Ezekiel 13:7

13:7 Have you not seen a false vision and announced a lying omen when you say, “the Lord declares,” although I myself never spoke?

Jeremiah 23:31-32

23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ²  23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ³  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁴  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 28:2

28:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁷  says, ‘I will break the yoke of servitude ⁸  to the king of Babylon.

Jeremiah 28:15

28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you! You are making these people trust in a lie! ⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

² tn The word “The Lord” is not actually in the text but is implicit in the idiom. It is generally supplied in all the English versions.

³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.

⁵ sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.

⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

⁸ sn See the study note on 27:2 for this figure. Hananiah is given the same title “the prophet” as Jeremiah throughout the chapter and claims to speak with the same authority (compare v. 2a with 27:21a). He even speaks like the true prophet; the verb form “I will break” is in the “prophetic perfect” emphasizing certitude. His message here is a contradiction of Jeremiah’s message recorded in the preceding chapter (compare especially v. 3 with 27:16, 19-22 and v. 4 with 22:24-28). The people and the priests are thus confronted with a choice of whom to believe. Who is the “true” prophet and who is the “false” one? Only fulfillment of their prophecies will prove which is which (see Deut 18:21-22).

⁹ tn Or “You are giving these people false assurances.”