Pashhur, Pashur

pash'-hur, pash'-ur (pashchur, "splitter," "cleaver"): The name of several persons difficult to individuate:

(1) A priest, son of Immer, and "chief governor in the house of the Lord" (Jer 20:1), who persecuted Jeremiah, putting him in "the stocks" hard by the "house of Yahweh" in the "gate of Benjamin" (Jer 20:2). When released, Jeremiah pronounced Divine judgment on him and the people. Future captivity and an exile's death are promised to Pashur whose name he changed from its masterful significance to a cowering one. "Terror on every side" (maghor miccabhibh) is to take the place of "stable strength" (Jer 20:3 ff).

(2) Son of Melchiah, a prince of Judah, and one of the delegation sent by Zedekiah, the king, to consult Jeremiah (Jer 21:1). It looks like a larger and later deputation, similarly sent, to which this Pashur belongs, whose record is given in Jer 38:1-13. Accompanying them was one, Gedaliah, who was a son of (3).

(3) Another Pashur (Jer 38:1), who may be the person mentioned in 1Ch 9:12; Ne 11:12.

(4) A priest, of those who "sealed" Nehemiah's covenant (Ne 10:1,3), who may, however, be the same as (5).

(5) The chief of a priestly family called "sons of Pashur" (Ezr 2:38; 10:22; Ne 7:41; 1 Esdras 5:25 ("Phassurus," margin "Pashhur"); 1 Esdras 9:22 ("Phaisur," margin "Pashhur")). Doubtless it is this Pashur, some of whose sons had "strange wives" (Ezr 10:22).

Henry Wallace