Pashur

Biblical Record

Pashur was a priest who appears in Jeremiah 20:1-6. The text introduces him as "Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD." The Korean Revised Version renders his office as yusajang (有司長), understood as the head responsible for order in the Temple, that is, a supervisory position.

In chapter 19, Jeremiah had broken an earthen bottle and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. On hearing this prophecy, Pashur struck the prophet Jeremiah and "put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD" (Jeremiah 20:2). The stocks were an instrument of punishment in which a person's feet or other limbs were fastened in a wooden frame so that he could not move. The next day, when Pashur released Jeremiah, the prophet declared, "The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib" (Jeremiah 20:3), a name meaning "fear on every side."

Jeremiah then delivered a message of judgment: Judah would be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, Pashur and all who dwelt in his house would go into captivity, and Pashur would die in Babylon and be buried there (Jeremiah 20:4-6). The declaration also states that Pashur himself had "prophesied lies." Scripture does not record what became of Pashur after this prophecy.

Significance in Scripture

The account of Pashur depicts a clash between a prophet who proclaims the word of God and the religious authority that guards the Temple establishment. Immediately following this incident comes Jeremiah's lament (Jeremiah 20:7-18). In the lament, Jeremiah takes up the phrase "fear on every side" again, now as words his enemies whisper about him (Jeremiah 20:10). He also confesses that even when he resolved not to speak the word, it was "in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones," and he could not hold it in (Jeremiah 20:9).

Jeremiah 20:4 is known as the first place in the book of Jeremiah where the name "Babylon" is explicitly mentioned. The New Testament does not mention Pashur.

Interpretation and Questions

• Distinguishing others of the same name: Several people in Scripture bear this name. "Pashur the son of Melchiah," whom King Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 21:1; 38:1), is a different person. It is unclear who the father of "Gedaliah the son of Pashur" in Jeremiah 38:1 was. "The children of Pashur" in Ezra 2:38 and Nehemiah 7:41 are a priestly family that returned from exile. Because 1 Chronicles 9:12 records Pashur as a descendant of Malchijah, many hold that this family cannot readily be identified with the lineage of Pashur the son of Immer.
• Meaning of the name: The etymology of the name "Pashur" is uncertain. The focus of the text is not on his original name but on the new name God gave him, "Magor-missabib."
• Date: The text does not state when this incident took place. Some scholars place it in the reign of a king of Judah before Zedekiah.

In the Korean Church

Pashur is seldom treated as a sermon topic in his own right. He is mentioned mainly in sermons on Jeremiah 20 as part of the background to the sufferings Jeremiah endured. Such sermons usually focus on the confession that God's word was "in mine heart as a burning fire" (Jeremiah 20:9). Some preachers also explain the name "Magor-missabib," which carries a sense of judgment, by contrasting it with other biblical scenes in which God gives a person a new name.