Jeremiah 20:2

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 20:1-6

Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the fruits of that displeasure, Jer. 20:1, 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 20:2

Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet ,.... Either with his fist, or with a rod, while he was prophesying, to stop his mouth, and hinder him from going on, and to show his resentment, and influence, the people not to believe him; or he ordered him to be smitten and scourged by some inferior officer. This was very ill treatment of a prophet, a prophet of the Lord, and one that was a priest too, of the same order with himself; and put him in the stocks ; or ordered him to be put there;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 20:2

Put him in the stocks - Probably such a place near the gate as we term the lock-up, the coal-hole; or it may mean a sort of dungeon. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 20:1-3

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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 20:1-6

Pashur. At length the smoldering opposition to Jeremiah breaks out into open persecution. Hitherto, though he has been answered by words ( Jeremiah 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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 20:1-6

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. ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 20:2

Pashur, being charged with the police of the temple, smites Jeremiah, i.e. causes stripes to be given him, and then orders him to be put into the stocks ; literally, that which distorts— some instrument of punishment which held the body in a bent or crooked position (comp. Jeremiah 29:26 ). The "stocks" were sometimes kept in a special house ( 2 Chronicles 16:10 ); these mentioned here, however, apparently stood in public, at the high—or rather, upper— gate of Benjamin , which was... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Jeremiah 20:2

Jeremiah the prophet - Jeremiah is nowhere so called in the first 19 chapters. In this place he thus characterizes himself, because Pashur’s conduct was a violation of the respect due to the prophetic office.The stocks - This instrument of torture comes from a root signifying to “twist.” It thus implies that the body was kept in a distorted position. Compare Acts 16:24.The high gate ... - Rather, “the upper gate of Benjamin in the house of Yahweh (compare 2 Kings 15:35);” to be distinguished... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Jeremiah 20:2

Jeremiah 20:2. Then Pashur smote Jeremiah, &c. He thought, no doubt, that Jeremiah’s speaking so plainly of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and of the miseries which should befall it, deserved that he should be arrested and put in confinement, to prevent his speaking thus freely: and accordingly he treats him as they treated, or rather, ought to have treated, the false prophets. And put him in the stocks The word המהפכת , here translated the stocks, is rendered the prison by... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 20:1-6

The broken pot (19:1-20:6)In another acted parable Jeremiah, carrying an earthenware pot in his hand, took the leaders of Jerusalem to a place outside the city walls where old pottery was dumped. This was in the valley where the Judeans once sacrificed their children to Molech and carried out other pagan rites (19:1-2; see 7:30-34 and section, ‘Tophet and the Valley of Hinnom’).Through their leaders, the people of Judah are told that in this valley, where they have killed their children, they... read more

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