Yeremia 23:27

23:27 How long will they go on plotting ¹  to make my people forget who I am ²  through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors ³  did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. ⁴ 

Yeremia 23:34

23:34 I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who says “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” ⁵  I will punish both that person and his whole family.’” ⁶ 

Yeremia 26:16

26:16 Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, ⁷  “This man should not be condemned to die. ⁸  For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” ⁹ 

Yeremia 27:9-10

27:9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination, ¹⁰  by dreams, by consulting the dead, ¹¹  or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be ¹²  subject to the king of Babylon.’ 27:10 Do not listen to them, ¹³  because their prophecies are lies. ¹⁴  Listening to them will only cause you ¹⁵  to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 28:15

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! ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁸  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ¹⁹  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Yeremia 48:35

48:35 I will put an end in Moab

to those who make offerings at her places of worship. ²⁰ 

I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other gods.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²¹ 

[23:27]  ¹ tn The relation of the words to one another in v. 26 and the beginning of v. 27 has created difficulties for translators and commentators. The proper solution is reflected in the NJPS. Verses 26-27 read somewhat literally, “How long is there in the hearts of the prophets who are prophesying the lie and [in the hearts of] the prophets of the delusions of their [own] heart the plotting to cause my people to forget my name…” Most commentaries complain that the text is corrupt, that there is no subject for “is there.” However, the long construct qualification “in the hearts of” has led to the lack of observation that the proper subject is “the plotting to make my people forget.” There are no exact parallels but Jer 14:22; Neh 5:5 follow the same structure. The “How long” precedes the other means of asking a question for the purpose of emphasis (cf. BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.b and compare for example the usage in 2 Sam 7:7). There has also been a failure to see that “the prophets of the delusion of…” is a parallel construct noun after “heart of.” Stripping the syntax down to its barest minimum and translating literally, the sentence would read “How long will the plotting…continue in the hearts of the prophets who…and [in hearts of] the prophets of…” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform to contemporary English style but attempt has been made to maintain the same subordinations.

[23:27]  ² tn Heb “my name.”

[23:27]  sn 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). To call someone’s name over something was to claim it for one’s own (2 Sam 12:28). Hence, here to forget the name is equivalent to forgetting who he was in his essential character (cf. Exod 3:13-15; 6:3; 34:5-7). By preaching lies they had obliterated part of his essential character and caused people to forget who he really was.

[23:27]  ³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 39).

[23:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “through Baal.” This is an elliptical expression for the worship of Baal. See 11:17; 12:16; 19:5 for other references to their relation to Baal. There is a deliberate paralleling in the syntax here between “through their dreams” and “through Baal.”

[23:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the prophet or the priest or the people [common person] who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,” I will visit upon [= punish] that man and his house.” This is an example of the Hebrew construction call nominative absolute or casus pendens (cf. GKC 458 §143.d).

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets…”

[26:16]  ⁸ sn Contrast v. 11.

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “For in the name of the Lord our God he has spoken to us.” The emphasis is on “in the name of…”

[26:16]  sn The priests and false prophets claimed that they were speaking in the Lord’s name (i.e., as his representatives and with his authority [see 1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8 and cf. the study note on Jer 23:27]) and felt that Jeremiah’s claims to be doing so were false (see v. 9). Jeremiah (and the Lord) charged that the opposite was the case (cf. 14:14-15; 23:21). The officials and the people, at least at this time, accepted his claims that the Lord had sent him (vv. 12, 15).

[27:9]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ sn An example of this is seen in 1 Sam 28.

[27:9]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”

[27:10]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[28:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “You are giving these people false assurances.”

[29:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  sn See study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[29:8]  ¹⁹ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[48:35]  ²⁰ tn Heb “high place[s].” For the meaning and significance of this term see the study note on 7:31.

[48:35]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”