Jeremiah 23:14

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ² 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ³ 

I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 27:14-17

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ⁵  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ⁶  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ⁷  listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” ⁸ 

27:16 I also told the priests and all the people, “The Lord says, ‘Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that ⁹  the valuable articles taken from the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. ¹⁰  But they are prophesying a lie to you. 27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ¹¹  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ¹² 

Jeremiah 28:16

28:16 So the Lord says, ‘I will most assuredly remove ¹³  you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’” ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 29:32

29:32 Because he has done this,” ¹⁵  the Lord says, “I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. There will not be any of them left to experience the good things that I will do for my people. I, the Lord, affirm it! For he counseled rebellion against the Lord.”’” ¹⁶ 

¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

² tn Or “they commit adultery and deal falsely.” The word “shocking” only occurs here and in 5:30 where it is found in the context of prophesying lies. This almost assures that the reference to “walking in lies” (Heb “in the lie”) is referring to false prophesy. Moreover the references to the prophets in 5:13 and in 14:13-15 are all in the context of false prophesy as are the following references in this chapter in 23:24, 26, 32 and in 28:15. This appears to be the theme of this section. This also makes it likely that the reference to adultery is not literal adultery, though two of the false prophets in Babylon were guilty of this (29:23). The reference to “encouraging those who do evil” that follows also makes more sense if they were preaching messages of comfort rather than messages of doom. The verbs here are infinitive absolutes in place of the finite verb, probably used to place greater emphasis on the action (cf. Hos 4:2 in a comparable judgment speech.)

³ tn Heb “So they strengthen the hands of those doing evil so that they do not turn back from their evil.” For the use of the figure “strengthen the hands” meaning “encourage” see Judg 9:24; Ezek 13:22 (and cf. BDB 304 s.v. חָזַק Piel.2). The vav consecutive on the front of the form gives the logical consequence equivalent to “so” in the translation.

⁴ tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

⁵ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

⁶ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

⁷ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

⁸ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

⁹ tn Heb “don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you….” The sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style and one level of embedded quotes has been eliminated to ease complexity.

¹⁰ sn This refers to the valuable articles of the temple treasury which were carried off by Nebuchadnezzar four years earlier when he carried off Jeconiah, his family, some of his nobles, and some of the cream of Judean society (2 Kgs 24:10-16, especially v. 13 and see also vv. 19-20 in the verses following).

¹¹ tn The imperative with vav (ו) here and in v. 12 after another imperative are a good example of the use of the imperative to introduce a consequence. (See GKC 324-25 §110.f and see Gen 42:18. This is a common verb in this idiom.)

¹² tn According to E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 954) both this question and the one in v. 13 are examples of rhetorical questions of prohibition / “don’t let this city be made a pile of rubble.”

¹³ sn There is a play on words here in Hebrew between “did not send you” and “will…remove you.” The two verbs are from the same root word in Hebrew. The first is the simple active and the second is the intensive.

¹⁴ sn In giving people false assurances of restoration when the Lord had already told them to submit to Babylon, Hananiah was really counseling rebellion against the Lord. What Hananiah had done was contrary to the law of Deut 13:6 and was punishable by death.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Therefore.”

¹⁶ sn Compare the same charge against Hananiah in Jer 28:16 and see the note there. In this case, the false prophesy of Shemaiah is not given but it likely had the same tenor since he wants Jeremiah reprimanded for saying that the exile will be long and the people are to settle down in Babylon.