Jeremiah 5:30-31

5:30 “Something horrible and shocking

is going on in the land of Judah:

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ² 

Jeremiah 14:14

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ³  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ⁴  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ⁵  and the delusions of their own mind.

Jeremiah 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ⁶  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁷  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁸  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁹ 

Ezekiel 13:2-4

13:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to the prophets who prophesy from their imagination: ¹⁰  ‘Hear the word of the Lord! 13:3 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit but have seen nothing! 13:4 Your prophets have become like jackals among the ruins, O Israel.

Ezekiel 13:16

13:16 those prophets of Israel who would prophesy about Jerusalem ¹¹  and would see visions of peace for it, when there was no peace,” declares the sovereign Lord.’

Ezekiel 22:25

22:25 Her princes ¹²  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 ¹³  within it.

Isaiah 41:6-7

41:6 They help one another; ¹⁴ 

one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’

41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,

the one who wields the hammer encourages ¹⁵  the one who pounds on the anvil.

He approves the quality of the welding, ¹⁶ 

and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ¹⁷  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹⁸ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁹  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²⁰ 

Disaster will not overtake ²¹  us!”

Zephaniah 3:4

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ²² 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ²³ 

they break God’s laws. ²⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:2

3:2 She is disobedient; ²⁵ 

she refuses correction. ²⁶ 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ²⁷  her God.

Zephaniah 2:1-2

The Prophet Warns the People

2:1 Bunch yourselves together like straw, ²⁸  you undesirable ²⁹  nation,

2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality ³⁰  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ³¹ 

before the Lord’s raging anger ³²  overtakes ³³  you –

before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!

[5:31]  ¹ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ² tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[14:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

[14:14]  ⁵ 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.

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

[23:32]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[13:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from their mind.”

[13:16]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[22:25]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[41:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “each his neighbor helps”; NCV “The workers help each other.”

[41:7]  ¹⁵ tn The verb “encourages” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “saying of the welding, ‘It is good.’”

[3:11]  ¹⁷ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²¹ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:4]  ²² sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ²³ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text combines a Hitpolel imperative of קָשַׁשׁ (qashash) with a Qal imperative of the same root. Elsewhere this root appears in the polel stem with the meaning “gather stubble.” Zephaniah’s command is ironic, implying the people are like stubble or straw. As such, they are vulnerable to the Lord’s fiery judgment that will quickly consume them (see 1:18). See Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 96.

[2:1]  ²⁹ tn Some relate this word to an Aramaic cognate meaning “to be ashamed.” With the negative particle it would then mean “unashamed” (cf. NIV “shameful”; NRSV “shameless”). However, elsewhere in biblical Hebrew the verb means “to desire,” or with the negative particle “undesirable.” Cf. also NEB “unruly.”

[2:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “before the giving birth of a decree.” For various alternative readings, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 187-88.

[2:2]  ³¹ tn The second half of the line reads literally, “like chaff it passes by a day.” The translation above assumes the “day” is the brief time God is giving the nation to repent. The comparison of this quickly passing opportunity to chaff is consistent with the straw imagery of v. 1.

[2:2]  ³² tn Heb “the fury of the anger of the Lord.” The synonyms are combined to emphasize the extreme degree of the Lord’s anger.

[2:2]  ³³ tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.