Deuteronomy 13:1-5

13:1 Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams ¹  should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder, ²  13:2 and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.” 13:3 You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, ³  for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him ⁴  with all your mind and being. ⁵  13:4 You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him. 13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, ⁶  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 14:14-15

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ⁸  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ⁹  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ¹⁰  and the delusions of their own mind. 14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ¹¹  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ¹² 

Jeremiah 23:13-15

23:13 The Lord says, ¹³  “I saw the prophets of Samaria ¹⁴ 

doing something that was disgusting. ¹⁵ 

They prophesied in the name of the god Baal

and led my people Israel astray. ¹⁶ 

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹⁷ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ¹⁸ 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ¹⁹ 

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

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ²⁰ 

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ²¹ 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ²² 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ²³ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ²⁴ 

that ungodliness ²⁵  has spread throughout the land.’”

Jeremiah 23:31

23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ²⁶  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 27:15

27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ²⁸  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ²⁹  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.” ³⁰ 

Ezekiel 13:6

13:6 They see delusion and their omens are a lie. ³¹  They say, “the Lord declares,” though the Lord has not sent them; ³²  yet they expect their word to be confirmed. ³³ 

Matthew 7:15

A Tree and Its Fruit

7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. ³⁴ 

Matthew 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ³⁵ 

Matthew 2:12

2:12 After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, ³⁶  they went back by another route to their own country.

[13:1]  ¹ tn Heb “or a dreamer of dreams” (so KJV, ASV, NASB). The difference between a prophet (נָבִיא, navi’) and one who foretells by dreams (חֹלֵם אוֹ, ’o kholem) was not so much one of office – for both received revelation by dreams (cf. Num 12:6) – as it was of function or emphasis. The prophet was more a proclaimer and interpreter of revelation whereas the one who foretold by dreams was a receiver of revelation. In later times the role of the one who foretold by dreams was abused and thus denigrated as compared to that of the prophet (cf. Jer 23:28).

[13:1]  ² tn The expression אוֹת אוֹ מוֹפֵת (’ot ’o mofet) became a formulaic way of speaking of ways of authenticating prophetic messages or other works of God (cf. Deut 28:46; Isa 20:3). The NT equivalent is the Greek term σημεῖον (shmeion), a sign performed (used frequently in the Gospel of John, cf. 2:11, 18; 20:30-31). They could, however, be counterfeited or (as here) permitted to false prophets by the Lord as a means of testing his people.

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

[13:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “all your heart and soul” (so NRSV, CEV, NLT); or “heart and being” (NCV “your whole being”). See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

[13:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “your midst” (so NAB, NRSV). The severity of the judgment here (i.e., capital punishment) is because of the severity of the sin, namely, high treason against the Great King. Idolatry is a violation of the first two commandments (Deut 5:6-10) as well as the spirit and intent of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[14:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “Falsehood those prophets are prophesying in my name.” In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in someone’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8).

[14:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

[14:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “divination and worthlessness.” The noun “worthlessness” stands as a qualifying “of” phrase (= to an adjective; an attributive genitive in Hebrew) after a noun in Zech 11:17; Job 13:4. This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns are joined by “and” with one serving as the qualifier of the other.

[14:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

[14:15]  ¹² tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

[23:13]  ¹³ tn The words “The Lord says” are not in the text, but it is clear from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:13]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[23:13]  ¹⁵ 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.

[23:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “by Baal.”

[23:14]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[23:14]  ¹⁸ 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.)

[23:14]  ¹⁹ 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.

[23:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

[23:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:15]  ²² tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…concerning the prophets.” The person is shifted to better conform with English style and the word “of Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the judgment applies to the prophets of Samaria who had already been judged long before.

[23:15]  ²³ 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.

[23:15]  ²⁴ 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.

[23:15]  ²⁵ sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the Lord’s criticism of the prophet and priest. This is a common rhetorical device for bracketing material that belongs together. The criticism has, however, focused on the false prophets and the judgment due them.

[23:31]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:31]  ²⁷ 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.

[27:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:15]  ²⁹ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

[27:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

[13:6]  ³¹ sn The same description of a false prophet is found in Micah 2:11.

[13:6]  ³² sn The Lord has not sent them. A similar concept is found in Jer 14:14; 23:21.

[13:6]  ³³ tn Or “confirmed”; NIV “to be fulfilled”; TEV “to come true.”

[7:15]  ³⁴ sn Sheep’s clothing…voracious wolves. Jesus uses a metaphor here to point out that these false prophets appear to be one thing, but in reality they are something quite different and dangerous.

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

[2:12]  ³⁶ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.