Yirmiyahu Part 6: Yirmiyahu Is Attacked And Sent To Jail
Yirmiyahu was sent by Hashem to the city of Tophes to prophesize on the horrifying punishments the residents of Tophes will receive for their aveiros of murder and avodah zara, including the Baal. The city will be devastated, hunger will ravage the people until they succumb to eating their own children and their friends. Death will strike at every corner until there is no more room in the city to bury the vast amount of dead bodies.
Yirmiyahu then returned from Tophes and stood in the azara of the Beis Hamikdash and said his nevuah to all the people gathered there. Pashchur ben Emar the Kohen heard Yirmiyahu reciting the nevuah. Pashchur was the Kohen Gadol’s assistant and was responsible for all the kohanim in the Beis Hamikdash. When Pashchur heard Yirmiyahu’s predictions of doom, he went out and hit Yirmiyahu and put him in jail. The next day, Pashchur released him.
When Pashchur released him from jail, Yirmiyahu said to him, “Not Pashchur did Hashem call your name, but Magor MiSaviv.” Pashchur falsely presented himself as a navi and used to say that Hashem had told him that there would be peace. Therefore, Yirmiyahu told him that he had prophesized falsely. “You say that Hashem called your name and spoke with you. Hashem didn’t call you Pashchur but Magor MiSaviv. You won’t be secure as you say, but your surrounding will be filled with fear, and it will be fitting to call you Magor since you will experience terror.”
Yirmiyahu then told Pashchur that Hashem has said that He will make you a terror to yourself and all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and all of Yehudah will be given into the hand of the king of Bavel, who will exile them to Bavel and hit them with the sword. And you Pashchur, all those who dwell in your houses shall go into captivity and you shall come to Bavel and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesized falsely.