= Jeremiah 23 * Please see [[nsv:license|License]] for Copyright notice and Licensing information. * [ [[Jeremiah_22|Previous]] | [[Jeremiah_24|Next]] ] == Jeremiah 23 1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. 3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. 5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. 9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. 13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? 19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; 27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. 29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. 33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken? 36 And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God. 37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the Lord answered thee? and, What hath the Lord spoken? 38 But since ye say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus saith the Lord; Because ye say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; 39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. == Notes == Cross Reference == Commentary == Rashi ==== Verse 1 Woe to the shepherds The kings of Judah. ==== Verse 2 and have not taken care of them You were not careful to watch them. ==== Verse 4 nor shall [any of them] be missing and they shall not be missing. (Cf. Num. 31:49) “And no one of us was missing (נפקד).” ==== Verse 5 and prosper Heb. והשכּיל. ==== Verse 6 The Lord is our righteousness The Lord will vindicate us during this one’s days. ==== Verse 9 Because of the prophets my heart is broken within me Because of the words of the prophets who say, “You shall have peace,” my heart is broken. shake sway like the wings of a bird who hovers over his nest, (trenblent in O.F.) tremble. because of the Lord For I heard from Him this evil decree. ==== Verse 10 because of oaths False oaths. mourns i.e., is destroyed. their eagerness (course in French,) their course, their running. But Jonathan renders it as an expression of desire. not right Not according to the law. ==== Verse 11 both prophet and priest Even these, from whom everyone learns. even in My house have I found their evil For they placed an image in the Temple. ==== Verse 12 like slippery places Smooth ground upon which the foot slips and the person falls. like slippery places in the dark Stumbling upon stumbling. On slippery places in the light there is stumbling. In the dark without slippery places, there is stumbling. ==== Verse 13 And in the prophets of Samaria I saw unseemliness before they were exiled. ==== Verse 14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I now see. a horrible thing a shameful thing. and they encouraged evil doers They say to the wicked, “You shall have peace.” that none returns So that the evildoers would not return each one from his evil. ==== Verse 17 and everyone who follows the view of his heart And to everyone who follows the view of his heart, etc. ==== Verse 18 For who stood in the council of the Lord and will hear what is decreed by Him? He who hearkened to the word of His Torah and listened to His commandments, but not these wicked men. The first expression of ֹשְמִיעָה in the verse is actual hearing; the latter expression of ֹשְמִיעָה is an expression of acceptance. ==== Verse 19 a whirling A resting storm, a storm which seeks to rest, and it shall rest on the heads of the wicked. ==== Verse 20 the plans of an expression of thought. ==== Verse 22 And if they stood in My council, they should have let My people hear My word, etc. They should have let My people hear My words and My Torah, rather than cause them to stray away from Me. ==== Verse 23 Am I a God from near that I do not see but what is close to Me and have I no power to judge the lower creatures that are far from Me and do I not know of their deeds? ==== Verse 24 Can a man hide in secret places This is a repetition of the question, ‘Am I a God from near,’ according to the manner of all double questions. ==== Verse 26 How long [will this be]? That they will prophesy falsely? Do these prophets who prophesy falsely have in their heart to execute their thoughts that they are thinking to cause My people to forget My name, etc.? deceit an expression of מִרְמָה, deceit. ==== Verse 28 let him tell a dream Let him tell it as vain talk like other dreams, and let him not presume it as words of prophecy. What has the straw to do with the wheat? What has falsehood to do with truth? with the wheat like עִם-הַבָּר. ==== Verse 29 Is not My word so like fire? They should not have erred to compare their dreams to say that they are prophecy, for the prophetic word, when it comes to a prophet, it comes into him with force like a burning fire, as the matter is stated (supra 20:9): “And it was in my heart like a burning fire,” and (Ezekiel 3:14): “And the hand of the Lord became strong upon me.” and as a hammer (pic in French), a pick. And some say (marteau in French), a hammer. ==== Verse 30 those who steal My wards from one another They have spies who spy upon the true prophets, who listen to their expression with which they prophesy and say false prophecies with that same expression, as Hananiah son of Azzur did. He heard Jeremiah prophesying in the upper marketplace, “Behold I break the bow of Elam,” and he prophesied in the lower marketplace, “I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon” (28:2), as our Rabbis wrote in Sanhedrin 89a. ==== Verse 31 those who train their tongues who teach their tongues to say their falsehoods with the expression, “Says the Lord,” like the true prophets, so that they should believe them. ==== Verse 32 with their bewilderment an expression of wonder (estordisoun in O. F.). ==== Verse 33 “What is the burden of the Lord?” This is an expression of derision, for his prophecy is a burden to them. you shall say to them, “What burden? And I will forsake you, etc.” They say to you (sic), “What is the burden?” You are the burden of the Holy One, blessed be He, and He says that He will forsake you and cast you off His arms from heaven to earth. So I heard. and I will forsake Heb. וְעָזַבְתִּי. ==== Verse 36 For the burden shall be to the man of His word Although you pervert the massa into a pejorative, the prophecy (משא) of the word of the Lord shall be to the man of His word, and to the man of His counsel He reveals it, but you pervert it to an expression of a burden. This interpretation I did not hear, but it is the main interpretation. But this is how I heard it, namely that the burden shall be a burden of retribution for the one who says it, who asks, “What is the burden?” Another interpretation: משא is an expression of prophecy, and the false prophet would ask the true prophet to tell him the word of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the language in which the expression came to him, and the expression did not explain the speech adequately. Therefore, the false prophet would pervert it to another meaning and would speak after the fashion of the true prophet in order that they should believe him. And so did Hananiah son of Azzur do. Therefore, he says, “Do not ask the prophecy of the Lord,” the language of the expression, but “What did He speak?” or “What did He reply?” The explanation of the words you shall ask the true prophet to tell you what the Holy One, blessed be He, says, and to what His words are inclined. for the prophecy shall be for the man of His word The unexplained expression the Holy One, blessed be He, said unexplained to the man of His counsel, who is not suspected of perverting it, but you ask it in order to pervert it, and you pervert the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, and that is what is stated above (v. 30): “those who steal My words from one another.” This too is a correct explanation. ==== Verse 37 So shall you say to the prophet when you come to ask My words of the prophet. ==== Verse 39 and I will exile an expression of “the sinew that was dislocated (גִיד הַנָֹּשֶה)” (Gen. 32:33), and an expression of “their might has failed (נָֹשְתָה),” it jumps and moves from place to place.