Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
A terror to thyself, and to all thy friends – Jeremiah plays upon the meaning of Magormissabib saying that Pusbur would be a terror to all around. It is remarkable that he prophesies no evil of Pashur Jer 20:6. His was to be the milder fate of being carried into captivity with Jehoiachin, and dying peaceably at Babylon Jer 20:6, whereas his successor Zephaniah was put to death at Riblah Jer 52:24, Jer 52:27. His punishment probably consisted in this. He had prophesied lies. When then he saw the dreadful slaughter of his countrymen, Jehoiakim put to death, his young son dragged into captivity, and the land stripped of all that was best, his conscience so condemned him as the guilty cause of such great misery that in the agonies of remorse he became a terror to himself and his friends.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
God now expoundeth the name of Magor-missabib, threatening to fill this wicked priest with terrors, that he and all his friends should be affrighted, reflecting upon his most miserable state and condition; and his friends, from whom he might possibly expect some relief, should be as miserable as he; and it should be an addition to his misery, that his eyes should see it, and see his whole country ruined, some being slain by the sword of the king of Babylon, others by him carried into captivity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. terror . . . to all thyfriendswho have believed thy false promises (Jer20:6). The sense must be in order to accord with “fear roundabout” (Jer 20:3). I willbring terror on thee and on all thy friends, that terror arising fromthyself, namely, thy false prophecies. Thou and thy prophecies willbe seen, to the dismay both of thee and thy dupes, to have causedtheir ruin and thine. MAURER’Stranslation is therefore not needed, “I will give up thee andall thy friends to terror.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 only terrify him, but his friends, in whom he placed his confidence; these would be thrown into such a consternation, as not to be able to help him or themselves; to which the following words agree:
and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold [it]; which would be an aggravation of the calamity, that not only he should be deprived of their assistance, but that they should fall into and by the hands of the Babylonians, and in his sight also:
and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; the whole land, and the inhabitants of it:
and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword; being in his hands, he shall do as he pleases with them, either carry them captive, or slay them; and some he will dispose of one way, and some another.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jer 20:4 . “For thus hath Jahveh said: Behold, I make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies and thine eyes behold it; and all Judah will I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may carry them captive to Babylon and smite them with the sword. Jer 20:5 . And I will give all the stores of this city, and all its gains, and all its splendour, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and take and bring them to Babylon. Jer 20:6 . And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity, and to Babylon shalt thou come, and there die, and there be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lyingly.” – Pashur will become a fear or terror to himself and all his friends, because of his own and his friend’s fate; for he will see his friends fall by the sword of the enemy, and then he himself, with those of his house and his friends not as yet slain, will go forth into exile to Babylon and die there. So that not to himself merely, but to all about him, he will be an object of fear. Ng. wrongly translates , I deliver thee up to fear, and brings into the text the contrast that Pashur is not to become the victim of death itself, but of perpetual fear of death. Along with Pashur’s friends, all Judah is to be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and be partly exiled to Babylon, partly put to death with the sword. All the goods and gear of Jerusalem, together with the king’s treasures, are to be plundered and carried off by the enemy. We must not press “all thy friends” in Jer 20:4 and Jer 20:6; and so we escape the apparent contradiction, that while in Jer 20:4 it is said of all the friends that they shall die by the sword, it is said of all in Jer 20:6 that they shall go into exile. The friends are those who take Pashur’s side, his partisans. From the last clause of Jer 20:6 we see that Pashur was also of the number of the false prophets, who prophesied the verse of Jeremiah’s prediction, namely, welfare and peace (cf. Jer 23:17; Jer 14:13). – This saying of Jeremiah was most probably fulfilled at the taking of Jerusalem under Jechoniah, Pashur and the better part of the people being carried off to Babylon.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here Jeremiah explains more at large why he said that Pashur would be terror on every side, even because he and his friends would be in fear; for he would find himself overwhelmed by God’s vengeance, and would become a spectacle to all others. In short, Jeremiah means, that such would be God’s vengeance as would fill Pashur and all others with fear; for Pashur himself would be constrained to acknowledge God’s hand without being able to escape, and all others would also perceive the same. He then became a spectacle to himself and to others, because he could not, however hardened he might have been, do otherwise than feel God’s vengeance; and this became also apparent to all others.
Behold, he says, I will make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends; and fall shall they by the sword of their enemies, thine eyes seeing it; and all Judah will I deliver into the hand, etc. He repeats what he had said; for Pashur wished to be deemed the patron of the whole land, and especially of the city Jerusalem. As, then, he had undertaken the cause of the people, as though he was the patron and defender of them all, Jeremiah says, that all the Jews would be taken captives, and not only so, but that something more grievous was nigh at hand, for when the king of Babylon led them into exile, he would also smite them with the sword, not indeed all; but we know that he severely punished the king, his children, and the chief men, so that the lower orders on account of their obscurity alone escaped; and those of this class who did escape, because they were not noble nor renowned, were indebted to their own humble condition. It follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends.We should have looked for a different explanation, indicating that terrors from without should gather round the cruel and relentless persecutor, but the prophets words go deeper. He should be an object of self-loathing, outer fears intensifying his inward terror and acting through him on others. He is the centre from which terrors radiate as well as that to which they converge.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 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.
Ver. 4. I will make thee a terror. ] Heb., I will give thee unto a terror – i.e., I will frighten thy conscience, and then turn it loose upon thee, so that thou shalt be a corde tuo fugitivus, and thy friends shall have small joy of thee, or thou help by them. See on Jer 20:3 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos.
by the sword. Some codices, with two early printed editions, add “at the hand of”.
the king of Babylon. This is the first occurrence in Jeremiah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will make: Deu 28:65-67, Job 18:11-21, Job 20:23-26, Psa 73:19, Eze 26:17-21, Mat 27:4, Mat 27:5
thine: Jer 29:21, Jer 39:6, Jer 39:7, Deu 28:32-34, 1Sa 2:33, 2Ki 25:7
I will give: Jer 19:15, Jer 21:4-10, Jer 25:9, Jer 32:27-31
Reciprocal: Gen 4:12 – a fugitive Lev 26:16 – terror 1Ki 13:4 – his hand 2Ki 7:6 – the Lord Job 20:25 – terrors Psa 31:13 – fear Pro 28:1 – wicked Jer 6:25 – the sword Jer 20:6 – thy friends Jer 39:9 – carried Jer 46:5 – fear Jer 49:5 – I will Jer 49:29 – Fear
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 20:4. Terror to thyself is something like a popular saying that a man is afraid of himself, or that he is
afraid of his shadow.” That would be an awful state of mind to come to Pashur, and just as his nerves would be in a tension, his friends and fellow citizens would be seized and taken away into the Babylonian captivity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Lord announced through Jeremiah that Pashhur would become a terror to others, his friends, and even himself, and he would feel terror when he saw the coming invader slaughter his loved ones. The Lord promised to deliver all of Judah over to the Babylonian king, who would take many of the people captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. This is the first explicit reference to the place of exile in the book (cf. Jer 1:13; Jer 15:14).