Jeremiah 23:21-25

23:21 I did not send those prophets.

Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ¹ 

I did not tell them anything.

Yet they prophesied anyway.

23:22 But if they had stood in my inner circle, ² 

they would have proclaimed my message to my people.

They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways

and stop doing the evil things they are doing.

23:23 Do you people think ³  that I am some local deity

and not the transcendent God?” ⁴  the Lord asks. ⁵ 

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ⁶ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ⁷ 

the Lord asks. ⁸ 

23:25 The Lord says, ⁹  “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!’ ¹⁰ 

[23:21]  ¹ tn Heb “Yet they ran.”

[23:22]  ² tn Or “had been my confidant.” See the note on v. 18.

[23:23]  ³ tn The words “Do you people think” at the beginning of this verse and “Do you really think” at the beginning of the next verse are not in the text but are a way of trying to convey the nature of the rhetorical questions which expect a negative answer. They are also a way of trying to show that the verses are still connected with the preceding discussion addressed to the people (cf. 23:16, 20).

[23:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Am I a god nearby and not a god far off?” The question is sometimes translated as though there is an alternative being given in v. 23, one that covers both the ideas of immanence and transcendence (i.e., “Am I only a god nearby and not also a god far off?”). However, the hey interrogative (הַ) at the beginning of this verse and the particle (אִם, ’im) at the beginning of the next show that the linkage is between the question in v. 23 and that in v. 24a. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.d both questions in this case expect a negative answer.

[23:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ⁵ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[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.