Jeremiah 27:9-10

27:9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination, ¹  by dreams, by consulting the dead, ²  or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be ³  subject to the king of Babylon.’ 27:10 Do not listen to them, ⁴  because their prophecies are lies. ⁵  Listening to them will only cause you ⁶  to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:8-9

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁸  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ⁹  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream. 29:9 They are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ¹⁰  But I did not send them. I, the Lord, affirm it!’ ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 29:31

29:31 “Send a message to all the exiles in Babylon. Tell them, ‘The Lord has spoken about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. “Shemaiah has spoken to you as a prophet even though I did not send him. He is making you trust in a lie. ¹² 

Ezekiel 12:24

12:24 For there will no longer be any false visions or flattering omens amidst the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 13:6-7

13:6 They see delusion and their omens are a lie. ¹³  They say, “the Lord declares,” though the Lord has not sent them; ¹⁴  yet they expect their word to be confirmed. ¹⁵  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 13:23

13:23 Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ¹⁶  will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 21:29

21:29 while seeing false visions for you

and reading lying omens for you ¹⁷  –

to place that sword ¹⁸  on the necks of the profane wicked, ¹⁹ 

whose day has come,

the time of final punishment.

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ²⁰  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²¹ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ²²  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²³ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁴  us!”

Zechariah 10:2

10:2 For the household gods ²⁵  have spoken wickedness, the soothsayers have seen a lie, and as for the dreamers, they have disclosed emptiness and give comfort in vain. Therefore the people set out like sheep and become scattered because they have no shepherd. ²⁶ 

[27:9]  ¹ 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]  ² sn An example of this is seen in 1 Sam 28.

[27:9]  ³ 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.

[27:10]  ⁴ tn The words “Don’t listen to them” have been repeated from v. 9a to pick up the causal connection between v. 9a and v. 10 that is formally introduced by a causal particle in v. 10 in the original text.

[27:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”

[27:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “lies will result in your being taken far…” (לְמַעַן [lÿma’an] + infinitive). This is a rather clear case of the particle לְמַעַן introducing result (contra BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. There is no irony in this statement; it is a bold prediction).

[27:10]  ⁷ tn The words “out of your country” are not in the text but are implicit in the meaning of the verb. The words “in exile” are also not in the text but are implicit in the context. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

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

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

[29:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “prophesying lies to you in my name.”

[29:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:31]  ¹² tn Or “is giving you false assurances.”

[13:6]  ¹³ sn The same description of a false prophet is found in Micah 2:11.

[13:6]  ¹⁴ sn The Lord has not sent them. A similar concept is found in Jer 14:14; 23:21.

[13:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “confirmed”; NIV “to be fulfilled”; TEV “to come true.”

[13:23]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb is feminine plural, indicating that it is the false prophetesses who are addressed here.

[21:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the seeing concerning you falsehood, in divining concerning you a lie.” This probably refers to the attempts of the Ammonites to ward off judgment through prophetic visions and divination.

[21:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you”; the referent (the sword mentioned in v. 28) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:29]  ¹⁹ sn The second half of the verse appears to state that the sword of judgment would fall upon the wicked, despite their efforts to prevent it.

[3:11]  ²⁰ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ²² tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ²³ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[10:2]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew word תְּרָפִים (tÿrafim, “teraphim”) refers to small images used as means of divination and in other occult practices (cf. Gen 31:19, 34-35; 1 Sam 19:13, 16; Hos 3:4). A number of English versions transliterate the Hebrew term (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV) or simply use the generic term “idols” (so KJV, NIV, TEV).

[10:2]  ²⁶ sn Shepherd is a common OT metaphor for the king (see esp. Jer 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 23:1-2; 50:6; Ezek 34).