The following passage (Jeremiah 20:1–5) continues from the events of Jeremiah 19:1–15, but it also marks a major development in the ministry of Jeremiah. The way both Jeremiah and his message are treated by a top official of the temple is as significant as the burning of the scroll in Jeremiah 36:1–32. The events here are a rejection of the Lord’s message by the religious authorities, while the burning of the scroll is rejection by the political authorities.1
Pashhur was a priest and a chief officer in the temple. The word chief
from the Hebrew word nagad refers to a someone who has oversight and he would have been the official whose duty it was to maintain order in the temple precincts.2 Pashhur takes offense at Jeremiah’s message and has him beaten and locked up.
Just as the word prophesy
is used for the first time in the book to describe Jeremiah’s preaching in Jeremiah 19:14, so here Jeremiah is referred to as Jeremiah the prophet
for the first time since his commissioning. This highlights the conflict that is taking place. The leading authorities in Jerusalem, both religious and political, had convinced themselves and the people of Judah that the current state of peace in the land was guaranteed by Judah’s status as the Lord’s covenant people. The mere existence of the temple in Jerusalem and formal temple worship was enough to ensure the Lord’s protection of Judah, despite the blatant unfaithfulness of the nation. Jeremiah and his message are therefore seen as a threat to the leaders and to the peace that existed in the land. “He was viewed as a divisive and unsettling voice in the nation at a time when Judah was facing great uncertainty from the greater political scene around it.''3
1 Thus says the LORD, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests,