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23. Lying Prophets

¹ “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. ² Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD. ³ “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

    ⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will raise up for David Or up from David’s line a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
   and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
   and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
   The LORD Our Righteous Savior.

⁷ “So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ ⁸ but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹ Concerning the prophets:

   My heart is broken within me;
   all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
   like a strong man overcome by wine,
because of the LORD
   and his holy words.
¹⁰ The land is full of adulterers;
   because of the curse Or because of these things the land lies parched
   and the pastures in the wilderness are withered.
The prophets follow an evil course
   and use their power unjustly.

    ¹¹ “Both prophet and priest are godless;
   even in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
¹² “Therefore their path will become slippery;
   they will be banished to darkness
   and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them
   in the year they are punished,” declares the LORD.

    ¹³ “Among the prophets of Samaria
   I saw this repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
   and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem
   I have seen something horrible:
   They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
   so that not one of them turns from their wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me;
   the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:

   “I will make them eat bitter food
   and drink poisoned water,
because from the prophets of Jerusalem
   ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

¹⁶ This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
   they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
   not from the mouth of the LORD.
¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise me,
   ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts
   they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’
¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD
   to see or to hear his word?
   Who has listened and heard his word?
¹⁹ See, the storm of the LORD
   will burst out in wrath,
a whirlwind swirling down
   on the heads of the wicked.
²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back
   until he fully accomplishes
   the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
   you will understand it clearly.
²¹ I did not send these prophets,
   yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
   yet they have prophesied.
²² But if they had stood in my council,
   they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
   and from their evil deeds.

    ²³ “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD,
   “and not a God far away?
²⁴ Who can hide in secret places
   so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD.
   “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

²⁵ “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? ²⁷ They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. ²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. ²⁹ “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

³⁰ “Therefore,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. ³¹ Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The LORD declares.’ ³² Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the LORD.

False Prophecy

³³ “When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the LORD?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’ ³⁴ If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ I will punish them and their household. ³⁵ This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the LORD’s answer?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁶ But you must not mention ‘a message from the LORD’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the LORD Almighty, our God. ³⁷ This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the LORD’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁸ Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ this is what the LORD says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the LORD.’ ³⁹ Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰ I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”

This verse is addressed to the prophets of the kingdom of Judah, as we learn from its conclusion; and thus the exposition which I have given is confirmed, even this, that God extenuates the fault of other prophets, in speaking of the prophets of Jerusalem, who boasted of greater sanctity. But he declares that they would have poison for meat and gall for drink; as though he had said, “I will pursue them with every kind of punishment.” He expresses evidently the same thing I have before referred to, that their table would become a snare to them. (Psalm 69:22.) The ungodly, indeed, always think that they can by their arts escape; God on the other hand declares, that though they might have a table prepared, they yet would find nothing on it, but poison for meat, and gall for drink. For as to God’s children and faithful servants, evils are turned to their benefit; so as to the ungodly and his wicked despisers, all things must necessarily turn out for their ruin, even meat and drink, and their course of life, and in a word everything.

The cause follows, For gone forth is impiety ⁹⁴⁹⁴ This is the Syr., but it is not the meaning; it is properly rendered “pollution,” or defilement, by the Sept., the Vulg., and Arab., but improperly flattery, by the Targ. The verb from which it comes is commonly rendered to defile; see Isaiah 24:5; Micah 4:11. The “profaneness” of our version, and “the perverseness” of Blayney, seem incorrect; the word is used in neither sense. The pollution here was by idolatry — the adultery beforementioned. This pollution had spread from Jerusalem through the whole land. — Ed. through the whole land from the prophets of Jerusalem By which words he declares that they were the authors of all evils, so that in comparison with them the prophets of Samaria might have been deemed in a manner righteous. But there is no doubt but that this declaration was considered too severe; yet we see by what necessity Jeremiah was constrained thus to speak; for the lamp of God as yet remained at Jerusalem, according to what is said in many passages, nor was the light of sound doctrine wholly put out. They professed that they continued to obey the Law; and at the same time they were much worse than others, for not only the worship of God in the Temple and in the city was corrupted, but adulteries, frauds, plunders, and all kinds of wickedness prevailed everywhere. He adds —