He sought no vindication or help elsewhere.
(c.) God would right him with his traducers: “Vengeance belongeth unto God.”
2. His grateful soul poured itself forth in praise to Him (Jer_20:13).
(a.) It was the triumph of faith over fear. His complaints are all silenced and turned into thanksgiving.
(b.) It rose from the realisation of experienced Providence: “He hath delivered the soul of the poor,” &c. Memory came in to his aid; and hope rose like the dawn upon the night-gloom of his despondency. “Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.”
Section 14–18.—A PASSIONATE DIRGE OVER AN UNHAPPY LIFE
In this sudden transition of trust to despair we see a revelation of the inner workings of Jeremiah’s heart, consequent upon the treatment he received from his treacherous friends and cruel persecutors, and on the seeming failure of his prophecies and his own desertion by God whose prophet he was.
I. It is not to be denied that we have here a passionate outbreak of human infirmity. But this display
1. Proves that there has been no reserve practised by the prophets; and thus we see a portraiture of Jeremiah delineated in his true colours by his own hand. This also
2. Inspires us with confidence in the truth of the narrative; and also excites our sympathy with Jeremiah in his sufferings, which extorted such utterances from him.
Note, that as it was with Job (Jer_3:3-25) so with Jeremiah—he was purified by suffering. After the passionate utterances in this chapter we see no more evidence of weakness or impatience in Jeremiah. On the contrary, the prophet, who now was weak and desponding, afterwards strengthened and encouraged others (see chap. Jer_46:1-5).
II. Here also, from these impatient ejaculations of Jeremiah, we have providentially clear proof that the theory of some Jewish interpreters is groundless, by which Isaiah’s magnificent and mysterious prophecy concerning the Messiah (chap. 53) is made to refer to Jeremiah.
1. How could one who was compassed with infirmity and betrayed into sin (as Jeremiah shows himself to have been) have been accepted—as these anti-Messianic theorists would have us believe—as a vicarious atonement for the sins of the world?
2. In his sufferings, Jeremiah was a signal type of Christ: especially in the cruel and shameful usage he received from those to whom he preached, and whom he would have delivered from ruin had they listened to his preaching. But in all human types of Christ there are some blemishes which separate them immeasurably from the Divine Antitype.
3. Christ always excels where they most fail. Jeremiah fails in his impatience under persecution, in repining against God, and in murmuring at his own condition. There Christ excels. His meat was to do His Father’s will (Joh_4:34); and, in the immediate prospect of suffering, His language was, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (Joh_13:31; comp. Heb_12:2).
III. Here we have evidence of the greater grace given after the Incarnation than had ever been vouchsafed to those who lived before it.
Two of the greatest saints and sufferers, Job and Jeremiah—one the saint and suffer of the Patriarchal dispensation, the other the suffering prophet of the Mosaic economy—are so perturbed by suffering that they curse the day of their birth.
But (as Chrysostom observes in Hom. 4 on the patience of Job) the apostles of Christ rejoiced in tribulation, and were thankful to God that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name.—Arranged from Wordsworth.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 20
Jer_20:4. Theme: THE WICKED, TERRIFIED AND TERRIFYING. “For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends.”
I. A guilty man may enjoy confidence, and inspire confidence in others. This is evident here. Unless so, it would not be needful for God to act to change confidence into terror.
1. Sinners live on in easy but transient security.
2. The “friends” of ungodly men are fortified in their self-confidence by boastful conduct of fellow-transgressors.
II. A guilty man’s confidence may be turned into terror and amaze.
1. God can do it, does do it, will do it. He can make the most daring sinner a terror to himself, and will find a way to alarm him.
2. Conviction of sin arouses terror. Example: John Bunyan. See also his Christian before Sinai, in “Pilgrim’s Progress.”
3. Sudden peril of life or risk of worldly gains startle him to agonising apprehensions.
4. Death’s darkness and eternity’s nearness will certainly appal him. “How wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan?”
5. On the Judgment Day, what terror will seize the guilty. “Rocks fall on us, and hide us,” &c.
III. A guilty man’s terror will alarm his friends.
1. A sinner whose hilarity and recklessness have changed into alarm for guilt and dread of doom, is like an apparition at the feast of worldly souls. Banquo’s ghost. His tremblings and terrors alarm them, communicating fear to their souls.
2. A sinner’s deathbed has often filled observers with awful fears for themselves.
See Addenda: THE WICKED A TERROR.
Comments—
“Wherein did his (Pashur’s) punishment consist? Probably in this. He was one of the leading men who, in encouraging Jehoiakim to enter upon that course which ended in the ruin of Judah, had “prophesied lies.” When, then, he saw the dreadful slaughter of his countrymen,—Jehoiakim put to death, his young son dragged into captivity, and the land stripped of all that was best—his conscience so condemned him as the guilty cause of such great misery, that in the agonies of remorse he became a terror to himself and his friends.”—Speaker’s Com.
Jer_20:7. Theme: IS GOD A DECEIVER?
The word “deceived” should be “enticed” or “persuaded.” Comp. Gen_9:27; Pro_25:15; Hos_2:14, in which last text the word is rendered “allure.” God can induce but never delude.
I. God has approved Himself to all His servants as a faithful Master. He has never decoyed them; never deserted them.
II. Servants of God may deceive themselves in His service by sanguine expectations.
1. Jeremiah misapprehended God’s words of promise and assurance. The words (chap. Jer_1:10) were interpreted by him in a flattering sense. He expected general homage to be paid him as God’s messenger.
2. But he knew the condition of prophetic work in all ages. All God’s messengers before him had been persecuted, and he had no reason to look for a better lot.
3. Further, God emphatically stated that princes and priests would treat him ill. “They shall fight against thee” (chap. Jer_1:19).
4. All Christian workers are distinctly forewarned of the troubles they will meet (Joh_16:1-2).
III. The persuasions of God overpower our natural reluctance and fears. “Thou wast stronger than I, and hast prevailed.”
1. His pleas were refuted. He urged that he was under age, and unequal to the office. God took all reality out of his arguments by assuring him that He had “sanctified” him to this work, and by equipping him for the task (chap. Jer_1:9).
2. His temerity was overruled. He was afraid of facing the authorities and contending with them. But God summoned him not to be “dismayed at their faces,” and made him “a defenced city,” &c.
Even so out of weakness God makes strong “the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.” He is able to make all grace abound. Thus He surprises us by making us “able to do exceeding abundantly above all we think.” Yet He never deceives or disappoints a soul.
Jer_20:7. Theme: MOCKING AT THE PREACHER. “I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.”
Two forms of this irritating continually assailed him.
I. Official ridicule.
1. They made jest of everything he did and said. They treated him as if he were a fool, good for nothing but to make sport. Thus he was—
(a.) Continually,—“daily,” literally “all the day long.”
(b.) Universally, “Every one mocks me.”
“The greatest so far forget their own gravity, and the meanest so far forget mine.”
Thus our Lord on the Cross was reviled both by priest and people.
2. His preaching was the special object of their derision (Jer_20:8). That for which they should have honoured and respected him was the very thing for which they reviled and reproached him.
It is sad to think that though Divine Revelation be one of the greatest blessings and honours ever bestowed on the world, yet it has been very much turned to the reproach of the most zealous preachers and believers.
Two things they derided him for—
(a.) The manner of his preaching: “Since he spake, he cried out.” He was too vigorous and loud in his preaching. Lively preachers are the scorn of careless unbelieving hearers.
(b.) The matter of his preaching: He cried, “Violence and spoil.” He reproved them for “violence and spoil” toward one another, and for this they ridiculed him as over-precise; and he prophesied of “violence and spoil” as the punishment of their sin, and for this they reviled him as over-credulous.
II. Personal reproach. Not merely did they laugh at his ministry, but they acted a more spiteful part, and with more subtlety.
1. They spread false reports of him (Jer_20:10). They represented Jeremiah as instilling “fears on every side,” so to make them uneasy under the government, and disposed to rebellion.
Jeremiah, in his complaint, makes use of the same words that David (Psa_31:13) had used before him, that it might be a comfort to him to think that other good men had suffered like abuses before him.
2. Flatterers watched his words for an occasion of accusation against him to the government. “My familiars watched for my halting,” &c. Just as the spies came to Christ feigning to be just men (Luk_20:20). They hoped Jeremiah would be led on and enticed to say something which they might seize upon, and for which they could secure his condemnation before the king or Sanhedrim.
This malignant treachery found fullest illustration in Jeremiah’s Divine Antitype, Jesus Christ, against whom they laid wait, and “suborned men” for the purpose to “entangle Him in His talk that they might accuse Him to the governor” (Mat_22:15).—Comp. Wordsworth and Matthew Henry.
See Addenda: DERIDING THE PREACHER.
Jer_20:9. Theme: THE SOUL UNDER DISCOURAGEMENT.
We behold here the struggle between grace and corruption: or as Paul expresses it, “the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” And when we see how awfully an unhallowed temper prevailed over this good man Jeremiah, we cannot but exclaim: “Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him,” &c.
In the conflict here expressed we behold
I. The effects of discouragement on a pious soul.
1. In our labours for the good of others. Ministers are apt to complain that “they have laboured in vain and spent their strength for nought;” and under these feelings, either desert their post, or lament that they have not been more profitably employed.
Moses thus erred (Exo_5:22-23). Joshua also after his entrance into Canaan (Jos_7:7).
Parents likewise mourn over their children, masters over their servants, teachers over the poor they instruct, &c.
2. In our exertions for our own souls. Persons, when first “enticed” or “persuaded” to embrace the Gospel, fondly imagine that they will go forward in the divine life with ease. Conflicts come, and slow progress is made. Then they complain, “my way is hid from the Lord,” &c. (Isa_40:27). Such apprehension is most enervating.
II. The effect of piety on a discouraged soul. Jeremiah attempted for a season to execute his rash determination, but could not persist, for the word of God was like a burning fire in his bones, so that he must declare it.
Thus will grace work in every soul even under deepest discouragements.
1. To shame our querulous impatience. When David had given vent to querulousness, he corrected himself (Psa_73:12-16; Psa_77:7-10). We complain of our non-success. Prophets and apostles have done so before us. We should wait (Heb_2:3).
2. To revive our languid hopes. Grace will bring to our view God’s promises; assure us that “His arm is not shortened,” &c.
3. To resuscitate our drooping energies. Jeremiah was “weary with forbearing,” even more than with executing his mission. And if grace have its perfect work in us, so we shall be. Our labours, both ministerial and personal, will be renewed. God has said, “Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season,” &c. And depending on His word, we shall go forward, “steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
(a.) Expect discouragements in every part of your duty. They are God’s appointed means for trying our faith and love, and for increasing every divine grace in us.
(b.) Make them occasions for glorifying God the more. If we have “fightings without and fears within,” we must go the more earnestly to God, and rely the more firmly on His promised aid. Instead of sinking under discouragements, we must say: “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.”—Simeon.
Jer_20:12. Theme: GOD THE HEART-SEARCHER. See Homilies on chap. Jer_11:20, Jer_27:10.
Jer_20:13. Theme: THE SONG OF REDEMPTION.
Immediately he had “opened” or committed “his cause” to God, he could sing for joy.
I. Faith grasped a fact as yet in the future. Jeremiah’s outward circumstances were still disturbed and perilous. But he now realises God’s sufficiency and fidelity, even as before (Jer_20:7) he had distrusted Him.
Faith turned his tremblings into triumphs.
So the soul when Christ’s sufficiency and faithfulness are apprehended. “Lo! this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
II. Joy filled his soul over God’s gracious rescue. His soul had been “poor;” poor in courage, poor in faith, poor in grace.
“Evil-doers” had his soul in their “hand.”
But God had redeemed his soul from destruction.
III. Songs of praise silenced sighs of complaint. He found peace immediately he could leave his cause in faith to God.
Complaints are now exchanged for thanksgiving, when once the soul knows its Redeemer.
God’s loving-kindness and grace overwhelms the soul with rejoicing.
We may appeal to every soul for whom the redemption of Calvary has been effectively wrought by Christ, and which is offered to sinners “without money and without price”—“Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord.”
“O for this love let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues,
Their Saviour’s praises speak.”
Jer_20:14-18. Theme: IMPRECATIONS ON HIS BIRTH. See Sectional treatment, supra.
The Rev. John Owen, in editing Calvin’s Commentaries in this place, remarks—
“The greatest difficulty in this passage is its connection. That Jeremiah should have cursed his birthday is what can be accounted for as in the case of Job. Nature, even in the best of men, sometimes utters its voice. But how he came to do this immediately after having thanked God for his deliverance seems singular. The explanation of Calvin, that he relates what had passed in his mind, while he was confined by Pashur, is plausible, and has been adopted by Grotius, Henry, and others. Scott acknowledges the transition to be very extraordinary, but thinks that the Prophet describes what had passed through his own mind, and says that the experience of good men proves that such sudden changes occur. ‘An experimental acquaintance with our own hearts,’ he says, ‘and the variations of our passions under sharp trials, as encouraging or discouraging thoughts occur to our minds, will best enable us to understand it.’ This is probably the right view of the subject.”
“i. The Prophet teaches us here that he was not only opposed by enemies, but also distressed inwardly in his mind, so that he was carried away, contrary to reason and judgment, by turbulent emotions which even led him to give utterance to vile blasphemies.
“ii. We may learn with what care ought every one of us to watch himself, lest we be carried away by a violent feeling, so as to become intemperate and unruly.
“iii. Yet the origin of his seal was right. His complaint was not that he was afflicted with disease, &c., but because all his labour was lost which he spent for the well-being of his people, and because he found the truth of God loaded with calumnies and reproaches. When he saw the ungodly thus insolently resisting him, and that all religion was treated with ridicule, he felt deeply moved.
“iv. Yet when we thus become weary of life, with all the light and blessings of God, it is because disdain reigns within us, or that we cannot with resignation bear reproaches, or that poverty is too grievous for us, &c. Often it is not that we (as with Jeremiah) are influenced with zeal for God.”—Calvin.
On Jer_20:15. See Introduction. Part I.—“Parentage and Calling.”
NOTICEABLE TOPIC IN CHAPTER 20
Topic: EXISTENCE REGRETTED.—“Cursed be the day wherein I was born” (Jer_20:14).
Job and Jeremiah were alike in wishing they had never been born. They were both men of sorrow. In the intensity of his grief Job exclaimed, “Let the day perish wherein I was born;” and Jeremiah in equal mental anguish cries, “Cursed be the day,” &c. Certainly this was
I. A preference alike irreligious and irrational.
1. Good men should not for a moment think that non-existence is preferable to life and being. They were both good men, children of God; and existence was therefore a blessing to be prized, not an evil to be mourned over. Had they been versed in the design and results of Divine dispensations, as was Paul, they would have said, “Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment,” &c. With such a destiny before them, instead of cursing the day of birth, they would have blessed it as the dawn of an eternal existence, to be hereafter crowned with a glory that fadeth not away.
2. Ungodly men may with some degree of reason prefer non-existence: because in trouble they have no Divine support, in death no good hope, in eternity no expectation but the penalty of sin. Such men, when the sorrows of death encompass them, or when ushered into the eternal world, have good reason to say, “Cursed be the day wherein I was born.”
II. Non-existence is preferable to existence unless existence possess more pleasure than pain.
1. If every ungodly man lived out threescore years and ten, and the whole was spent in pleasure, yet, as that period is but momentary as compared with his eternal existence, and as that existence is to be one of pain, he might curse the day of his birth.
2. Existence, eternal existence is a blessing to all unfallen ones, and also to such fallen ones as are redeemed by the death of Christ. It requires no stretch of imagination to suppose that both Job and Jeremiah are now praising and blessing God for that very day which in the time of their earthly sorrows they cursed.
3. But perpetuity of existence can be no blessing to the “angels who kept not their first estate,” nor to those of the human race who by impenitence and unbelief reject the great salvation, and bring upon themselves the double condemnation—the condemnation of the law and the condemnation of the gospel.
III. Hell and heaven are two great teachers; they teach lessons which are not learnt on earth, and wonderfully alter men’s views of Divine dispensations and revealed truths.
1. Hell teaches—the folly of wickedness, the full enormity of sin in the penalty it has entailed, and leads all its victims amid the consequences of their depravity to curse the day wherein they were born.
2. Heaven teaches—the wisdom of holiness, the full benefits of redemption in the felicity it has secured, and leads all the ransomed to bless the day of their birth as the morn of their noontide of glory.
Here we “know in part” and can “prophesy but in part.” Fuller and wider disclosures are made when the spirit is ushered into that world.
Having thus seen that there are in some cases reasons for cursing the day of one’s birth, let it be remembered that
IV. God is not willing that any should have occasion for preferring non-existence.
1. He has devised and carried out a costly plan by which the existence of fallen ones might be made an eternal blessing. This plan was published in Eden, foreshadowed in type, proclaimed by prophets, and consummated in the death of Jesus Christ. On the cross He announced “It is finished.”
2. Every man who now wishes for a glorious existence has only to look to Jesus and be saved. Myriads have looked, and a blessed immortality is their portion: myriads have refused to look, and a wretched immortality is their inheritance.
Life is a solemn thing. It has in it everlasting perpetuity; and so also has death.
“It is not all of life to live,
Nor all of death to die.”
Life and death are only the seed-time: a harvest follows, that of bliss or woe. Inspiration answers the inquiry, What harvest shall I reap? thus—“Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”—Arranged from Rev. D. Pledge’s “Morning and Evening Walks with Jeremiah.”
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 20. ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_20:1-6. PERSECUTION OF GOD’S SERVANTS.
“Smote Jeremiah:” with his fist, as Zedekiah smote Micaiah (1Ki_22:24), and as Bonner did Hawkes and other martyrs, pulling off part of their beards; or with a staff as our Saviour was struck (Mat_26:67); and as that Popish bishop, degrading a martyr minister, struck him so hard with his crosier-staff as he was kneeling on the stairs at St. Paul’s, that he fell down backwards and broke his head. Atqui lapidandi sunt hœretici sacrarum literarum argumentis, saith Athanasius [Contra Arian]. But heretics are to be stoned with Scripture arguments; and men may a good deal sooner be cudgelled into a treaty than into a tenet.
“Put him in the stocks:” “As they afterwards did Paul and Silas (Acts 16.); Clerinus the martyr, mentioned in Cyprian’s epistles; Mr. Philpot in the Bishop of London’s coal-house; and that good woman, who, suffering afterwards for the same cause, rejoiced much that her leg was put in the same hole of the stocks where Philpot’s leg had lain before.”—Trapp.
“And when religious sects ran mad,
He held, in spite of all his learning,
That if a man’s belief is bad,
It will not be improved by burning.”
—Praed.
Jer_20:4. THE WICKED A TERROR.
“Such terror befell Tullus Hostilius, king of Rome, who had for his gods Pavor and Pallor. Dignissimus sane qui deos suos semper haberet prœsentes, saith Lactantius wittily; i.e., great pity but this man should ever have had his gods at hand, since he was so fond of them. Our Richard III. and Charles IX. of France, a pair of bloody princes, were Magor-missabibs in their generations, as terrible at length to themselves as they had been formerly to others; and therefore could never endure to be awakened in the night without music or some like diversion.”—Trapp.
“Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.”—Shakespeare.
“Here, here it lies; a lump of lead by day;
And in my short, distracted, nightly slumbers,
The hag that rides my dreams.”—Dryden.
“He that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.”—Milton.
“Horror and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The hell within him; for within him hell
He brings, and round about him; nor from hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place.”—Byron.
Tiberius declared in the Senate that he suffered death daily.
Jer_20:7. DERIDING THE PREACHER.
See the Life of John Wesley for instances.
“The cynics said long ago of the Megarians, ‘Better be their horse, dog, or pander than their teacher, for better should he be regarded.’ ”—Trapp.
A modern rhyme puts the case thus—
“Tickle the people and make them grin,
Tickle them more and you will win;
Teach the people; you’ll ne’er grow rich,
But live like a beggar and die in a ditch.”
Jer_20:14. JEREMIAH’S DISCOURAGEMENT.
“What was the cause of this discouragement? He does not leave us in the dark as to this: he tells us that he ‘heard the defaming of many’—‘My familiars watched for my halting,’ &c. This was well suited to dismay a man of Jeremiah’s temper; but he again speedily comes back to his trust in God:—‘But the Lord is with me.’
“It is possible that on some occasion Jeremiah had, under the influence of such feelings as he so often expresses, been tempted to soften or to suppress some part of a message entrusted to him, deeming it likely to excite that violent antagonism which was grievous to his peaceful temper. The man who had confessedly purposed not to speak at all, might think of withholding part of the words he was commanded to speak. This supposition would give added force to the injunction, which on one occasion he received:—‘Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them. Diminish not a word.’ So here also he found that there was no discretion left to him.”—Kitto.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1-6. Pashur's act and Jeremiah's reply.
1-6. Pashur's act and Jeremiah's reply.
2. Pashur] In chapter Jer_38:1 two Pashurs are mentioned. This one is perhaps the father of Gedaliah there spoken of, while Pashur the son of Malchiah of that v. is probably identical with the Pashur of Jer_21:1. The houses represented by both men were strong in numbers amongst the few priestly courses that returned from Babylon (Ezr_2:36-39).
Read full note →
3. Magormissabib] i.e. 'fear is on every side': see on Jer_6:25. The name is symbolic of his coming fate, consisting in part, at least, of remorse at the ruin which he had brought upon his country by opposing the warnings of Jeremiah and perhaps claiming prophetic powers. For other cases of names given to symbolise and sum up a prophetic message, cp. Shear-jashub, 'a remnant' (only) 'shall return' (Isa_7:8), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 'speedy spoliation' (Isa_8:3.).
7-13. The prophet's cry to God.
7. Deceived] RM 'enticed,' to undertake his mission.
8. For since I spake, I cried out] RV 'for as often as I speak I cry out' (complain loudly).
9. The prophet cannot refrain from delivering his message, though it entailed derision and mockery.
10. Report say they, etc.] the words of two groups of his foes, the first arguing that his language should be brought under the notice of those in power, the second undertaking to do so.
14-18. For the vehemence of the imprecations cp. Job_3:3; Job_10:18, and David's address to Gilboa (2Sa_1:21). It is interesting to note that in later time, when the prophet had still more afflictions to endure, we no longer read of his trembling or bewailing the sufferings connected with his calling.
16. The cry.. the shouting] of war and trouble.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v3 i.e. Terror on every side.
Magormissabib
i.e. Terror on every side.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Pashur.-Jeremiah’s Perplexity and Complaint
CHAPTER 20
Pashur.-Jeremiah’s Perplexity and Complaint
Read full note →
1. Pashur and Jeremiah (Jer 20:1-6)
2. Jeremiah’s great perplexity and complaint (Jer 20:7-18)
Jer 20:1-6. A great scene now follows the message in connection with the broken bottle. The great Pashur, the chief governor in the house of the LORD had heard of the message. He smites Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks, which must have been some form of cruel torture by which the victim was rendered helpless, besides being exposed to the vulgarity of the people who passed by and would taunt him. In this position Jeremiah remained all night before the high gate of Benjamin. In the morning he was released. He then speaks as only an inspired prophet can speak. His name Pashur (which means “most noble”) should now be “Magor-missabib,” which means “terror on every side.” The awful fate of Pashur and his own is predicted. He is dumb, perhaps even then terror-stricken, as he looks into the flashing eyes of the man of God and listens to the fiery words.
Jer 20:7-18. What follows now is a most passionate outburst, revealing an unspeakable emotion of the soul, as perhaps nowhere else in the prophetic Scriptures. Even critics acknowledge this as “one of the most powerful and impressive passages in the whole of the prophetic literature, a passage which takes us, as no other, not only into the depths of the prophet’s soul, but into the secrets of his prophetic consciousness.” “LORD,” he cries, “Thou has deceived me, and I was deceived.” The Revised Version has translated it, “Thou has persuaded m,” but that is not correct. He acknowledges himself deceived, or enticed. He is troubled with doubt. He speaks of his great trials. He is a laughing stock--he is a reproach and a derision all the day. He tried to stop mentioning Him and not to speak any more in His name; but he tried to turn back upon his commission. But then the fire burned within him; his conscience became as a burning fire. He had heard defaming, his best friends had said “We will denounce him.” They thought of taking revenge on him.
But suddenly faith is victorious. He must have remembered the words of the Lord in connection with his commission, “For I am with thee saith the LORD, to deliver thee” (chapter 1). And so he cries out, “The LORD is with me.” He prays to see His vengeance on his enemies, for unto Him he had revealed His cause. And then the singing! “Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD; for He has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of the evil-doers.” Such is the experience of the godly remnant in fears an doubts, troubled on all sides, fleeing to Jehovah, till the singing times come, when He appears for their deliverance and the hallelujahs will sweep the earth and the heavens.
But his grief overwhelms him. Perhaps he thought again of all the sneers and mockeries, of all the harsh words, the unfaithful friends and the physical pain he endured. He is occupied with himself and the soul struggle begins anew and culminates in a near collapse. He curses, as Job did, the day in which he was born.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 v. 1. Now, Pashur, the son of Immer, the…
v. 1. Now, Pashur, the son of Immer, the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, the highest commander of the Temple-watch, who was superior even to the captains of the individual orders in charge of the Temple in the course of their service, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
v. 2. Then Pashur, by virtue of the police- and judicial power vested in him, which he believed he must exercise in this instance, smote Jeremiah, the prophet, whose office is here purposely mentioned, and put him in the stocks, a five-holed instrument of torture in which the neck, the two hands, and the two feet were thrust, that were in the high gate of Benjamin, the northern gate in the inner court of the Temple, which was in the house of the Lord.
Read full note →
v. 3. And it came to pass on the morrow, after Jeremiah had been kept in this crooked posture over night and suffered all its tortures, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, which has been interpreted by linguists as meaning "largeness and security on every side," but Magor-mis-sabib, that is, "terror round about," the name, of course, signifying the fate that would befall him for his blasphemous behavior toward the Lord’s servant.
v. 4. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, so that his evil conscience and the fear of God’s wrath would leave him no rest, and to all thy friends, who would be dismayed upon discovering the extent to which they had been duped; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, as a result of their having given heed to Pashur’s leading them astray, and thine eyes shall behold it, and thus be tortured by anxiety for an indefinite, time; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon and shall slay them with the sword, captivity and death being the fate which He had determined for them.
v. 5. Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of this city, the total resources of the capital city, and all the labors thereof, what they had gained in the course of time, the uncounted material wealth, and all the precious things thereof, whatever treasures had been heaped up there in the course of time, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah, their riches as amassed from time to time, will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon.
v. 6. And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house, all the members of his family following him in his wickedness, shall go into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there, far from the land of his fathers, thou shalt die and shalt be buried there, thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophesied lies, abusing his office of priest for the purpose of deceiving people. Like Pashur, there are many men in high offices in the Church today who abuse their position for the purpose of leading men astray and dragging them down to ruin with themselves.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
Read full note →
Pashhur ... Immer
These are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Pashhur beat Jeremiah
Possible meanings are 1) that Pashhur himself beat Jeremiah or 2) that Pashhur ordered other men to beat Jeremiah. (See: Metonymy)
stocks
Stocks are a wooden frame with holes in it that people use to lock up a prisoner's hands, feet, and head.
Upper Gate of Benjamin
This gate is different from the gate in the city wall that shared the same name.
translationWords
son
priest
Jeremiah
prophet
word
house of God
gate
Benjamin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 6 20:1-6 The persecution suffered by Jeremiah moved from words…
20:1-6 The persecution suffered by Jeremiah moved from words to action. Jeremiah was whipped and placed in stocks overnight on the charge that he had blasphemed the Temple. When he was released, Jeremiah gave his jailer a message of personal condemnation from the Lord.
20:1-2 Pashhur, the head of the police who kept order in the Temple area, ranked second to the high priest in authority. Evidently, he had heard Jeremiah proclaim the Lord’s decree about the destruction of Jerusalem, including the Temple. He regarded it as such blasphemy that he thought Jeremiah should be punished.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.