Jeremiah 20:1-6·~1 min

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

Pashhur the priest, chief official in the house of the LORD, hears Jeremiah prophesying and responds by having him beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate by the temple. The public place of worship becomes the scene of public humiliation for the prophet.

W¹hen Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ²he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

When Pashhur releases him the next day, Jeremiah announces that the LORD now calls him Magor-missabib, "Terror on Every Side." Pashhur, his household, and his friends will go into captivity and die in Babylon, while Judah's wealth and royal treasures will be handed over to enemies because of the lies he has helped sustain.

³The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. ⁴For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵I will give away all the wealth of this city — all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah — to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried — you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

Section summaryThe opening movement shows Jeremiah suffering directly at the hands of temple authority after proclaiming the judgment of chapter 19. Beaten and confined, he nevertheless rises the next day to rename Pashhur as "Terror on Every Side" and to announce that the man who tried to shame the prophet will himself see Babylonian captivity and die among the people he misled with lies.

Role in the chapterThis section reveals how the prophetic word collides with religious power at the center of Judah's life. It also shows that Jeremiah's humiliation does not silence him but becomes the setting for an even sharper oracle of judgment.