What Does Jeremiah 20:3 Mean?
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib, terror on every side.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 Magor-missabib.THE KEY
The one who confines Jeremiah is renamed as the one enclosed by terror on every side.
THE MEANING
The LORD calls Pashur by the condition surrounding him: Magor-missabib, “terror on every side.” The name exposes how the one who confines another can find himself enclosed by what he cannot control.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that the person who controls another’s confinement stands beyond fear’s reach; here, the one who confines is named as surrounded.
THE ROOT
מִסָּבִיב
missaviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
to turn, circle, or surround
“Magor-missabib, terror on every side” in this verse is missaviv. The name’s final word makes the terror spatial: it circles from every direction. What sounds like a title in English is a whole enclosure in Hebrew.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: around, all around
סָבִיב
This familiar form shares the root and makes the name’s surrounding force clear.
sovev: circling, surrounding
סוֹבֵב
This form shows the action of enclosing that lies inside “on every side.”
קָרָא
qara
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
to call, proclaim, or read aloud
“called” in this verse is qara. This verbal family gathers calling and proclamation together. The name is not a neutral label here: the LORD’s call declares what now surrounds Pashur.
ALSO GROWS
qore: one who calls out
קֹרֵא
The shared root makes the naming act itself a call.
miqra: a reading or proclamation
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can make something known aloud, as the new name does.
THE PATTERN
A name in Scripture can disclose a person’s nature or declare the path that lies before them.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And the nations shall see your alignment, and all kings your weight; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.THE THREAD
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Tell, they say, and we will tell it. All the men of my wholeness watched for my stumbling, saying, Perhaps he will be coaxed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our vengeance on him.Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew phrase, מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב (magor missaviv, “terror all around”), for the fear closing in around him. Here that phrase becomes Pashur’s name: the terror Jeremiah hears surrounding him is spoken back as the identity of the man who put him in the stocks.
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