Jeremiah 23

1"How terrible it will be for the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" says the LORD.

1Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

Note"Shepherd" was standard ancient Near Eastern language for a king or ruler; kings across the region called themselves shepherds of their people. The rulers being attacked here are Judah's last kings and officials, not religious teachers (the King James word "pastors" simply meant herdsmen). Also, where the text prints LORD in capital letters, it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written Yahweh; "Lord" in ordinary letters translates a different word meaning master.

2So this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who are supposed to take care of my people: "You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not looked after them. So now I will deal with you for the evil you have done," says the LORD.

2Therefore 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.

NoteThere is a play on words here that English cannot easily keep: the same Hebrew verb means "to attend to" and "to deal with, punish." You did not attend to my flock, so I will attend to you.

3"Then I myself will gather what is left of my flock from all the countries where I drove them, and I will bring them back to their own pasture. There they will have many children and grow in number.

3And 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.

NoteThe scattering is deportation. Beginning in 597 BC the Babylonians carried off Judah's king, officials and skilled men, and more followed; other Judeans fled to Egypt and elsewhere. "What is left of my flock" is the survivors of that dispersal.

4I will put shepherds over them who will really care for them. My people will not be afraid or terrified anymore, and not one of them will be missing," says the LORD.

4And 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"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will rule as king and act with wisdom, and he will do what is just and right in the land.

5Behold, 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.

Note"Branch" translates a Hebrew word for a green shoot sprouting from a stump or root, a living offshoot of a family tree that has been cut down. It was used as a title for a coming descendant of David, whose dynasty had ruled Jerusalem for four centuries and was about to be cut off.

6In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name he will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

6In 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.

NoteThe Hebrew name given here, Yahweh Tsidkenu, is close to a deliberate reversal of the name of the king reigning when Jeremiah spoke, Zedekiah (Tsidkiyahu), which means roughly "Yahweh is my righteousness." At this date "Judah" is the surviving southern kingdom around Jerusalem, and "Israel" the northern kingdom destroyed by Assyria a century earlier; naming both means the whole people reunited.

7"So look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when people will no longer make their promises by saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt.'

7Therefore, 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;

NoteSwearing an oath meant staking your word on something unshakable, and Israelites swore "as surely as the LORD lives, who brought us out of Egypt", the escape from slavery in Egypt was the standard proof of what their God could do. The point is that a new rescue will replace it as the reference everyone reaches for.

8Instead they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the family of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' And they will live in their own land again."

8But, 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.

Note"The land of the north" means Babylon. Babylon lay east of Judah, but armies and exiles traveled the arc of settled land around the desert and so always arrived from the north.

9About the prophets: my heart is broken inside me, and all my bones shake. I am like a drunk man, like someone overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words.

9Mine 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.

NoteThe prophet is not drunk; he is describing the physical effect on him of receiving the message that follows, shaking, unsteady, not in control of himself.

10The land is full of people who break their marriage promises. Because of the curse, the land is in mourning and the open pastures of the wilderness have dried up. The people run after evil, and they use their strength wrongly.

10For 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.

NoteTwo ambiguities sit in this verse. "Adulterers" can mean literal unfaithfulness in marriage, and prophets also used it for a people's unfaithfulness to their God, worshiping other gods; both senses are probably in play. And the Hebrew word rendered "the curse" can equally mean the swearing of false oaths, the King James translators took it that way, so the land is mourning either under a curse or because of perjury.

11"Both prophet and priest have no respect for God. Even in my own house I have found their wickedness," says the LORD.

11For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

Note"My house" is the temple in Jerusalem, the one sanctuary where sacrifice was offered. The Hebrew word behind "have no respect for God" means polluted or defiled, and carries the sense of something that should be holy being made unfit for use.

12"So their path will be slippery ground in the dark. They will be pushed along it and fall, because I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished," says the LORD.

12Wherefore 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"Among the prophets of Samaria I saw something foolish and offensive: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel the wrong way.

13And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

NoteSamaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, wiped out by Assyria in 722 BC, for Jeremiah's hearers in Jerusalem it was a byword for a catastrophe that had already happened to somebody else. Baal was the Canaanite storm and fertility god, the chief rival for Israel's loyalty; "prophesied by Baal" means they delivered oracles in his name rather than the LORD's.

14And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They break their marriage promises and live by lies. They encourage those who do evil, so that no one turns away from his wickedness. To me they are all like Sodom, and the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

14I 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.

NoteSodom and Gomorrah were the cities destroyed by fire in the account in Genesis 19; by Jeremiah's day their names were shorthand for total wickedness followed by total destruction. "Strengthen the hands of" is an idiom meaning to back someone up or embolden them.

15So this is what the LORD of Hosts says about the prophets: "I will feed them bitter wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, because from the prophets of Jerusalem an ungodly way of living has spread through the whole land."

15Therefore 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.

NoteWormwood is a shrub whose leaves are intensely bitter (the standard image for bitterness in Hebrew. The second word names a bitter, poisonous plant, possibly hemlock or a poppy; together they mean food and drink that sicken rather than nourish. "LORD of Hosts" means the LORD commanding the hosts, that is, armies) either the armies of Israel or the heavenly ones, and the phrase is a title of overwhelming power.

16This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are telling you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions that come out of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.

16Thus 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.

17To people who treat me with contempt they keep saying, 'The LORD says you will have peace.' And to everyone who follows his own stubborn heart they say, 'No harm will come to you.'

17They 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.

18But which of them has stood in the LORD's council, so as to see and hear his word? Who has paid close attention to his word and listened to it?

18For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

NoteThe picture is a royal court: a king's inner council is the small group admitted to hear decisions before they are announced. The claim being tested is whether these prophets have actually been admitted to God's council, which is what a genuine prophet was understood to be, a member of that inner circle who then reports outside.

19Look, a storm from the LORD has gone out in fury, a violent whirlwind. It will burst down on the heads of the wicked.

19Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

20The LORD's anger will not turn back until he has finished doing everything he intends to do. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.

20The 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.

Note"The days to come" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning the far end of things, the outcome, later rather than a specific end of the world. The sense is: when this has run its course you will see plainly what was going on.

21I did not send these prophets, yet they ran to speak. I did not talk to them, yet they prophesied.

21I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

22But if they had stood in my council, they would have told my people my words, and they would have turned them back from their evil way of living and their evil deeds."

22But 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.

NoteThis is the practical test being applied to a prophet: not whether he predicted correctly, but whether his message pushed people to change how they were living.

23"Am I only a God who is nearby," says the LORD, "and not a God who is far away too?

23Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

NoteGods in the ancient Near East were commonly tied to a territory, powerful at home and irrelevant abroad. The question can be read either way (as "am I only close at hand, and not also far off?" or as a challenge to those who assume God is safely distant) and the Hebrew leaves both open.

24Can anyone hide in a secret place where I cannot see him?" says the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" says the LORD.

24Can 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 say who tell lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!'

25I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

NoteDreams were a recognized, respectable channel for divine messages; the complaint is not that dreams are worthless but that these men are inventing them.

26How long will this go on in the minds of these prophets who prophesy lies, these prophets who tell what their own hearts have made up?

26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

27They plan to make my people forget my name by the dreams they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name and went after Baal.

27Which 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.

28Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word truthfully. What is straw compared to grain?" says the LORD.

28The 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.

NoteAfter harvest, grain was threshed and tossed into the wind so the light straw and husks blew away and the heavy kernels fell back. The two look alike lying on the threshing floor; only one is food.

29"Is my word not like fire?" says the LORD. "Is it not like a hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?"

29Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

30"So look, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal words from one another and say they came from me."

30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

31"Yes, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who wag their own tongues and then announce, 'The LORD says it.'"

31Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

Note"Wag their own tongues" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning they take up their own tongues: they supply the words themselves. What they then attach is the fixed formula that opened a genuine oracle, roughly "the LORD's own utterance"; they are using the official stamp on private opinion.

32"I am against those who prophesy dreams they made up," says the LORD, "who tell them and lead my people the wrong way with their lies and their reckless talk. I did not send them or give them any orders. They do this people no good at all," says the LORD.

32Behold, 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"When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, 'What is the burden of the LORD?' you are to answer them, 'What burden? I will abandon you, says the LORD.'

33And 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.

NoteEverything from here to the end of the chapter turns on one Hebrew word, massa, which means both "a load to be carried" and "a pronouncement, an oracle", the two senses of the English word "burden" in 1611. People were greeting Jeremiah with "what's the burden of the LORD today?", using the technical term for an oracle, but with a sneer in it, as though his messages were just so much weight. The reply plays the word back at them in its other sense: what burden? You are the burden, and I am putting you down.

34And if any prophet or priest or ordinary person says, 'This is the burden of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household.

34And 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.

Note"His household" means the whole extended family under one head (wife, children, dependants, servants) the unit that ancient law and punishment normally worked on.

35This is what each of you is to say to his friend and to his brother: 'What answer has the LORD given?' or 'What has the LORD said?'

35Thus 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?

36But you must not speak of 'the burden of the LORD' anymore, because each man's own word becomes the burden. That is how you twist the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

36And 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.

NoteThe pun again: stop calling my message "the burden," because what each of you says on your own authority is the load you will have to carry.

37This is what you are to say to the prophet: 'What answer has the LORD given you?' and 'What has the LORD said?'

37Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

38But if you keep saying, 'The burden of the LORD,' then this is what the LORD says. Because you say these words, 'The burden of the LORD,' even though I sent word telling you not to say them,

38But 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;

39therefore I myself will completely forget you. I will throw you away from my presence, both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors.

39Therefore, 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:

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. The consonants can be read as "I will utterly forget you," which is how the King James and this rendering take it, or, with a very slight difference, as "I will surely lift you up", which would carry the burden pun through to the end: you called it a load, so I will pick you up like one and throw you away. Ancient translations divide between the two.

40And I will bring on you shame that lasts forever and disgrace that never ends, which will never be forgotten."

40And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.