Gedaliah son of Pashhur is a man described in the
Book of Jeremiah of the
Hebrew Bible,
Judaism's
Tanakh, and
Christianity's
Old Testament. He is described as one of the political opponents of
Jeremiah, one of those who appealed to
King Zedekiah to have Jeremiah executed because of his prophecies that
Jerusalem and the
Temple would be destroyed by the
Babylonians due to the wickedness of the Jews:
And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke unto all the people, saying: Thus saith HaShem: He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live. Thus saith HaShem: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. Then the princes said unto the king: Let this man, we pray thee, be put to death; forasmuch as he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.