Jeremiah 20:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 20:4
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: 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.
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֡הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
make
נֹתֶנְךָ֨no.ten.Kha
H5414
to give · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
terror
לְמָג֜וֹרle.ma.Gor
H4032
a fright (objective or subjective) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
friends
אֹהֲבֶ֗יךָ'o.ha.Vei.kha
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
fall
וְנָֽפְל֛וּve.na.fe.Lu
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 29:21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto…
Jeremiah 25:9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bri…
Jeremiah 21:4-10 Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king o…
Jeremiah 32:27-31 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
Jeremiah 39:6-7 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Deuteronomy 28:32-34 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: a…
Deuteronomy 28:65-67 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a tremblin…
2 Kings 25:7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him t…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 20:1-6
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…
terror . . . to all thy friends--who have believed thy false promises (Jer 20:6). The sense must be in order to accord with "fear round about" (Jer 20:3). I will bring terror on thee and on all thy friends, that terror arising from thyself, namely, thy false prophecies. Thou and thy prophecies will be seen, to the dismay both of thee and thy dupes, to have caused their ruin and thine. MAURER'S translation is therefore not needed, "I will give up thee and all thy friends to terror."
John Gill on Jeremiah 20:4
For thus saith the, Lord, behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends,.... This is an interpretation of the name given, "Magormissabib": and shows that it was not a mere name he had, but that he should be in fact what that signifies; his conscience should be filled with terror at the judgments of God coming upon him for his sins; and which could not be concealed in his own breast from others, but he should be seized with such tremblings and shakings, and be such a spectacle of horror, that his own familiar friends, instead of delighting in his company, would shun it, and run away from him: unless this terror is to be understood of the Chaldean army, which should not…
(Vers. 4-6.) Because this is what the Lord says: Behold, I will make you a terror, along with all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon, and strike them with the sword. And I will give all the wealth (or strength) of this city, and all its labor, and all its precious things (or glory), and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and take them away, and bring them to Babylon. But as for you, Phasur, and all the inhabitants of your house, you will go into captivity, and 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 falsehood. According to the previous interpretation, in which Phasur (also known as Phaschor) had its name changed to Magur (or Magor), all similarly translated it to signify either terror, or sojourning, or removal and relocation, and congregation. And he is being pursued by his friends, about to be seized and handed over to the enemy's hands, and the whole Jewish population is to be occupied by the hands of the Babylonian king, some to be killed by the sword, and others to be led into captivity, and all the riches of both the city and the royal treasures are to be taken by the enemies. And Phasur himself and his entire family are to be led into captivity, and he is to die in Babylon, because he deceived his people with lies, promising not true and sad things, but prosperous things through deceit. At the same time, the patience and prudence of the Prophet are to be noted, as he remains silent when sent to prison, and through silence, he overcomes the injustice. However, he does not conceal what he knows will come to pass, so that at least in this way, the false prophet, the high priest, may cease to sin and implore the mercy of God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Pashur — Release. (1.) The son of Immer (probably the same as Amariah, Neh. 10:3; 12:2), the head of one of the priestly courses, was “chief governor [Heb. paqid nagid, meaning “deputy governor”] of the…
Babylon · Predictions respecting: Captivity of the Jews by — Predictions respecting: Captivity of the Jews by
Captivity · Of — Of
Jeremiah · . — .
Magor-Missabib · A symboli — A symboli
Pashur · .Beats and impri — .Beats and impri
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
sword
בְּחֶ֥רֶבbe.Che.rev
H2719
drought · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
enemies
אֹיְבֵיהֶ֖ם'o.ye.vei.Hem
H341
hating · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
eyes
וְעֵינֶ֣יךָve.'ei.Nei.kha
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
behold
רֹא֑וֹתro.'ot
H7200
to see · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
give
אֶתֵּן֙'e.Ten
H5414
to give · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
Judah
יְהוּדָ֗הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
hand
בְּיַ֣דbe.Yad
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Babylon
בָּבֶ֔לba.Vel
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · proper noun, a place name
captive
וְהִגְלָ֥םve.hig.Lam
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Babylon
בָּבֶ֖לָהba.Ve.lah
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
slay
וְהִכָּ֥םve.hi.Kam
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
sword
בֶּחָֽרֶבbe.Cha.rev
H2719
drought · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
on Jeremiah 20:4
Jeremiah 20:4
4. For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: 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.
4. Quia sic dicit Jehova, Ecce ego pono to in terrorem tibi et omnibus amicis tuis; et cadent per gladium hostium tuorum, oculi tui videntes, (id est, oculis tuis videntibus,) et totum Jehudah tradam in manum regis Babylonis, et transferet eos (vel, traducet) Babylonem, et percutiet eos gladio.
Here Jeremiah explains more at large why he said that Pashur…
Jer 20:1-3
When the chief overseer of the temple, Pashur, heard this prophecy, he had the prophet beaten, and put him over-night in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin in the temple. Pashur is by the appellation: son of Immer, distinguished from other priests of this name, e.g., Pashur, son of Malchijah, Ch1 9:12. It cannot be determined whether Immer is here the name of the 16th class of priests (Ch1 24:14) or of one of the greater priestly clans (Ezr 2:37; Neh 7:40). Pashur held the office of פּקיד נגיד, chief overseer in the house of God. נגיד is an official name attached to פּקיד to explain it. In the latter word lies the idea of overseeing, while the former denotes the official sta…
This is the first instance in which Jeremiah names Babylon as the country whose armies would invade Judah and take the people into exile. The invaders would take the precious jewels and gold and silver, leaving Judah without resources.
Rashi on Jeremiah 20:3
Magor Terror.
Not Passhur did the Lord call your name, etc. Your name was not called Pashhur except for this matter, that is to say: פָֹשַח ֹשָחוֹר, cut off and black like “a tree that was cut off (נִפְֹשַח)” (Shevi’ith 4:6, Orlah 1:5). Also (Lam. 3:11), “And He cut me off (וַיִפַֹשְחֵנִי).” And so he said to him, Not Pashhur did He call your name, for the expression of Pashhur means a great man and the son of nobles, Pashhur. ‘Pash’ denotes expansion and ‘hur’ nobility. But for this reason your name was called Pashhur, Pashah shahor. ‘Pashah’ means ‘cut off,’ and ‘shahor’ means ‘black.’ Another explanation. ‘Pashah sehor.’ Many will be around you to slay you. Now according to this explanat…
