Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

Jeremiah 37:19

37:19 Where now are the prophets who prophesied to you that ²  the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land?

Jeremiah 27:9

27:9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination, ³  by dreams, by consulting the dead, ⁴  or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be ⁵  subject to the king of Babylon.’

Jeremiah 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁶  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ⁷  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Jeremiah 27:16

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 ⁸  the valuable articles taken from the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. ⁹  But they are prophesying a lie to you.

[2:30]  ¹ tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

[37:19]  ² 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.

[27:9]  ³ sn Various means of divination are alluded to in the OT. For example, Ezek 21:26-27 alludes to throwing down arrows to see which way they fall and consulting the shape of the liver of slaughtered animals. Gen 44:5 alludes to reading the future through pouring liquid in a cup. The means alluded to in this verse were all classified as pagan and prohibited as illegitimate in Deut 18:10-14. The Lord had promised that he would speak to them through prophets like Moses (Deut 18:15, 18). But even prophets could lie. Hence, the Lord told them that the test of a true prophet was whether what he said came true or not (Deut 18:20-22). An example of false prophesying and the vindication of the true as opposed to the false will be given in the chapter that follows this.

[27:9]  ⁴ sn An example of this is seen in 1 Sam 28.

[27:9]  ⁵ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508-9 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

[29:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  ⁵ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[27:16]  ⁵ 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.

[27:16]  ⁶ 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).