Jeremiah 23:31-32

23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ²  23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ³  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁴  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁶ 

[23:31]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:31]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”