Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

Restoration after Exile

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the L ord. ²Therefore thus says the L ord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the L ord. ³Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the L ord.

The Righteous Branch of David

⁵ The days are surely coming, says the L ord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The L ord is our righteousness.”

⁷ Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the L ord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the L ord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” ⁸but “As the L ord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.

False Prophets of Hope Denounced

⁹ Concerning the prophets:

My heart is crushed within me,

all my bones shake;

I have become like a drunkard,

like one overcome by wine,

because of the L ord

and because of his holy words.

For the land is full of adulterers;

because of the curse the land mourns,

and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.

Their course has been evil,

and their might is not right.

Both prophet and priest are ungodly;

even in my house I have found their wickedness,

says the L ord.

Therefore their way shall be to them

like slippery paths in the darkness,

into which they shall be driven and fall;

for I will bring disaster upon them

in the year of their punishment,

says the L ord.

In the prophets of Samaria

I saw a disgusting thing:

they prophesied by Baal

and led my people Israel astray.

But in the prophets of Jerusalem

I have seen a more shocking thing:

they commit adultery and walk in lies;

they strengthen the hands of evildoers,

so that no one turns from wickedness;

all of them have become like Sodom to me,

and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts concerning the prophets:

“I am going to make them eat wormwood,

and give them poisoned water to drink;

for from the prophets of Jerusalem

ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

¹⁶ Thus says the L ord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the L ord. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise the word of the L ord, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”

For who has stood in the council of the L ord

so as to see and to hear his word?

Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?

Look, the storm of the L ord!

Wrath has gone forth,

a whirling tempest;

it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

The anger of the L ord will not turn back

until he has executed and accomplished

the intents of his mind.

In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

I did not send the prophets,

yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,

yet they prophesied.

But if they had stood in my council,

then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,

and they would have turned them from their evil way,

and from the evil of their doings.

²³ Am I a God near by, says the L ord, and not a God far off? ²⁴Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the L ord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the L ord. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” ²⁶How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. ²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the L ord. ²⁹Is not my word like fire, says the L ord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the L ord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹See, I am against the prophets, says the L ord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the L ord.” ³²See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the L ord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the L ord.

³³ When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the L ord?” you shall say to them, “You are the burden, and I will cast you off, says the L ord.” ³⁴And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the L ord,” I will punish them and their households. ³⁵Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the L ord answered?” or “What has the L ord spoken?” ³⁶But “the burden of the L ord” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the L ord of hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the L ord answered you?” or “What has the L ord spoken?” ³⁸But if you say, “the burden of the L ord,” thus says the L ord: Because you have said these words, “the burden of the L ord,” when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, “the burden of the L ord,” ³⁹therefore, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Here God reproves the false prophets, and also promises to his people what was especially to be desired, — that he would cleanse his Church from such pollutions. He then shews that it was his purpose to take vengeance, because the false prophets had dared in such an impious and bold manner to abuse his sacred name. For it ever occurred to their minds, “How is it that God permits this? Is it because he cares not for the safety of his people? or does it give him any delight when he sees truth mingled with falsehood, and light with darkness?” Hence God here shews that he for a time bore with that sacrilegious audacity which the false prophets practiced, but that he did not so connive at it as not at length to punish them.

How long? he says, which is the same as though he had said, “It shall not be perpetual; though I may delay, yet they shall know that they have with extreme perverseness abused my forbearance.” And he also enhances their crime by saying, How long shall it be in the heart of the prophets to prophesy falsehood? By this way of speaking he intimates, that they erred not through ignorance, as many do, who through want of knowledge bring forth what they do not understand; but God here complains that these prophets, as it were designedly, rose up to suppress the truth. Then by heart is to be understood thought or purpose; as though he had said, that they designedly made a false pretense as to his name, that it was their settled purpose to deceive the people. ¹⁰⁸¹⁰⁸     Emendators have been very busy in correcting the first words in this verse, without the authority of any MSS., or of the early versions. When there is a meaning and a striking one, emendations, merely conjectural, are surely to be repudiated. Houbigant, Blayney, and Horsley, have their corrections, but we can do without them. What seems to have prompted conjectural emendations has been the ה prefixed to יש; but Gataker removed this difficulty; his version is substantially as follows, —
   How long! — Is it in the heart of these prophets, To be prophesying falsehood, And prophesying the deceit of their own hearts?
   To be “in the heart” is to be resolved, to form a purpose or determination. See Isaiah 63:4. It is the same, as though it was said, “Are these prophets resolved?” To be “in the heart” means also to delight in a thing. See Psalm 40:8. The meaning then may be, “Is it the delight of these prophets?” etc. But the first sense is the most suitable. “How long!” is an exclamation of wonder at their perseverance in their wicked course. They had been often warned, and yet they continued. Then follows a question, whether it was their settled purpose to persevere in prophesying falsely? — Ed.

He adds, that they were prophets of the deceit of their own heart. This deceit of the heart is put in opposition to true doctrine; and thus God intimates that whatever men bring forward from themselves is deceitful, for nothing can proceed from them but vanity. There is yet no doubt but that he condemns that foolish conceit, of which the false prophets proudly boasted, that they were alone wise, as the case is now under the Papacy; how arrogantly do unprincipled men prattle whenever they speak of their own figments? Nothing can be more silly, and yet they think that they surpass the angels in acuteness and in high speculations. Such was the arrogance displayed by the false prophets of old. But God declares that whatever men invent, and whatever they devise, which they have not received from his mouth, is only the deceit of the heart.

And this ought to be carefully noticed; for there are many plausible refinements, in which there is nothing solid, but they are mere trifles. If, then, at any time these vain thoughts seem pleasing to us, let us bear in mind what Jeremiah says here, that whatever proceeds not from God is the deceit of the heart; and further, that though the whole world applaud falsehoods and impostures, we ought yet to know that everything is a deceit which has not God himself as its author.

¹⁰⁸ Emendators have been very busy in correcting the first words in this verse, without the authority of any MSS., or of the early versions. When there is a meaning and a striking one, emendations, merely conjectural, are surely to be repudiated. Houbigant, Blayney, and Horsley, have their corrections, but we can do without them. What seems to have prompted conjectural emendations has been the ה prefixed to יש; but Gataker removed this difficulty; his version is substantially as follows, — How long! — Is it in the heart of these prophets, To be prophesying falsehood, And prophesying the deceit of their own hearts? To be “in the heart” is to be resolved, to form a purpose or determination. See Isaiah 63:4. It is the same, as though it was said, “Are these prophets resolved?” To be “in the heart” means also to delight in a thing. See Psalm 40:8. The meaning then may be, “Is it the delight of these prophets?” etc. But the first sense is the most suitable. “How long!” is an exclamation of wonder at their perseverance in their wicked course. They had been often warned, and yet they continued. Then follows a question, whether it was their settled purpose to persevere in prophesying falsely? — Ed.