Jeremiah 23:25-26

23:25 The Lord says, ¹  “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ ²  23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ³ 

Jeremiah 27:10

27:10 Do not listen to them, ⁴  because their prophecies are lies. ⁵  Listening to them will only cause you ⁶  to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 27:14

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ⁸  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you.

Jeremiah 28:13

28:13 “Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says, ⁹  ‘You have indeed broken the wooden yoke. But you have ¹⁰  only succeeded in replacing it with an iron one! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 29:21

29:21 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹²  also has something to say about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ¹³  ‘I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will execute them before your very eyes.

Jeremiah 37:19

37:19 Where now are the prophets who prophesied to you that ¹⁴  the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land?

Isaiah 9:15

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ¹⁵  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Zechariah 13:3

13:3 Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ¹⁶ 

Zechariah 13:1

The Refinement of Judah

13:1 “In that day there will be a fountain opened up for the dynasty ¹⁷  of David and the people of Jerusalem ¹⁸  to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ¹⁹ 

Zechariah 4:2

4:2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, ²⁰  “I see a menorah of pure gold with a receptacle at the top and seven lamps, with fourteen pipes going to the lamps.

¹ tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that the Lord continues speaking.

² sn To have had a dream was not an illegitimate means of receiving divine revelation. God had revealed himself in the past to his servants through dreams (e.g., Jacob [Gen 31:10-11] and Joseph [Gen 37:6, 7, 9]) and God promised to reveal himself through dreams (Num 12:6; Joel 2:28 [3:1 HT]). What was illegitimate was to use the dream to lead people away from the Lord (Deut 13:1-5 [13:2-6 HT]). That was what the prophets were doing through their dreams which were “lies” and “the delusions of their own minds.” Through them they were making people forget who the Lord really was which was just like what their ancestors had done through worshiping Baal.

³ sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

⁴ tn The words “Don’t listen to them” have been repeated from v. 9a to pick up the causal connection between v. 9a and v. 10 that is formally introduced by a causal particle in v. 10 in the original text.

⁵ tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”

⁶ tn Heb “lies will result in your being taken far…” (לְמַעַן [lÿma’an] + infinitive). This is a rather clear case of the particle לְמַעַן introducing result (contra BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. There is no irony in this statement; it is a bold prediction).

⁷ tn The words “out of your country” are not in the text but are implicit in the meaning of the verb. The words “in exile” are also not in the text but are implicit in the context. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ 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.

⁹ tn Heb “Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord….” The translation uses an indirect quotation here used to eliminate one level of embedded quotation.

¹⁰ tn The Greek version reads “I have made/put” rather than “you have made/put.” This is the easier reading and is therefore rejected.

¹¹ tn Heb “the yoke bars of wood you have broken, but you have made in its stead yoke bars of iron.”

¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

¹³ tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

¹⁴ tn Heb “And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?’” The indirect quote has been used in the translation because of its simpler, more direct style.

¹⁵ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

¹⁶ sn Death (in this case being run…through with a sword) was the penalty required in the OT for prophesying falsely (Deut 13:6-11; 18:20-22).

¹⁷ tn Heb “house” (so NIV, NRSV), referring to dynastic descendants.

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁹ tn Heb “for sin and for impurity.” The purpose implied here has been stated explicitly in the translation for clarity.

²⁰ tc The present translation (along with most other English versions) follows the reading of the Qere and many ancient versions, “I said,” as opposed to the MT Kethib “he said.”