On the following morning Pashhur ordered Jeremiah to be brought to his chamber. There twenty-one stripes were administered to him; and after warning him never to enter Jerusalem again, Pashhur ordered him to leave the city and be thankful he wasn't carried out of it a corpse.
Before going, however, Jeremiah turned on Pashhur and said to him:
"The Lord hath not called thy name Pashhur, but Magor
(Terror), for thus saith the Lord: 'Behold I am about to
make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends; and
they shall fall by the sword of your enemy before your very
eyes. But thee and all Judah will I give into the hands of
the King of Babylon, and he will carry them into captivity
and slay them with the sword.
"'Moreover, I will give all the riches of this city and all
its possessions and all the treasures of the king of Judah
into the hands of their enemies, and they shall carry them
away to Babylon; and thou and all that dwell in thy house
shall go into captivity, and thou shalt die at Babylon and
be buried there, together with all thy friends to whom thou
hast prophesied falsely.'"
Here, for the first time, Jeremiah spoke of Babylon as the source from which all the evil impending over Judah was to come. For, one of the Elders who had accompanied him to Tophet, the day before, had whispered to him that Jehoiakim was preparing for a revolt from Nebuchadrezzar.
The reason why such a dangerous idea had entered the mind of Jehoiakim was that Nebuchadrezzar had received word, while yet at Riblah, that his father, Nabopolassar, had died. Without delay, and before having subdued the Palestinian states to his entire satisfaction, he marched to Babylon to be crowned and to establish himself firmly upon his throne.
Jehoiakim thought he saw an opportunity here to regain his independence. Jeremiah knew how foolhardy and impossible this undertaking would be. He so informed Pashhur, therefore, and received a kick and a cuff for his pains, as a farewell from that worthy officer upon leaving Jerusalem.
CHAPTER XII.
The Woe of the Prophet.
"What now?" Jeremiah asked himself.