5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.
The priests exercise power by their own authority. 1
And my people love to have it this way.
But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! 2
23:11 Moreover, 3 the Lord says, 4
“Both the prophets and priests are godless.
I have even found them doing evil in my temple!
23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.
They will stumble and fall headlong.
For I will bring disaster on them.
A day of reckoning is coming for them.” 5
The Lord affirms it! 6
23:13 The Lord says, 7 “I saw the prophets of Samaria 8
doing something that was disgusting. 9
They prophesied in the name of the god Baal
and led my people Israel astray. 10
23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem 11
doing something just as shocking.
They are unfaithful to me
and continually prophesy lies. 12
So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,
with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. 13
I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,
and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. 14
23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, 15
have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: 16
‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering
and drink the poison water of judgment. 17
For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason 18
that ungodliness 19 has spread throughout the land.’”
23:16 The Lord who rules over all 20 says to the people of Jerusalem: 21
“Do not listen to what
those prophets are saying to you.
They are filling you with false hopes.
They are reporting visions of their own imaginations,
not something the Lord has given them to say. 22
23:17 They continually say 23 to those who reject what the Lord has said, 24
‘Things will go well for you!’ 25
They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,
‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’
23:25 The Lord says, 26 “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!’ 27 23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. 28
28:7 Even these men 31 stagger because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer –
priests and prophets stagger because of beer,
they are confused 32 because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer;
they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, 33
they totter while making legal decisions. 34
מ (Mem)
4:13 But it happened 35 due to the sins of her prophets 36
and the iniquities of her priests,
who poured out in her midst
the blood of the righteous.
1 tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”
2 tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”
3 tn The particle כִּי (ki) which begins this verse is parallel to the one at the beginning of the preceding verse. However, the connection is too distant to render it “for.” “Moreover” is intended to draw the parallel. The words “the
4 tn Heb “Oracle of the
5 tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.
6 tn Heb “Oracle of the
7 tn The words “The
8 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
9 tn According to BDB 1074 s.v. תִּפְלָּה this word means “unseemly, unsavory.” The related adjective is used in Job 6:6 of the tastelessness of something that is unseasoned.
10 tn Heb “by Baal.”
11 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
12 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.)
13 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.
14 tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
15 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
16 tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the
17 tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” For these same words of judgment on another group see 9:15 (9:14 HT). “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.
18 tn The compound preposition מֵאֵת (me’et) expresses source or origin (see BDB 86 s.v. אֵת 4.c). Context shows that the origin is in their false prophesying which encourages people in their evil behavior.
19 sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the
20 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
21 tn The words “to the people of Jerusalem” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to reflect the masculine plural form of the imperative and the second masculine plural form of the pronoun. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “They tell of a vision of their own heart [= mind] not from the mouth of the
23 tn The translation reflects an emphatic construction where the infinitive absolute follows a participle (cf. GKC 343 §113.r).
24 tc The translation follows the Greek version. The Hebrew text reads, “who reject me, ‘The
25 tn Heb “You will have peace.” But see the note on 14:13. See also 6:14 and 8:11.
26 tn The words, “The
27 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
28 sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.
29 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
30 tn Heb “remove it from my sight 32:33 because of all the wickedness of the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to make me angry, they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to preserve the causal connections.
31 tn Heb “these.” The demonstrative pronoun anticipates “priests and prophets” two lines later.
32 tn According to HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע, the verb form is derived from בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”), not the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”). See earlier notes at 3:12 and 9:16.
33 tn Heb “in the seeing.”
34 tn Heb “[in] giving a decision.”
35 tn These words do not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied to make sense of the line. The introductory causal preposition מִן (min) (“because”) indicates that this phrase – or something like it – is implied through elision.
36 tn There is no main verb in the verse; it is an extended prepositional phrase. One must either assume a verbal idea such as “But it happened due to…” or connect it to the following verses, which themselves are quite difficult. The former option was employed in the present translation.
37 tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.