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 23:25-26

23:25 The Lord says, ⁴  “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!’ ⁵  23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ⁷  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁸  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁹  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 14:14

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ¹¹  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ¹²  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ¹³  and the delusions of their own mind.

Ezekiel 22:25

22:25 Her princes ¹⁴  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ¹⁵  within it.

Ezekiel 22:2

22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ¹⁶  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ¹⁷  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

Ezekiel 2:9

2:9 Then I looked and realized a hand was stretched out to me, and in it was a written scroll.

Ezekiel 2:1

Ezekiel’s Commission

2:1 He said to me, “Son of man, ¹⁸  stand on your feet and I will speak with you.”

Ezekiel 4:2

4:2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp ¹⁹  against it! Post soldiers outside it ²⁰  and station battering rams around it.

Revelation 19:20

19:20 Now ²¹  the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf ²²  – signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. ²³ 

Revelation 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ²⁴  idol worshipers, ²⁵  and all those who lie, their place ²⁶  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ²⁷  That ²⁸  is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15

22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ²⁹  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ³⁰ 

[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.

[23:25]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

[23:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[14:14]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

[14:14]  ¹³ 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.

[22:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4.

[22:2]  ¹⁷ tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

[2:1]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase son of man occurs ninety-three times in the book of Ezekiel. It simply means “human one,” and distinguishes the prophet from the nonhuman beings that are present in the world of his vision.

[4:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “a barricade.”

[4:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “set camps against it.”

[19:20]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of an unexpected development in the account: The opposing armies do not come together in battle; rather the leader of one side is captured.

[19:20]  ²² tn For this meaning see BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνώπιον 4.b, “by the authority of, on behalf of Rv 13:12, 14; 19:20.”

[19:20]  ²³ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ²⁴ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ²⁵ tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ²⁶ tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ²⁷ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”

[22:15]  ²⁹ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ³⁰ tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”