Discovery BoxJeremiah 6:14
Context6:14 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
Jeremiah 8:11
Context8:11 They offer only superficial help
for the hurt my dear people 3 have suffered. 4
They say, “Everything will be all right!”
But everything is not all right! 5
Jeremiah 14:13-15
Context14:13 Then I said, “Oh, Lord God, 6 look! 7 The prophets are telling them that you said, 8 ‘You will not experience war or suffer famine. 9 I will give you lasting peace and prosperity in this land.’” 10
14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! 11 I did not send them. I did not commission them. 12 I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, 13 and the delusions of their own mind. 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 14 them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ 15
Jeremiah 23:17
Context23:17 They continually say 16 to those who reject what the Lord has said, 17
‘Things will go well for you!’ 18
They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,
‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’
Jeremiah 27:14-18
Context27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve 19 the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm 20 that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you 21 listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” 22
27:16 I also told the priests and all the people, “The Lord says, ‘Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that 23 the valuable articles taken from the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. 24 But they are prophesying a lie to you. 27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you 25 will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” 26 27:18 I also told them, 27 “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, 28 let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. 29 Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away 30 to Babylon.
Jeremiah 28:1-5
Context28:1 The following events occurred in that same year, early in the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. To be more precise, it was the fifth month of the fourth year of his reign. 31 The prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, spoke to Jeremiah 32 in the Lord’s temple in the presence of the priests and all the people. 33 28:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 34 says, ‘I will break the yoke of servitude 35 to the king of Babylon. 28:3 Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon. 28:4 I will also bring back to this place Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and all the exiles who were taken to Babylon.’ Indeed, the Lord affirms, 36 ‘I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon.’”
28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah responded to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the Lord’s temple.
Jeremiah 28:10-17
Context28:10 The prophet Hananiah then took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. 28:11 Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 37 before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way. 38
28:12 But shortly after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 28:13 “Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says, 39 ‘You have indeed broken the wooden yoke. But you have 40 only succeeded in replacing it with an iron one! 41 28:14 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all 42 says, “I have put an irresistible yoke of servitude on all these nations 43 so they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And they will indeed serve him. I have even given him control over the wild animals.”’” 44 28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you! You are making these people trust in a lie! 45 28:16 So the Lord says, ‘I will most assuredly remove 46 you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’” 47
28:17 In the seventh month of that very same year 48 the prophet Hananiah died.
Jeremiah 29:31
Context29:31 “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. 49
Lamentations 2:14
Contextנ (Nun)
2:14 Your prophets saw visions for you
that were worthless lies. 50
They failed to expose your sin
so as to restore your fortunes. 51
They saw oracles for you
that were worthless 52 lies.
Ezekiel 13:10-16
Context13:10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” 53 when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, 54 they coat it with whitewash. 13:11 Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones 55 will fall and a violent wind will break out. 56 13:12 When the wall has collapsed, people will ask you, “Where is the whitewash you coated it with?”
13:13 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: In my rage I will make a violent wind break out. In my anger there will be a deluge of rain and hailstones in destructive fury. 13:14 I will break down the wall you coated with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. When it falls you will be destroyed beneath it, 57 and you will know that I am the Lord. 13:15 I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you, “The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more – 13:16 those prophets of Israel who would prophesy about Jerusalem 58 and would see visions of peace for it, when there was no peace,” declares the sovereign Lord.’
[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!”
[8:11] 3 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] 4 tn Heb “They heal the wound of my people lightly.”
[8:11] 5 tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”
[14:13] 6 tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.
[14:13] 7 tn Heb “Behold.” See the translator’s note on usage of this particle in 1:6.
[14:13] 8 tn The words “that you said” are not in the text but are implicit from the first person in the affirmation that follows. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[14:13] 9 tn Heb “You will not see sword and you will not have starvation [or hunger].”
[14:13] 10 tn Heb “I will give you unfailing peace in this place.” The translation opts for “peace and prosperity” here for the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) because in the context it refers both to peace from war and security from famine and plague. The word translated “lasting” (אֱמֶת, ’emet) is a difficult to render here because it has broad uses: “truth, reliability, stability, steadfastness,” etc. “Guaranteed” or “lasting” seem to fit the context the best.
[14:14] 11 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] 12 tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.
[14:14] 13 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.
[14:15] 14 tn Heb “Thus says the
[14:15] 15 tn Heb “Thus says the
[23:17] 16 tn The translation reflects an emphatic construction where the infinitive absolute follows a participle (cf. GKC 343 §113.r).
[23:17] 17 tc The translation follows the Greek version. The Hebrew text reads, “who reject me, ‘The
[23:17] 18 tn Heb “You will have peace.” But see the note on 14:13. See also 6:14 and 8:11.
[27:14] 19 tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.
[27:15] 20 tn Heb “oracle of the
[27:15] 21 sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.
[27:15] 22 tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”
[27:16] 23 tn Heb “don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you….” The sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style and one level of embedded quotes has been eliminated to ease complexity.
[27:16] 24 sn This refers to the valuable articles of the temple treasury which were carried off by Nebuchadnezzar four years earlier when he carried off Jeconiah, his family, some of his nobles, and some of the cream of Judean society (2 Kgs 24:10-16, especially v. 13 and see also vv. 19-20 in the verses following).
[27:17] 25 tn The imperative with vav (ו) here and in v. 12 after another imperative are a good example of the use of the imperative to introduce a consequence. (See GKC 324-25 §110.f and see Gen 42:18. This is a common verb in this idiom.)
[27:17] 26 tn According to E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 954) both this question and the one in v. 13 are examples of rhetorical questions of prohibition / “don’t let this city be made a pile of rubble.”
[27:18] 27 tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the
[27:18] 28 tn Heb “the word of the
[27:18] 29 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
[27:18] 30 tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the
[28:1] 31 tc The original text is unusually full here and deemed by many scholars to be corrupt: Heb “And it happened in that year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month Hananiah…said to…” Many scholars see a contradiction between “in the fourth year” and “in the beginning of the reign.” These scholars point to the fact that the Greek version does not have “in that year” and “in the beginning of the reign of”; it merely reads “in the fourth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month.” These scholars generally also regard the heading at 27:1 to be unoriginal and interpret the heading in the MT here as a faulty harmonization of the original (that in the Greek version) with the erroneous one in the Hebrew of 27:1. However, it is just as possible that the Greek version in both places is an attempt to harmonize the data of 27:1 and 28:1. I.e., it left out both the heading at 27:1, and “in that year” and “at the beginning of the reign of” in the heading here because it thought the data was contradictory. However, it is just as likely that there is really no contradiction here. I.e., the term “beginning of the reign” can include the fourth year. E. H. Merrill has argued that the term here refers not to the accession year (see the translator’s note on 26:1) but to the early years in general (“The ‘Accession Year’ and Davidic Chronology,” JANESCU 19 [1989]: 105-6, and cf. note 18 for bibliography on Akkadian parallels). Hence the phrase has been translated both here and in 27:1 “early in the reign of…” For other attempts at harmonization see the discussion in G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 41, n. 1a.
[28:1] 32 tn Heb “to me.” The rest of the chapter is all in third person narrative (see vv. 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15). Hence, many explain the first person here as a misunderstanding of the abbreviation “to Jeremiah” (אֶל יִרְמִיָּה [’el yirmiyyah] = אֵלַי, [’elay]). It is just as likely that there is a similar kind of disjunction here that was found in 27:1-2 only in the opposite direction. There what started out as a third person report was really a first person report. Here what starts out as a first person report is really a third person report. The text betrays both the hands of the narrator, probably Baruch, and the reportee, Jeremiah, who dictated a synopsis of his messages and his stories to Baruch to write down (Jer 36:4, 32).
[28:1] 33 tn Heb “And it happened in that year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah son of Azzur the prophet who was from Gibeon said to me in…” The sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and the flavor given in modern equivalent terms.
[28:2] 34 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.
[28:2] 35 sn See the study note on 27:2 for this figure. Hananiah is given the same title “the prophet” as Jeremiah throughout the chapter and claims to speak with the same authority (compare v. 2a with 27:21a). He even speaks like the true prophet; the verb form “I will break” is in the “prophetic perfect” emphasizing certitude. His message here is a contradiction of Jeremiah’s message recorded in the preceding chapter (compare especially v. 3 with 27:16, 19-22 and v. 4 with 22:24-28). The people and the priests are thus confronted with a choice of whom to believe. Who is the “true” prophet and who is the “false” one? Only fulfillment of their prophecies will prove which is which (see Deut 18:21-22).
[28:4] 36 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[28:11] 37 tn Heb “I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from upon the necks of all the nations.”
[28:11] 38 tn Heb “Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.”
[28:13] 39 tn Heb “Hananiah, ‘Thus says the
[28:13] 40 tn The Greek version reads “I have made/put” rather than “you have made/put.” This is the easier reading and is therefore rejected.
[28:13] 41 tn Heb “the yoke bars of wood you have broken, but you have made in its stead yoke bars of iron.”
[28:14] 42 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for this title.
[28:14] 43 tn Heb “An iron yoke I have put on the necks of all these nations.”
[28:14] 44 sn The emphasis is on the absoluteness of Nebuchadnezzar’s control. The statement is once again rhetorical and not to be taken literally. See the study note on 27:6.
[28:15] 45 tn Or “You are giving these people false assurances.”
[28:16] 46 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] 47 sn In giving people false assurances of restoration when the
[28:17] 48 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
[29:31] 49 tn Or “is giving you false assurances.”
[2:14] 50 tn Heb “emptiness and whitewash.” The nouns שָׁוְא וְתָפֵל (shv’ vÿtafel) form a nominal hendiadys. The first noun functions adjectivally, modifying the second noun that retains its full nominal sense: “empty whitewash” or “empty deceptions” (see following translation note on meaning of תָּפֵל [tafel]). The noun תָּפֵל (tafel, “whitewash”) is used literally in reference to a white-washed wall (Ezek 13:10, 11, 14, 15) and figuratively in reference to false prophets (Ezek 22:28).
[2:14] 51 tc The Kethib שְׁבִיתֵךְ (shÿvitekh) and Qere שְׁבוּתֵךְ (shÿvutekh), which is preserved in many medieval Hebrew
[2:14] 52 tn The nouns שָׁוְא וּמַדּוּחִים (shav’ umaddukhim, lit., “emptiness and enticements”) form a nominal hendiadys. The first functions adjectivally, modifying the second noun that retains its nominal sense: “empty enticements” or “false deceptions.” The noun מַדּוּחַ (madduakh), meaning “enticement” or “transgression” is a hapax legomenon (term that appears only once in the Hebrew OT). It is related to the verb נָדָח (nadakh, “to entice, lead astray”) which is often used in reference to idolatry.
[13:10] 54 tn The Hebrew word only occurs here in the Bible. According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:202-3) it is also used in the Mishnah of a wall of rough stones without mortar. This fits the context here comparing the false prophetic messages to a nice coat of whitewash on a structurally unstable wall.
[13:11] 55 tn Heb “and you, O hailstones.”
[13:11] 56 sn A violent wind will break out. God’s judgments are frequently described in storm imagery (Pss 18:7-15; 77:17-18; 83:15; Isa 28:17; 30:30; Jer 23:19; 30:23).
[13:14] 57 tn Or “within it,” referring to the city of Jerusalem.
[13:16] 58 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
