Magor-missabib

Magor-missabib (meaning fear on every side) is the symbolic name Jeremiah gave to Pashhur son of Immer, the temple officer who had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks for prophesying judgment on Jerusalem (Jeremiah 20:1–3). The name pronounces Pashhur's judgment: he and all his friends would see terror on every side, fall by the sword, be carried captive to Babylon, and die there. The phrase magor missabib — terror or fear surrounding on all sides — becomes in Jeremiah a recurring motif for the comprehensive terror of divine judgment (Jeremiah 6:25; 20:10; 46:5; 49:29).

The episode is striking in its irony: Pashhur, whose name may mean security on all sides, receives a prophetic counter-name that inverts his apparent position of power and security. The act of renaming in the Old Testament carries judicial weight, as God's renaming of Jacob, Abraham, and Sarah transformed their identity and destiny. Magor-missabib is thus less a personal name than a prophetic verdict pronounced over a man who used his religious authority to silence God's messenger.