Pashur or Pashhur (Hebrew: פשחור pash-''h''ur) was the name of at least two priests contemporary with the

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning "Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewis ...

and who are mentioned in the

Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah ( he, ספר יִרְמְיָהוּ) is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the boo ...

. The name is of Egyptian origin, Pš-Ḥr.

Pashur ben Immer

Pashur the son of Immer (possibly the same as Amariah,

Nehemiah Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...

; ), was deputy chief priest ('' '') of the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

( Jeremiah 20:1, 2). (At this time, the ''nagid'', or "governor", of the temple would have been

Seraiah Seraiah or Sraya (שְׂרָיָה "Soldier/Prince/Princess of/is the LORD", Standard Hebrew ''Səraya'', Tiberian Hebrew ''Śərāyā'') is the name of several people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and a name with other non-biblical uses. Biblic ...

1 Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sect ...

). Apparently enraged at the plainness with which

uttered his solemn warnings of coming judgements because of the abounding iniquity of the times, Pashur "smote Jeremiah the prophet" (this could mean that he ordered the temple police to seize him and inflict the corporal punishment of up to forty stripes found in

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html" ;"title="f Moses">f Moseslabel=none) and th ...

); then he placed him in the stocks in the high gate of Benjamin, where he remained all night. Upon being set free in the morning, Jeremiah went to Pashur ( Jeremiah 20:3) and announced to him that God had changed his name to ;, i.e., "terror on every side", and that he would be later carried captive to Babylon and die there ().

Pashur ben Malchiah

Pashur, the son of

Malchiah {{Short description, Biblical name Malchijah (Hebrew: מַלְכִּיָּה, also Malkijah, Malchiah, Melchiah, or Melchias) is a biblical name belonging to several persons mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and means "Yahweh is King" or "the king is Ya ...

, was another priest, who was sent by king

Zedekiah Zedekiah (), was the 20th and last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu ( he, מַתַּנְיָהוּ, ''Mattanyāhū'', "Gift of God"; el, Μαθθ ...

to Jeremiah to inquire of the

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ...

regarding the impending attack of King

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning " Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruli ...

of Babylon ( Jeremiah 21:1). In Jeremiah 38:1- 6, this Pashur was also one of four men who advised Zedekiah to put Jeremiah to death for his prophecies of doom but who ended up throwing him into a

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by ...

Gedaliah ben Pashur

Pashur the father of

Gedaliah Gedaliah, Gedalia, Gedallah Hirsch, E. G. and Greenstone, J. H. (1906)Gedallah Jewish Encyclopedia or Gedalya(h) ( or ; he, גְּדַלְיָּה ''Gəḏalyyā'' or ''Gəḏalyyāhū'', meaning "Jah has become Great") was, according to the na ...

( Jeremiah 38:1), possibly the same Pashur as (1) above. Gedaliah was another of the four men who threw Jeremiah into the cistern.

Historicity

The pottery shards of the

Tel Arad Tel Arad ( he, תל ערד), in Arabic Tell 'Arad (تل عراد), is an archaeological tell, or mound, located west of the Dead Sea, about west of the modern Israeli city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the ...

ostraca unearthed in the 1970s written in Paleo-Hebrew mention Pashur ( Jeremiah 20:1),

References

{{Eastons, wstitle=Pashur 6th-century BCE Jews