Ezekiel 13:22-23

13:22 This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life. 13:23 Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ¹  will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 21:29

21:29 while seeing false visions for you

and reading lying omens for you ²  –

to place that sword ³  on the necks of the profane wicked, ⁴ 

whose day has come,

the time of final punishment.

Jeremiah 23:25-32

23:25 The Lord says, ⁵  “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!’ ⁶  23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ⁷  23:27 How long will they go on plotting ⁸  to make my people forget who I am ⁹  through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors ¹⁰  did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. ¹¹  23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ¹²  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹³  23:29 My message is like a fire that purges dross! ¹⁴  It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! ¹⁵  I, the Lord, so affirm it! ¹⁶  23:30 So I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁷  that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. ¹⁸  23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁹  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ²⁰  23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ²¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ²³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ²⁴ 

Lamentations 2:14

נ (Nun)

2:14 Your prophets saw visions for you

that were worthless lies. ²⁵ 

They failed to expose your sin

so as to restore your fortunes. ²⁶ 

They saw oracles for you

that were worthless ²⁷  lies.

Zephaniah 3:4

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ²⁸ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ²⁹ 

they break God’s laws. ³⁰ 

[13:23]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb is feminine plural, indicating that it is the false prophetesses who are addressed here.

[21:29]  ² tn Heb “in the seeing concerning you falsehood, in divining concerning you a lie.” This probably refers to the attempts of the Ammonites to ward off judgment through prophetic visions and divination.

[21:29]  ³ tn Heb “you”; the referent (the sword mentioned in v. 28) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:29]  ⁴ sn The second half of the verse appears to state that the sword of judgment would fall upon the wicked, despite their efforts to prevent it.

[23:25]  ⁵ 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.

[23:25]  ⁶ 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.

[23:26]  ⁷ sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

[23:27]  ⁸ tn The relation of the words to one another in v. 26 and the beginning of v. 27 has created difficulties for translators and commentators. The proper solution is reflected in the NJPS. Verses 26-27 read somewhat literally, “How long is there in the hearts of the prophets who are prophesying the lie and [in the hearts of] the prophets of the delusions of their [own] heart the plotting to cause my people to forget my name…” Most commentaries complain that the text is corrupt, that there is no subject for “is there.” However, the long construct qualification “in the hearts of” has led to the lack of observation that the proper subject is “the plotting to make my people forget.” There are no exact parallels but Jer 14:22; Neh 5:5 follow the same structure. The “How long” precedes the other means of asking a question for the purpose of emphasis (cf. BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.b and compare for example the usage in 2 Sam 7:7). There has also been a failure to see that “the prophets of the delusion of…” is a parallel construct noun after “heart of.” Stripping the syntax down to its barest minimum and translating literally, the sentence would read “How long will the plotting…continue in the hearts of the prophets who…and [in hearts of] the prophets of…” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform to contemporary English style but attempt has been made to maintain the same subordinations.

[23:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “my name.”

[23:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 39).

[23:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “through Baal.” This is an elliptical expression for the worship of Baal. See 11:17; 12:16; 19:5 for other references to their relation to Baal. There is a deliberate paralleling in the syntax here between “through their dreams” and “through Baal.”

[23:28]  ¹² tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is not my message like a fire?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer that is made explicit in the translation. The words “that purges dross” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” See preceding note.

[23:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “who are stealing my words from one another.” However, context shows that it is their own word which they claim is from the Lord (cf. next verse).

[23:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:31]  ²⁰ 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.

[23:32]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ²² 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.

[23:32]  ²³ 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.

[23:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[2:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “emptiness and whitewash.” The nouns שָׁוְא וְתָפֵל (shv’ vÿtafel) form a nominal hendiadys. The first noun functions adjectivally, modifying the second noun that retains its full nominal sense: “empty whitewash” or “empty deceptions” (see following translation note on meaning of תָּפֵל [tafel]). The noun תָּפֵל (tafel, “whitewash”) is used literally in reference to a white-washed wall (Ezek 13:10, 11, 14, 15) and figuratively in reference to false prophets (Ezek 22:28).

[2:14]  ²⁶ tc The Kethib שְׁבִיתֵךְ (shÿvitekh) and Qere שְׁבוּתֵךְ (shÿvutekh), which is preserved in many medieval Hebrew mss here and elsewhere (Ps 85:1 Heb 85:2; 126:4; Job 42:10), are struggling with the root. The ancient versions take it from ָָשׁבָה (shavah) meaning “captivity.” Such a meaning is not tenable for the Job passage, which along with a similar phrase in the Sefire inscription suggest that the proper meaning is “to restore someone’s fortunes.”

[2:14]  ²⁷ tn The nouns שָׁוְא וּמַדּוּחִים (shav’ umaddukhim, lit., “emptiness and enticements”) form a nominal hendiadys. The first functions adjectivally, modifying the second noun that retains its nominal sense: “empty enticements” or “false deceptions.” The noun מַדּוּחַ (madduakh), meaning “enticement” or “transgression” is a hapax legomenon (term that appears only once in the Hebrew OT). It is related to the verb נָדָח (nadakh, “to entice, lead astray”) which is often used in reference to idolatry.

[3:4]  ²⁸ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ²⁹ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”