Jeremiah 20:3

…of the mind of the Scripture, which comes to be present to an eye that has room for the clarity of the sacred writings. These things I have said by way of preface, rousing and awakening both myself and my hearers to attend to what has been read, so that we may ask Jesus to come and to appear to us and to teach us now the things written here. "Jeremiah prophesied; and Paschor son of Emmer the priest heard the words of the prophecy." And although in all likelihood many, so far as the mere sequence of the prophecy goes, had heard Jeremiah, no other hearer is quickly recorded except Paschor. But the Scripture took care to say also whose son he was, that he was son of Emmer, and that he held the office of priest, and what rank he had among the people—that he had been appointed governor of the house of the Lord at the time when Jeremiah was prophesying these words. And it is recorded that, having heard the words of this prophecy, Paschor struck Jeremiah; and he was not content with having struck him, but he also cast him into a certain dungeon (katarraktēs). The Scripture took care to say also where this dungeon was—at the gate of Benjamin—and that the dungeon was in a place where there was an upper chamber, and an upper chamber of nothing else than of the house of the Lord. These things the Holy Spirit recorded to have come upon Jeremiah in connection with the prophecy, and to have come from Paschor. Then it says: on the next day Paschor brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah, having been brought out, said to Paschor that the Lord had not called your name this name, Paschor; another name has been laid upon you—as to Jacob Israel, as to Abram Abraham, as to Sarai Sarah, so upon you he has laid the name Exile (Metoikos). And for this reason he has called you Exile, since the Lord says: behold, I give you into exile with all—with whom? […]

"And it came to pass on the next day that Paschor brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon." O Lord Jesus, come again, make clear to me these things also, and to those who have come for the spiritual nourishment. How does he "on the next day" himself bring "Jeremiah out of the dungeon"? For as long as the present day stands (and today is all this present age), the sinner casts the prophet down into the dungeon; but if the present day cease and the morrow come, then, having repented, he brings him out of the dungeon. Then Jeremiah tells him what Paschor will suffer. What does he say to him? "The Lord did not call your name Paschor, but Exile. For thus says the Lord." This Paschor is going to be deported, according to the desert of his sins, to Babylon—not alone, but also with his friends. For he is handed over to Nabuchodonosor and departs into the Confusion (Sygchysis) and is punished for his sins, since "he cast the prophet into the dungeon." Who then are the friends of Paschor, whose name is that of Blackness (Melania) of the mouth? All those who have received his words, those who have been blackened together with his blackened mouth, those who have received doctrines of blackness. "And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies." Those set over the punishments—these are the ones who have the swords and make them fall; concerning whom the word prophesies and says: "and your eyes shall see." These things, he says, that are prophesied, "your eyes shall see." "And I will give you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon." Whoever of Judah is caught being so much a sinner as to be worthy of the king of Babylon, of the Confusion, shall be handed over to him. And the king of Babylon takes those who sin. And the king of Babylon is, according to the history, Nabuchodonosor, but according to the anagogical sense, the evil one. […]

(Ver. 3.) And when it dawned on the next day, Phasur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks and Jeremiah said to him: The Lord did not call your name Phasur, but fear from all sides. And here both the name of the high priest and the type of torture are interpreted in the same way as before. However, the name of the high priest is changed, so that it may show the punishment of the future from the name.

It seems to be a proverbial expression, bespeaking a man not only in distress but in despair, not only in danger on every side (that a man may be and yet by faith may be in no terror, as David, Ps. iii. 3 ), but in fear on every side, and that a man may be when there appears no danger. The wicked flee when no man pursues, are in great gear where no fear is.

Jeremiah complaining to God concerning it, and the other instances of hard measure that he had since he began to be a prophet, and the grievous temptations he had struggled with (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens