Jeremiah 6:13-15

6:13 “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all of them practice deceit.

6:14 They offer only superficial help

for the harm my people have suffered. ¹ 

They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’

But everything is not all right! ² 

6:15 Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things?

No, they are not at all ashamed.

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die, just like others have died. ³ 

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 8:10-12

8:10 ⁴ So I will give their wives to other men

and their fields to new owners.

For from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all practice deceit.

8:11 They offer only superficial help

for the hurt my dear people ⁵  have suffered. ⁶ 

They say, “Everything will be all right!”

But everything is not all right! ⁷ 

8:12 Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?

No, they are not at all ashamed!

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die just like others have died. ⁸ 

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 14:15-16

14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ⁹  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ¹⁰  14:16 The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem ¹¹  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. ¹²  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 20:6

20:6 You, Pashhur, and all your household ¹⁴  will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 23:15

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ¹⁶ 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ¹⁷ 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ¹⁸ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ¹⁹ 

that ungodliness ²⁰  has spread throughout the land.’”

Jeremiah 28:16-17

28:16 So the Lord says, ‘I will most assuredly remove ²¹  you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’” ²² 

28:17 In the seventh month of that very same year ²³  the prophet Hananiah died.

Jeremiah 29:22-23

29:22 And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say, “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire!” ²⁴  29:23 This will happen to them because they have done what is shameful ²⁵  in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken lies while claiming my authority. ²⁶  They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done. I have been a witness to it,’ says the Lord.” ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:31-32

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. ²⁸  29:32 Because he has done this,” ²⁹  the Lord says, “I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. There will not be any of them left to experience the good things that I will do for my people. I, the Lord, affirm it! For he counseled rebellion against the Lord.”’” ³⁰ 

Micah 3:5-7

3:5 This is what the Lord says: “The prophets who mislead my people

are as good as dead. ³¹ 

If someone gives them enough to eat,

they offer an oracle of peace. ³² 

But if someone does not give them food,

they are ready to declare war on him. ³³ 

3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ³⁴ 

it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ³⁵ 

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ³⁶ 

3:7 The prophets ³⁷  will be ashamed;

the omen readers will be humiliated.

All of them will cover their mouths, ³⁸ 

for they will receive no divine oracles.” ³⁹ 

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ⁴⁰  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ⁴¹  both will fall into a pit.”

Revelation 19:20

19:20 Now ⁴²  the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf ⁴³  – 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. ⁴⁴ 

[6:14]  ¹ tn Heb “They heal [= bandage] the wound of my people lightly”; TEV “They act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches.”

[6:14]  ² tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[6:15]  ³ tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”

[8:10]  ⁴ sn See Jer 6:12-15 for parallels to 8:10-12. The words of Jeremiah to the people may have been repeated on more than one occasion or have been found appropriate to more than one of his collection of messages in written and edited form. See Jer 36:4 and Jer 36:28 for reference to at least two of these collections.

[8:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “They heal the wound of my people lightly.”

[8:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[8:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”

[14:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

[14:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

[14:16]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:16]  ¹² tn Heb “And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will not be anyone to bury them, they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters.” This sentence has been restructured to break up a long Hebrew sentence and to avoid some awkwardness due to differences in the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English styles.

[14:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “their evil.” Hebrew words often include within them a polarity of cause and effect. Thus the word for “evil” includes both the concept of wickedness and the punishment for it. Other words that function this way are “iniquity” = “guilt [of iniquity]” = “punishment [for iniquity].” Context determines which nuance is proper.

[20:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all who live in your house.” This included his family and his servants.

[20:6]  ¹⁵ sn As a member of the priesthood and the protector of order in the temple, Pashhur was undoubtedly one of those who promulgated the deceptive belief that the Lord’s presence in the temple was a guarantee of Judah’s safety (cf. 7:4, 8). Judging from the fact that two other men held the same office after the leading men in the city were carried into exile in 597 b.c. (see Jer 29:25-26 and compare 29:1-2 for the date and 2 Kgs 24:12-16 for the facts), this prophecy was probably fulfilled in 597. For a similar kind of oracle of judgment see Amos 7:10-17.

[23:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…concerning the prophets.” The person is shifted to better conform with English style and the word “of Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the judgment applies to the prophets of Samaria who had already been judged long before.

[23:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” For these same words of judgment on another group see 9:15 (9:14 HT). “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[23:15]  ¹⁹ tn The compound preposition מֵאֵת (me’et) expresses source or origin (see BDB 86 s.v. אֵת 4.c). Context shows that the origin is in their false prophesying which encourages people in their evil behavior.

[23:15]  ²⁰ sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the Lord’s criticism of the prophet and priest. This is a common rhetorical device for bracketing material that belongs together. The criticism has, however, focused on the false prophets and the judgment due them.

[28:16]  ²¹ sn There is a play on words here in Hebrew between “did not send you” and “will…remove you.” The two verbs are from the same root word in Hebrew. The first is the simple active and the second is the intensive.

[28:16]  ²² sn In giving people false assurances of restoration when the Lord had already told them to submit to Babylon, Hananiah was really counseling rebellion against the Lord. What Hananiah had done was contrary to the law of Deut 13:6 and was punishable by death.

[28:17]  ²³ sn Comparison with Jer 28:1 shows that this whole incident took place in the space of two months. Hananiah had prophesied that the captivity would be over before two years had past. However, before two months were past, Hananiah himself died in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of his death. His death was a validation of Jeremiah as a true prophet. The subsequent events of 588 b.c. would validate Jeremiah’s prophesies and invalidate those of Hananiah.

[29:22]  ²⁴ sn Being roasted to death in the fire appears to have been a common method of execution in Babylon. See Dan 3:6, 19-21. The famous law code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi also mandated this method of execution for various crimes a thousand years earlier. There is a satirical play on words involving their fate, “roasted them to death” (קָלָם, qalam), and the fact that that fate would become a common topic of curse (קְלָלָה, qÿlalah) pronounced on others in Babylon.

[29:23]  ²⁵ tn It is commonly assumed that this word is explained by the two verbal actions that follow. The word (נְבָלָה, nÿvalah) is rather commonly used of sins of unchastity (cf., e.g., Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 2 Sam 13:12) which would fit the reference to adultery. However, the word is singular and not likely to cover both actions that follow. The word is also used of the greedy act of Achan (Josh 7:15) which threatened Israel with destruction and the churlish behavior of Nabal (1 Sam 25:25) which threatened him and his household with destruction. The word is also used of foolish talk in Isa 9:17 (9:16 HT) and Isa 32:6. It is possible that this refers to a separate act, one that would have brought the death penalty from Nebuchadnezzar, i.e., the preaching of rebellion in conformity with the message of the false prophets in Jerusalem and other nations (cf. 27:9, 13). Hence it is possible that the translation should read: “This will happen because of their vile conduct. They have propagated rebellion. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives. They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. They have spoken lies while claiming my authority.”

[29:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

[29:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:31]  ²⁸ tn Or “is giving you false assurances.”

[29:32]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Therefore.”

[29:32]  ³⁰ sn Compare the same charge against Hananiah in Jer 28:16 and see the note there. In this case, the false prophesy of Shemaiah is not given but it likely had the same tenor since he wants Jeremiah reprimanded for saying that the exile will be long and the people are to settle down in Babylon.

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people.” The first person pronominal suffix is awkward in a quotation formula that introduces the words of the Lord. For this reason some prefer to begin the quotation after “the Lord says” (cf. NIV), but this leaves “concerning the prophets” hanging very awkwardly at the beginning of the quotation. It is preferable to add הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) at the beginning of the quotation, right after the graphically similar יְהוָה (yÿhvah; see D. R. Hillers, Micah [Hermeneia], 44). The phrase הוֹי עַל (hoy ’al, “woe upon”) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with “the prophets” following the preposition in the latter instance).

[3:5]  ³² tn Heb “those who bite with their teeth and cry out, ‘peace.’” The phrase “bite with the teeth” is taken here as idiomatic for eating. Apparently these prophets were driven by mercenary motives. If they were paid well, they gave positive oracles to their clients, but if someone could not afford to pay them, they were hostile and delivered oracles of doom.

[3:5]  ³³ tn Heb “but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.”

[3:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.”

[3:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.”

[3:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”

[3:7]  ³⁷ tn Or “seers.”

[3:7]  ³⁸ tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”

[3:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “for there will be no answer from God.”

[15:14]  ⁴⁰ tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:14]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”

[19:20]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”