Jeremiah 23:17

23:17 They continually say ¹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ² 

‘Things will go well for you!’ ³ 

They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,

‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

Jeremiah 23:21

23:21 I did not send those prophets.

Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ⁴ 

I did not tell them anything.

Yet they prophesied anyway.

Jeremiah 23:25

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 

Jeremiah 23:31

23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ⁷  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ⁸ 

Jeremiah 28:2-3

28:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁹  says, ‘I will break the yoke of servitude ¹⁰  to the king of Babylon. 28:3 Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon.

Jeremiah 29:21

29:21 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹¹  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. ¹²  ‘I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will execute them before your very eyes.

Ezekiel 13:7

13:7 Have you not seen a false vision and announced a lying omen when you say, “the Lord declares,” although I myself never spoke?

Ezekiel 22:28

22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ¹³  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

[23:17]  ¹ tn The translation reflects an emphatic construction where the infinitive absolute follows a participle (cf. GKC 343 §113.r).

[23:17]  ² tc The translation follows the Greek version. The Hebrew text reads, “who reject me, ‘The Lord has spoken, “Things…”’” The Greek version is to be preferred here because of (1) the parallelism of the lines “reject what the Lord has said” // “follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts;” (2) the preceding context which speaks of “visions of their own imaginations not of what the Lord has given them;” (3) the following context which denies that they have ever had access to the Lord’s secrets; (4) the general contexts earlier regarding false prophecy where rejection of the Lord’s word is in view (6:14 [see there v. 10]; 8:11 [see there v. 9]); (5) the meter of the poetic lines (the Hebrew meter is 3/5/4/3; the meter presupposed by the translation is 5/3/4/3 with the 3’s being their words). The difference is one of vocalization of the same consonants. The vocalization of the MT is יְהוָה מְנַאֲצַי דִּבֶּר [mÿna’atsay dibber yÿhvah]; the Hebrew Vorlage behind the Greek would be vocalized as מְנַאֲצֵי דְּבַר יְהוָה (mÿna’atsey dÿvar yÿhvah).

[23:17]  ³ tn Heb “You will have peace.” But see the note on 14:13. See also 6:14 and 8:11.

[23:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “Yet they ran.”

[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.

[23:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:31]  ⁸ 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.

[28:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[28:2]  ¹⁰ sn See the study note on 27:2 for this figure. Hananiah is given the same title “the prophet” as Jeremiah throughout the chapter and claims to speak with the same authority (compare v. 2a with 27:21a). He even speaks like the true prophet; the verb form “I will break” is in the “prophetic perfect” emphasizing certitude. His message here is a contradiction of Jeremiah’s message recorded in the preceding chapter (compare especially v. 3 with 27:16, 19-22 and v. 4 with 22:24-28). The people and the priests are thus confronted with a choice of whom to believe. Who is the “true” prophet and who is the “false” one? Only fulfillment of their prophecies will prove which is which (see Deut 18:21-22).

[29:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:21]  ¹² tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

[22:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.