Pashur

Pashur (UPDV: Pashhur) is the name of three priestly figures in the Hebrew Bible whose lives intersect the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah and the post-exilic restoration of the temple. Two of them — a son of Malchijah and a son of Immer — stand on opposite sides of Jeremiah's prophetic conflict with the Judean monarchy, while a third appears as the father of one of the officials who later sought Jeremiah's death. The same name reappears, generations later, attached to a sizeable priestly clan that returns from Babylon under Zerubbabel and reorganizes itself around the rebuilt temple.

Pashhur Son of Malchijah, the Priest

This Pashhur is identified by the long genealogical chain in Chronicles, where Adaiah is traced back through "Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah" (1Ch 9:12). When Nebuchadrezzar later threatens Jerusalem, Zedekiah dispatches him with Zephaniah on a royal embassy to the prophet: "the word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest" (Jer 21:1). The mission is a request for divine intervention, but Jeremiah's reply turns the inquiry into a sentence of judgment on the city.

The same Pashhur reappears among the princes who hear Jeremiah's surrender oracle and resolve to silence him. Jer 38:1 lists "Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah" as the four officials who carry the complaint to Zedekiah and demand the prophet's death. He thus appears twice in close succession — once as a royal envoy seeking a word from Yahweh, and once as a hostile official seeking the prophet's blood.

The House of Pashhur in the Return

A priestly family bearing the same name forms one of the largest contingents in the post-exilic restoration. Both census lists agree on the count: "The sons of Pashhur, a thousand two hundred forty and seven" (Ezr 2:38; Neh 7:41). Among those of this house who had married foreign wives during Ezra's reform, the record names "Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah" (Ezr 10:22). A representative of the family, listed simply as "Pashhur" alongside "Amariah, Malchijah" (Neh 10:3), seals the renewed covenant under Nehemiah, and a descendant — "Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah" — is enrolled among the priests who do the work of the house in the resettled Jerusalem (Neh 11:12). The genealogy in Nehemiah explicitly anchors the post-exilic family back to the same Pashhur–Malchijah line attested in Chronicles.

Pashhur Son of Immer, Governor of the Temple

A different Pashhur stands at the center of one of Jeremiah's most personal confrontations. He is "the son of Immer the priest, who was leading officer in the house of Yahweh" (Jer 20:1), and on hearing Jeremiah prophesy in the temple court he responds not with inquiry but with violence: "Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh" (Jer 20:2). The next morning, when Pashhur releases him, Jeremiah delivers an oracle that strips the priest of his name. "Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib" — Terror-on-every-side (Jer 20:3).

The judgment that follows is specific and personal. Pashhur and his household are destined for exile and death in Babylon, and his friends with him: "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 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 20:4, 6). The closing charge — "to whom you have prophesied falsely" — places Pashhur not merely among Jeremiah's persecutors but among the false prophets of Jerusalem, a temple officer whose violence against the true prophet is exposed as the cover for his own counterfeit message.

Pashhur, Father of Gedaliah

A third Pashhur surfaces only in passing, as the father of one of the officials who works for Jeremiah's death: "Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur" (Jer 38:1). Whether this Pashhur is to be identified with either of the priests above or with another man of the same name, the text does not say; he is named only to fix Gedaliah's parentage in the list of Jeremiah's persecutors.