This section of the book contains some of Jeremiah's messages concerning Judah's kings (21:1-23:8) and false prophets (23:9-40) that he delivered closer to the time of Jerusalem's invasion than the previous chapters.300Beginning with chapter 21, there are many more specific references to people, places, and time than we find in chapters 1-20. The prophecies announcing judgments on the kings (chs. 21-22) close with a message of hope concerning the future (23:1-8).
This passage probably dates from the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588-586 B.C. (vv. 2, 4; cf. 2 Kings 25). King Zedekiah sought advice from Jeremiah more than once (cf. 37:3-10, 17-21; 38:14-28). This passage consists of two oracles (vv. 1-7 and 8-10).
21:1 This is a message that Yahweh gave Jeremiah after King Zedekiah sent messengers to him with a question. The messengers were Pashhur (cf. 38:1-13; 1 Chron. 9:21; not the man in charge of preserving order in the temple courtyard mentioned in 20:1-6) and Zephaniah, a leading priest (cf. 29:25-26, 29; 37:3; 52:24; 2 Kings 25:18-21).
21:2 Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord whether He would give Judah deliverance from Nebuchadnezzar as He had delivered His people in the past.301Zedekiah may have been hoping for a miraculous deliverance such as Jehoshaphat experienced from the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites (2 Chron. 20). Hezekiah had also experienced supernatural deliverance when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem (2 Kings 19; Isa. 37).
21:3-4 Jeremiah sent a message from the Lord back to the king through his messengers. The weapons of the defenders of Jerusalem would be ineffective. The Chaldean soldiers who were then besieging the city's walls would penetrate it and enter the center of Jerusalem.
The Babylonians (Chaldeans) were originally a seminomadic tribe living between northern Arabia and the Persian Gulf. In the tenth century B.C., the Assyrians gave the name Kalduto the area formerly known as the Sea-Land' [i.e., Mesopotamia]. . . Later, Chaldea' was used to include Babylonia as a whole (cf. Ezek 23:23; Dan 3:8)."302
21:5-6 The Lord promised that not only the Babylonians but He, too, would fight against the city. He would bring His strong arm against Jerusalem in anger and would strike down its inhabitants (cf. Deut. 4:34; et al.). Normally the Divine Warrior fought forHis people, but now He would fight againstthem. Humans and animals would die from the sword and from diseases, a curse for breaking covenant (cf. 14:12; 32:24; Exod. 5:3; 9:15; Num. 14:12).
21:7 Nebuchadnezzar would also slay King Zedekiah, his servants, and the people who survived the war and its accompanying famine and diseases. The Babylonian king would show no mercy or compassion. Zedekiah did indeed die in Babylon some time after the Babylonians killed his sons as he watched, and then Nebuchadnezzar blinded him (34:4; 52:11; 2 Kings 25:6-7; Ezek. 12:13).
Jeremiah directed this second oracle against the people of Jerusalem.
21:8 The prophet also received another message from the Lord. Yahweh was going to give the people the choice of living or dying (cf. Deut. 30:15, 19; Matt. 7:13-14).
21:9 If the residents of Jerusalem stayed in the city and resisted the enemy, they would die; but if they surrendered to the Babylonians, they would live.
21:10 The Lord's purpose for the city was firm: He would turn it over to the Babylonian army to destroy it by fire. This was something the people could not change by their actions or their prayers.
This group of prophecies begins and ends with oracles concerning the kings' duties (21:11-12; 22:1-9). In the middle is an oracle against Jerusalem (21:13-14).
21:11-12 Jeremiah was to tell the king of Judah and his administrators to be careful to dispense justice every day, particularly with the poor and powerless. If they did not, the Lord's wrath would burn against them as an inextinguishable fire (cf. 4:4; 17:4, 27; 21:12, 14; 43:12; 49:27). Normally court convened in the morning to avoid the heat of the day (cf. 2 Sam. 4:5).
"The administration of justice was one of the main duties of kings all over the Near East. The king was the guardian of justice [cf. 2 Sam. 15:4; 1 Kings 3:9, 16-28; 8:32]."303
The Lord also sent a message to the residents of Jerusalem.
21:13 Yahweh was against the people who lived in Jerusalem. Jerusalem stood enthroned on a hilltop with valleys on three of its sides (cf. Ps. 125:2; Isa. 22:1). It stood on a rocky plateau. Jerusalem's physical location had led its inhabitants to feel secure.
21:14 Nevertheless, the Lord promised to punish the residents for their evil deeds (cf. v. 5). He would kindle a fire in its forest, perhaps a reference to the House of the Forest of Lebanon, one of the palace complex buildings (1 Kings 7:2). The fire would spread to other buildings in Jerusalem.
"Not only will the Divine Warrior fight against them, but also their Dwelling Place will destroy their dwelling places!"304
The subject of the next oracle is, again, a Davidic king of Judah, though which one is unknown.
22:1-2 The Lord told Jeremiah to go to the king's palace and deliver a prophetic message to him, his servants, and the people who gathered there.
22:3 Jeremiah called the king and his administrators to practice justice in their decisions regarding civil matters (cf. 21:12). They should protect the weak and vulnerable and should not shed innocent blood. Social justice has always been important to Yahweh.
"Who within our society are represented by the ones robbed by extortioners or by the sojourner, orphan, and widow? Is it the poor, the migrant, the alien? Is it the Third World worker who provides delicacies for our table, or cheap products for our market, but barely ekes out an existence for himself and his family? Is our concern for justice limited to ourselves and those like us? Or do we practice justice even toward those who have no advocate?"305
22:4 If they obeyed, God would perpetuate the reign of David's descendants on Judah's throne with glory and power.
22:5 If they disobeyed, God swore by Himself to destroy the palace.
Verses 6 and 7 appear to be another oracle, in poetic form, against an unnamed Judean king.
22:6 The Lord regarded the Davidic palace as a most pleasant and glorious thing, like Gilead and Mount Hermon, areas both famous for their forests and mountains. Again, the House of the Forest of Lebanon may be particularly in view (cf. 21:14). Yet He would turn the king's residence into a desolation, like a wilderness or an uninhabited town, if the rulers disobeyed.
22:7 He would appoint destroyers for the royal residence, and the royal line, who would cut the palaces down like a forest of trees (cf. Ps. 74).
This pericope is very similar to the preceding one though in prose.
22:8 Representatives from other nations would pass by Jerusalem and wonder why her God had destroyed her (cf. Matt. 23:28; Luke 13:35).
22:9 It would become clear to them, on reflection, that it was because the kings and people had broken covenant with Yahweh. Ancient Near Easterners understood the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness, and they would associate them with Jerusalem's fate.
This section probably contains two originally separate parts (vv. 10 and 11-12).
22:10 Jeremiah instructed the people not to mourn over Josiah, who had died in battle with the Egyptians, as much as they should mourn over those who had gone into captivity. Pharaoh Necho II had deposed Jehoahaz and had taken him captive to Egypt (2 Kings 23:31-35).306The fate of the people and Jehoahaz was worse than Josiah's because they would remain alive but never be able to return to the Promised Land. In one sense death is worse than life, but in another sense life under certain conditions is worse than death.
22:11-12 King Shallum (Jehoahaz) was a case in point. The Egyptians had taken him captive, and he would never return to the Promised Land. Jeremiah prophesied that he would die in captivity, which he did as the first ruler of Judah to die in exile (cf. 2 Kings 23:34).
"Jehoiakim was condemned by Jeremiah more severely than any other king. He seems to have been a typical Oriental despot who rejected Josiah's reforms."307
22:13-14 Jeremiah called down woe on the person who advanced his own interests, and built his own royal house (palace and, by implication, dynasty), by abusing the rights of others (cf. Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14; Mal. 3:5).
"This man, who gave his mind to trivialities at a time of crisis, and who saw his subjects only as exploitable, was a vulture at law and a peacock at home."308
22:15 The measure of a king's greatness is not really the beauty and cost of his palace but his righteousness and justice. Jehoiakim's father, Josiah, had been a great king, and God had blessed him because he practiced these virtues (cf. John 4:34).
22:16 Josiah had given justice to those who needed it regardless of who they were. By this he demonstrated that he really knew Yahweh. He behaved like Yahweh.
22:17 Jehoiakim had only been interested in acquiring things for himself, even dishonestly. He resorted to oppression, extortion, and even murder to get what he wanted (26:20-23; 2 Kings 24:3-4).
"Jehoiakim, who was only twenty-five years old when he began to reign and only thirty-six when he died (2 K. 23:36), was evidently a thoroughly spoiled and self-indulgent young despot."309
22:18 Consequently when Jehoiakim died, people would not feel sorry or mourn over his departure. They would not lament for him or for the splendor he left behind. The Hebrew word hoy, usually translated "woe"but here rendered "alas,"occurs four times in this verse stressing the dire judgment that would befall this king.
22:19 Rather the people would treat his corpse with great disrespect. They would give him a burial similar to that of a donkey (or Jezebel), which people dragged outside the city gate and left to rot (cf. 36:30; 1 Kings 21:23-24).310
Of some people the Bible says nothing bad, but of Jehoiakim it says nothing good.311
22:20 The prophet spoke of Jerusalem as a young woman in this oracle. He called on her to go up on the surrounding mountains to bewail the loss of her lovers (political allies and pagan gods). The Lebanon mountains were to the north, Bashan was to the northeast, and the Abarim range was to the east of Jerusalem (cf. Num. 27:12; Deut. 32:49).
22:21 When Jerusalem was prosperous, in the days of David and Solomon, the Lord had appealed to the people to obey His covenant, but she would not listen. That had been their practice since early in their history as a nation.
22:22 The Lord would remove her nobles and leaders, and all the people she had trusted in to supply her needs would go into captivity. Then Jerusalem would feel ashamed because she had behaved wickedly. This happened in 597 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar deported many of the nobles (2 Kings 24:22-25:7).
22:23 The cedar paneling of the people's houses demonstrated their trust in Lebanon, since it came from there. Their homes were like little nests made of cedar (cf. Ezek. 23:14). In this sense they dwelt in Lebanon, even though their homes were in Jerusalem. Yet these comfortable surroundings would not be able to protect Jerusalem from the pain that was going to come on her, pain as excruciating and inevitable as the agony of childbirth. Jerusalem was a city in the mountain heights enthroned in Lebanon and nested in her cedars. God would bring her down.
This section contains two prophecies about this king (vv. 24-27 and 28-30) The historical setting is the three-month reign of eighteen year-old Jehoiachin in 598-597 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 24:8-17). Coniah was a shortened form of Jehoiachin (cf. 37:10), and another form is Jeconiah (cf. 24:1; 27:20; 28:4; 29:2).
22:24 The Lord affirmed that even if Coniah (Jehoiachin) was the signet ring on His hand He would still remove him. The signet ring of a king was something a king did not part with because it was the instrument with which he conducted business and manifested his authority.
22:25 Yahweh was going to give Coniah over to King Nebuchadnezzar. The transfer of the signet ring symbolized the transfer of authority. Now Babylon would control the affairs of Judah.
22:26-27 But Yahweh would not reluctantly hand over Coniah; He would hurl him into a foreign country where he would die. His mother, the powerful queen mother, Nehushta, would go with him (cf. 13:18; 2 Kings 24:8, 11-12). They would not be able to return to their native land (cf. 52:31-34; 2 Kings 25:27-30). Mordecai and Ezekiel traveled to Babylon in the same group of exiles (Esth. 2:5-7; Ezek. 1:1-2).
22:28 Why would Yahweh treat Coniah like a piece of broken pottery that people tossed on the garbage heap? The answer, not given, is that he proved to be an unfaithful servant of the Lord, a covenant-breaker (cf. 19:1-13).
22:29 Jeremiah called on the land of Judah to hear a very important prophecy from Yahweh. The threefold repetition of "land"indicates how important it was for the people of the land to listen.
22:30 The Lord promised that none of Coniah's sons would sit on Judah's throne. It was a shame and a disgrace for a king to have no son to succeed him. Coniah had seven sons (1 Chron. 3:17-18; Matt. 1:12), but none of them ruled as Davidic kings.312
"After the oracles against wicked kings, there is a promise of a righteous one, the Shoot of David."313
Jeremiah just announced that none of Coniah's descendants would ever rule as kings. Now he went on to clarify that a Davidic king would rule in the future. God was not cutting off the Davidic line (cf. 2 Sam. 7:14). The section consists of three separate though related prophecies (vv. 1-4, 5-6, and 7-8).
23:1-2 Yahweh announced coming judgment on the leaders of Judah, kings and other leaders, who were harming His people rather than tending them like good shepherds care for sheep (cf. John 10:11-13). Shepherd was a common figure for king in the ancient Near East and in the Old Testament, and it is possible that Jeremiah had in mind the last four kings of Judah particularly. The figure of God's people being the sheep of His pasture is also common in the Old Testament (cf. Ps. 74:1; 79:13; 95:7; 100:3). Judah's shepherds had not attended (Heb. paqad) to the flock, so God would attend (Heb. paqad) to punishing them.
23:3 After this judgment the Lord Himself would, as a good shepherd, regather the remnant of His people that were left from all the countries where He had driven them into exile (cf. 3:16; 24; 31:10; 40-44; Isa. 1:9; 37:4; Mic. 2:12; 4:7; 5:4; 7:14, 18). The Lord was the final cause of the exile, but the shepherds of Judah were the instrumental cause (v. 2). He would bring them back into the Promised Land and cause them to be fruitful and to multiply (cf. Gen. 1:22, 28; 9:1; 12:1-3; Exod. 1:7). There is a double contrast in this verse between the Lord and the false shepherds and between their respective works.
The reference to the many countries to which the Lord had driven them suggests an eschatological return to the land that exceeded the return from Babylonian exile.314
"History has shown that restoration [from Babylon] to be a temporary flicker of light, for by the time of Malachi (the last of the prophets, ca. 400 B.C.), Israel had degenerated again to a people with stony hearts."315
23:4 The Lord also promised to raise up shepherds (leaders) for His people then who would care for them properly. The Israelites would then no longer feel fearful or terrified, and none of them would be missing from the land.
23:5 Yahweh also promised to raise up another Davidic king in the future (cf. Ps. 2; 44; 72; 89-110).316He would be as a branch or sprout (Heb. semah) that springs up from an apparently dead stump, namely, the Davidic line of kings (cf. 2 Sam. 23:5; Ps. 132:17; Isa. 4:2; 11:1; Zech. 3:8; 6:12). His characteristic marks would be wisdom, justice, and righteousness, traits notably absent from the last of Judah's kings (cf. 22:3). He would be a true shoot (Heb. semah saddiq), a "legitimate scion,"of David's line.317He would rule as a true king, not as a puppet like the last four kings of Judah. This is one of the few direct messianic references in Jeremiah (cf. 3:15-18; 31:31-34; 33:15-16).
23:6 During His reign Judah and Israel would experience salvation and security. People would refer to Him as "Yahweh our righteousness."This strongly suggests that the king would be Yahweh Himself ruling in righteousness (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). His name appears to be a play on the name Zedekiah, which probably means "Yahweh is my righteousness."318Ironically, Zedekiah was anything but righteous.
23:7-8 In those coming days (cf. v. 5), people would no longer talk about the mighty deliverance that Yahweh gave His people when He brought them out of Egypt into the Promised Land (cf. 16:14-15). Instead they would talk about the greater deliverance that He gave them when He brought them out of many countries (cf. v. 3; 16:14-18) into the Promised Land (cf. Isa. 11; Ezek. 34; 37).
Again, the promises are clearly eschatological. This will happen at Jesus Christ's second coming when He subdues His earthly enemies and regathers the Jews to their land.319
The section 21:1-23:8 dealt primarily with oracles against kings. Now the subject becomes the false prophets in Jerusalem (23:9-40).
Having given a true prophecy about the future, Jeremiah proceeded to announce God's judgment on the false prophets who were misleading His people with false prophecies (cf. v. 1). This section consists of six different messages that Jeremiah delivered at various times, which the writer placed together in the text because of their common subject (vv. 9-12, 13-15, 16-22, 23-24, 25-32, and 33-40).
The first pericope is a general indictment of the false prophets (vv. 9-12).
23:9 Jeremiah had become like a drunken man in that the prophecies God had given him concerning the false prophets sent him reeling. They disturbed his mind deeply and broke his heart. This verse serves as a superscription for the entire series of prophecies about the false prophets that follows in verses 10-40.
23:10 The false prophets were unfaithful to the Lord in their attachment to pagan deities. They were off course in their direction, and they were strong only in doing wrong. The evidence of their corruption was the curse that the land was experiencing from departing from the Mosaic Covenant. Baal was supposed to produce fertility, but worshipping him had only resulted in parched and barren land for Judah.
23:11 The Lord announced that both prophets and priests were polluted with unfaithfulness. They even practiced their wickedness in the temple, where of all places they should have been faithful to the Lord (cf. 2 Kings 21:3-7; 23:4-7; Ezek. 8).
23:12 Therefore the Lord would make them unstable. He would allow them to fall into perilous situations (Ps. 35:6; 73:18) and wander off into obscurity (cf. 13:16). At the proper time He would bring calamity on them.
". . . they will be like men sliding on a slippery trail in the darkness, stumbling and falling on top of one another."320
The next prophecy compares the false prophets of the Southern Kingdom to the false prophets in the then defunct Northern Kingdom (vv. 13-15).
23:13 The prophets of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, had offended the Lord by prophesying in Baal's name and by leading God's people astray.
23:14 But the prophets of Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom, had been even more unfaithful since they prophesied falsely in Yahweh's name. They also committed spiritual (and physical) adultery, lived lies, and encouraged evildoers. Consequently the Judahites had not repented of their wickedness but had become as wicked as the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah who espoused departure from God's will openly (Gen. 18:22-19:29; Ezek. 16). Jerusalem could expect severe judgment since the Lord had judged these pagan cities severely.
"Along with easy views of sin go rosy views of judgment . . ."321
23:15 Almighty Yahweh would make the false prophets experience bitterness and tragedy, as when one eats bitter food and drinks poisoned water (cf. 8:14; 9:15), because they had embittered and poisoned the people. He would pollute them because they polluted the people and the land with their sins.
The following message criticizes the false prophets for delivering unauthorized prophecies as though they came from Yahweh (vv. 16-22).
23:16 The almighty Lord warned His people through Jeremiah not to listen to the false prophets who were leading them into empty hopes. They were claiming that their own invented prophecies came from the Lord, but they were speaking empty words; they were just windbags.
23:17 They were falsely assuring the people, who despised Yahweh and resisted His will, that nothing bad would happen to them. Peace would continue and calamity would never overtake the people, they claimed.
23:18 They had not taken counsel from Yahweh nor received His prophetic messages. They had not listened to Him and obeyed Him (cf. Matt. 11:27; John 1:18; 8:38, 40). The picture of the heavenly throne room of God is common in the Old Testament (e.g., 1 Kings 22:19-22; Job 1:1-2:7; Ps. 82; Isa. 6; Ezek. 1).
"It is a word of judgment and not peace that should be proclaimed by one who really knows the mind of Yahweh. But one needs to stand in Yahweh's council, see what goes on there, hear and pay attention to Yahweh's word and obey it, to give such a word."322
23:19-20 The judgment of God would come on the wicked like a whirlwind. He would carry out His purposes fully and not draw back in mercy. When His judgment fell, the wicked would understand it as His judgment. "In the last days"refers to the last days of Jerusalem before its total destruction; this is not an eschatological reference here.323
23:21 The Lord had not sent the false prophets or given them messages, but they had claimed to bring prophecies from Him to the people.
"As an analogy in modern terms we could compare the speculations of journalists over some matter of government which is being decided behind closed doors, with the actual announcement entrusted to a spokesman from the conclave itself."324
23:22 If they had listened to the Lord, they would have tried to turn the people back from their evil ways.
"How could a prophet confuse his own word with God's word? How could a prophet fail to speak condemnation to the sinful, covenant-breaking situation? Perhaps part of the answer was political and economic. The prophets were often part of the establishment; as such they were concerned with the maintenance of the establishment for their own security and well-being. Another part of the issue may have been purely rationalistic: Yes, some of our folks are sinful, but look at the pagans around us; they don't even worship God, and they practice the grossest of sins; by comparison, we're good folk and surely God will take that into account. Our' sins are acceptable, but their' sins are not. Besides, who wants to hear judgment preached all the time; just preach on the love of God."325
The brief message that follows corrected a false view of God that the false prophets were apparently promoting (vv. 23-24).
23:23 Evidently some of the false prophets were stressing the immanency of God but disregarding His transcendence. They were saying that He was with His people and would protect them, but they were not saying that He was also holy and must judge sin.
23:24 The people tried to hide from God in the sense that they did evil that they thought He could not see. The Lord reminded His people through Jeremiah that He is everywhere in the universe. There is no place where they could go to hide from Him (cf. Ps. 139; Amos 9:2-4).
Jeremiah condemned the false prophets for advertising their own dreams as revelations from Yahweh (vv. 25-32).
23:25 The Lord was aware that the prophets were falsely claiming to have had dreams in which they received messages from Him (cf. Zech. 10:2).
Dreams were one way that Yahweh communicated His revelations to people in ancient times (cf. Gen. 28:10-17; 37:5-11; 40; 41:1-45; Num. 12:6-8; 1 Kings 3:5-15; Dan. 2; 4:4-27; 7; Joel 2:28; Zech. 1:7-6:8). The pagans also viewed dreams as a way the gods communicated with them. Consequently it was possible to claim a revelation in a dream and to obtain an audience. The person who received a revelation from Yahweh in a dream knew it, but it was very difficult for someone else to know if the dream that a prophet claimed really came from Yahweh.
23:26-27 How long would these prophets continue to make the people forget the Lord's Word by continually claiming that they had received some new revelation from Him in a dream?! They were really leading the people away from Him just as their ancestors pursued Baal and forgot the Lord.
23:28 The false prophets could relate their dreams just as the true prophets could declare the Lord's words. But it would become clear eventually that the difference between these prophecies was as great as that between straw and grain. The one was insubstantial and worthless while the other was nourishing.
23:29 God's true words were as penetrating as fire and as powerful as a hammer. Both fire and a hammer are destructive yet refining.326
23:30-32 Yahweh announced His antagonism to the false prophets because they got messages from one another, or from their own minds, or from a dream, and then claimed that they were from the Lord. They were misleading God's people and were not benefiting them in the least (cf. vv. 1-4). In our day many liberal preachers begin their messages with "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,"and then proceed to deliver an unbiblical sermon.
The final message in this group deals with another claim by the false prophets. In addition to receiving dreams, they professed to communicate oracles from Yahweh (vv. 33-40).
23:33 When the people or the prophets or the priests asked Jeremiah what message he had received from the Lord, he was to reply that the Lord was going to abandon them. When they asked, What is the burden of the Lord? he was to respond, You are a burden to Him and He will cast you off.
The Hebrew word massa', "oracle,"comes from the same root as the verb nasa', meaning "to lift, bear, or carry."Usually the noun refers to an imposed burden, imposed by a deity or master. Metaphorically it refers to any heavy burden, such as the burdens of leadership or duty. In the prophets, it often suggests a judgment or catastrophe. Thus an oracle is a burden or depressing message that deals with judgment (cf. Isa. 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; et al.).
23:34 Anyone who claimed to have a message from the Lord but did not would incur God's punishment (cf. Rev. 22:18).
23:35-36 The people would be confused about what the Lord really had said. They would not remember the messages that the Lord really had sent them because they were always wanting to hear messages from the Lord that pleased them. They did not respond to the ones the living God, Almighty Yahweh their God, really did send, but they twisted them.
23:37-38 When someone asked a false prophet what message he had received from the Lord and the false prophet responded, "An oracle from Yahweh,"he was lying. He should not claim to have an oracle from Yahweh when he did not have one. God commanded that this phrase should no longer be used because the false prophets had perverted His words (cf. vv. 25-32).
". . . though the term oracle' was used by canonical prophets (e.g., Isa 13:1; Nah 1:1; Hab 1:1; Zech 9:1; Mal 1:1), Jeremiah never used it of his own prophecies because it had become the hallmark of the lying prophets."327
23:39 Anyone who used this phrase would come under God's judgment. Because the false prophets made this claim, the Lord promised to forget them and throw them into exile (as a burden) along with the rest of the people of Jerusalem. This was especially sad because God had given Jerusalem to them and their forefathers.
23:40 Yahweh would also curse these false prophets with the eventual reproach of the people and their consequent shame forever. People would always remember them as false prophets. This was only fitting since they had made the people forget the Lord (v. 27). The people might forget the Lord, but they would never forget the coming judgment.
"The whole argument comes to us as rather complex, probably because the pun is developed in such a sustained manner. The two senses of massa', prophetic utterance' and burden,' and the verb nasa'occur a number of times. The massa'of Yahweh is that the people are a massa'."328
