Ver. 1. Now Pashur the son of Immer,] i.e., One of the posterity of Immer, after many generations. See 1 Chronicles 24:14. Who was also chief governor.] Not high priest, as some have said, but a principal priest, haply the head of the sixteenth course; or, as Junius and others think, the high priest’s vicar, or second. Such as was Eleazar to Aaron his father. (Numbers 4:16) Heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.] Or, Heard Jeremiah prophesying; and having gall in his ears, as they say some creatures have, he was galled at the hearing of so smart a truth.
Ver. 2. Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet.] Either with his fist, as Zedekiah did Micaiah, (1 Kings 22:24) and as Bonner did Hawkes and other martyrs, pulling off part of their beards; or else with a staff, as they dealt by our Saviour, (Matthew 26:67) and as that Popish bishop, degrading a martyr minister, struck him so hard with his crosier staff as he was kneeling on the stairs at Paul’s, that he fell down backwards and broke his head. Atqui lapidandi sunt haeretici sacrarum literarura argumentis, saith Athanasius. But heretics are to be stoned with Scripture arguments; and men may a great deal sooner be cudgelled into a treaty than into a tenet. And put him in the stocks.] As they did afterwards Paul and Silas; (Acts 16:22-24) Clerinus the martyr, mentioned in Cyprian’s epistles; Mr Philpot, in the Bishop of London’s coal house; and that good woman who, suffering afterwards for the same cause, rejoiced much that her leg was put in the same hole of the stocks where Philpot’s leg had lain before. That were in the high gate of Benjamin.] Which might be a prison like Lollard’s tower in London whereunto were sent the martyrs, many of them for their zeal and forwardness. Action and passion go together— omne agens agendo repatitur -especially if men go a little faster than others do. “They who will live godly in Christ Jesus”—and be set upon it—“shall suffer persecution.” This gate-house might well be the priests’ prison, whither they used to send such as they took for false prophets. Acts and Mon. Contra Arrian., orat. ii. Epist., lib. iv.
Ver. 3. Pashur brought forth Jeremiah.] To be judged, say some; but why then did he first smite him? An officer should retain the majesty of the law, and not do anything passionately. To set him at liberty, say others; as perceiving that the “word of God could not be bound,” nor a prophet’s mouth stopped by a prison, as Pashur also shall well perceive ere Jeremiah hath done with him. Bonner said to Hawkes the martyr, A faggot will make you believe the sacrament of the altar. He answered, No, no, a point for your faggot; God will meet with you one day. So true is that of the poet, “ Pressa sub ingenti ceu pondere palms virescit, Sub cruce sic florent debita corda Deo.” The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur.] That is, black mouth, as some derive it; or diffusing paleness, as others; but on the contrary. Magormissabib,] i.e., Terror round about, or, Fear on every side; a proverbial form of speech, denoting extreme consternation of spirit and greatest distress. Such as befell Tullus Hostilius, King of Rome, who had for his gods Payor and Pallor. Dignissimus sane qui deos suos semper haberet praesentes, saith Lactantius wittily; i.e., great pity but this man should ever have had his gods at hand, since he was so fond of them. Our Richard III and Charles IX of France, a pair of bloody princes, were Magormissabibs in their generations, as terrible at length to themselves as they had been formerly to others; and therefore could never endure to be awakened in the night without music or some like diversion. Acts and Mon. Junius. q.d., Non Augustus, sed augustus; non nobilis, sed mobilis futurus es. Non tumor sed timer. Daniel; Thuan.
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 Jeremiah 20:3.
Ver. 5. Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city.] Thus Pashur prevailed nothing at all with good Jeremiah by imprisoning him, to make him give over menacing. But as Baruch wrote the roll anew that had been cut in pieces, and added unto it many like words, (Jeremiah 36:32) so doth Jeremiah here; he will not budge to die for it. This was to show the magnanimity of a prophetic spirit.
Ver. 6. There shalt thou be buried.] In a dunghill perhaps, as Bishop Bonner was, and have cause enough to cry out, as that great Parisian doctor did from his bier, when brought to be buried, “ Parcite funeribus: mihi nil prodesse valebit. Heu infelicem cur me genuere parentes? Ah miser aeternos vado damnatus ad ignes.” “Spare funeral costs: why was I born By hell’s black fiends now to be torn?”