מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב

From the study of Jeremiah 20:3

Range of meaning

Made of magor (H4032, "terror, dread", from the root gur, "to be afraid") + min ("from") + saviv (H5439, "around, surroundings"). Together: "terror from all around" or "terror on every side". Magor means dread that has a real cause, such as attack, encirclement or disaster, more than a vague anxious feeling.

Against the English

KJV, BSB and WEB transliterate it ("Magor-missabib"), so a reader without the Hebrew does not see that the new name means anything. ESV and NIV translate it ("Terror on Every Side"), which keeps the meaning. NLT narrows it to a man who lives in terror, which keeps the inner fear but loses "on every side" and the idea that he becomes a terror to others (v. 4).

How it drifted

Not drift so much as hiddenness. Leaving it untranslated turns a sentence into what looks like a foreign label.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is a stock phrase in Jeremiah and in laments: Jer 6:25 (the enemy from the north: "the sword of the enemy, terror on every side"), Jer 20:10 (Jeremiah's enemies whisper it about him), 46:5 (Egypt's routed army), 49:29 (Kedar); Lam 2:22; Ps 31:13 (MT 31:14). The Greek Septuagint here reads Metoikon ("exile" or "resident alien"), deriving magor from a second root gur, "to live as a foreigner". The Latin Vulgate reads Pavor undique, "Dread everywhere".