“And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 20:3 Mean?
"And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib." After a night in the stocks — beaten and publicly humiliated by the chief priest Pashur — Jeremiah emerges and RENAMES his persecutor. Pashur (meaning 'freedom' or 'prosperity everywhere') is renamed Magor-missabib: 'Terror on Every Side.' The man who inflicted terror receives a name that IS terror.
The phrase "the LORD hath not called thy name Pashur" (lo Pashchur qara YHWH shemeka — not Pashur has the LORD called your name) is a divine overruling of identity: the name Pashur's parents gave him — suggesting freedom, ease, prosperity — is cancelled by God. Your human name no longer applies. God has a different name for you. The divine renaming replaces the human naming.
The name "Magor-missabib" (magor missaviv — terror from every direction) is the most devastating prophetic name-change in Scripture: the chief priest who terrorized the prophet is now named 'Terror on Every Side.' The name announces his own future — he will experience terror from every direction. The persecutor becomes the terrorized. The inflicter of fear becomes the subject of fear.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What identity are you wearing that God might be renaming?
- 2.What does Jeremiah delivering judgment THE MORNING AFTER his punishment teach about prophetic resilience?
- 3.How does the name-swap (freedom → terror) describe the reversal that awaits persecutors of God's messengers?
- 4.What does the persecutor being RENAMED by the persecuted teach about who has the final word?
Devotional
You spent the night torturing a prophet. Now the prophet renames you. Your name isn't Pashur anymore — the nice name your parents gave you, meaning freedom and prosperity. Your name is Magor-missabib: Terror on Every Side. The persecutor becomes the terrorized. The name-giver becomes the name-receiver.
The renaming happens THE MORNING AFTER: Pashur put Jeremiah in the stocks (verse 2) — beat him, locked him in a wooden frame designed for public humiliation, left him overnight. The next morning, Pashur releases Jeremiah. And the first thing Jeremiah does isn't complain about the stocks. It's rename the man who put him there. The prophet emerges from humiliation and delivers judgment. The stocks didn't silence him. They fueled him.
The 'Magor-missabib' — Terror on Every Side — is the name that becomes Pashur's future: the verses that follow (4-6) spell out the terror: Pashur will see his friends die by the sword, Judah will be given to Babylon, and Pashur himself will die in exile. The 'terror on every side' isn't poetic. It's predictive. The new name IS the prophecy. The identity IS the judgment.
The irony is surgical: Pashur means something like 'freedom everywhere.' Magor-missabib means 'terror everywhere.' The name-swap replaces freedom with terror, prosperity with dread, ease with fear from every direction. The man who used his priestly authority to imprison a prophet receives a name that imprisons him in terror.
What 'Pashur' identity are you wearing that God might be renaming — and would you hear the new name if it came?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And it came to pass on the morrow,.... After the prophet was put into the stocks; so that he was there all night:
that…
Magor-missabib - See Jer 6:25 note. Jeremiah uses it no less than five times, having probably adopted it as his…
Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the fruits of that displeasure, Jer 20:1, Jer 20:2. This…
Magor-missabib meaning, terror on every side. The LXX wrongly render, foreigner, obtaining this sense from the fact that…
Cross References
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