Jeremiah 23:9-40 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Prophets. Jeremiah is overcome by the stern message given him to deliver. The evil of the land is encouraged by prophet and priest (Jeremiah 6:13), even the Temple being dishonoured (2 Kings 21:5); for this they shall be thrust down a dark and slippery way (Jeremiah 23:9-12). The immorality of the southern prophets is worse than was the false religion of the northern (Jeremiah 23:13). Hence their punishment (Jeremiah 23:15; cf. Jeremiah 9:15). They inspire baseless hopes (teach you vanity, Jeremiah 23:16), which are without Divine warrant (Jeremiah 14:14) and prophesy well-being (Jeremiah 23:17, as mg.). They have had no entrance into Yahweh's heavenly council (Jeremiah 23:18; cf. Jeremiah 23:22; Job 15:8 mg.; whereas true prophets have, Amos 3:7). Jeremiah 23:19 f., describing the ultimate judgment, appears to be an interpolation from Jeremiah 30:23 f. The teaching of the true prophet can be known from its moral quality (Jeremiah 23:22). But Yahweh is omnipresent and omniscient (Jeremiah 23:23 f.) and knows the falsity of the appeal made by these prophets to their dreams as revelation (cf. Job 4:13 ff.). Let the dream be put forward for no more than it is; the (direct) word of Yahweh shall be known by its powerful effects (i.e. its appeal to the sanctions of history, Jeremiah 23:29). Yahweh is against this imitative, second-hand prophecy (Jeremiah 23:30), which is without inner confirmation (Jeremiah 23:31, and see on Jeremiah 20:9), and Divine commission (Jeremiah 23:32). This passage is important for the study of the prophetic consciousness, especially of the distinction of true from false prophecy (cf. Jeremiah 14:13 ff., Ezekiel 13:1-16). The implied marks of false prophecy are superficial optimism (Jeremiah 23:17), immoral teaching (Jeremiah 23:22), futility of result (Jeremiah 23:29), lack of originality and inner conviction (Jeremiah 23:30). There follows (Jeremiah 23:33-40) a rather obscure denunciation of the term burden, as used of an oracle, i.e. of something taken up on the prophet's lips. When men scornfully ask about Yahweh's burden, the answer, playing on the term, shall be Ye are the burden (Jeremiah 23:33 mg.). Men make their own words into Yahweh's burden (Jeremiah 23:36 mg.). If men persist in using this term burden of Yahweh's oracles, he will take them up (Jeremiah 23:39 mg., again with play on the word) and fling them away.

Jeremiah 23:9. shake: be soft, i.e. strengthless.

Jeremiah 23:10. Read mg.; for because. dried up interrupts the connexion.

Jeremiah 23:13. folly: lit. unsavouriness, Job 6:6.

Jeremiah 23:23. at hand: must be taken to mean locally limited, in view of context. Jeremiah 23:26. The verse is corrupt: Driver suggests how long? is (my word) in the heart, etc..

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 23:9

Jeremiah 23:9-40

9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.

10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearinga the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

13 And I have seen follyb in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profanenessc gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imaginationd of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

18 For who hath stood in the counsele of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied

22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

28 The prophet that hath a dream,f let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.

34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punishg that man and his house.

35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.

37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

38 But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:

40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.