Magor-Missabib

Magor-missabib is a symbolic name pronounced over the priest Pashhur by the prophet Jeremiah. The name itself means "terror on every side," and it functions as an oracle of judgment: the new name announces what will overtake the man who wears it.

The Renaming of Pashhur

After Pashhur, the priest who served as chief officer in the house of Yahweh, struck Jeremiah and put him in the stocks, the prophet returned the next morning with a renaming oracle: "And it came to pass on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib" (Jer 20:3). The change is not a private nickname but a divine reclassification — Yahweh, not Jeremiah, supplies the name.

Terror on Every Side

The content of the new name unfolds in the oracle that follows. Pashhur becomes a terror first to himself and then to those around him: "For thus says Yahweh, Look, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will watch it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon, and will slay them with the sword" (Jer 20:4). The name is not metaphor only; it is forecast.

Babylon and the Treasury

The judgment widens from Pashhur outward to the city he serves. The riches of Jerusalem are handed over with him: "Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies; and they will make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon" (Jer 20:5). The priest who silenced the prophet cannot keep the wealth he stewarded.

The Death of a False Prophet

The oracle closes with Pashhur's personal end. The man who prophesied a different word will not survive his own deportation: "And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house 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 falsely" (Jer 20:6). The renaming is finalized in burial — Magor-missabib dies abroad, and the name proves true on him last of all.