Jeremiah 23:16

23:16 The Lord who rules over all 1  says to the people of Jerusalem: 2 

“Do not listen to what

those prophets are saying to you.

They are filling you with false hopes.

They are reporting visions of their own imaginations,

not something the Lord has given them to say. 3 

Jeremiah 23:25

23:25 The Lord says, 4  “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ 5 

Jeremiah 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm 6  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. 7  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. 8  I, the Lord, affirm it!” 9 

1 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

sn See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

2 tn The words “to the people of Jerusalem” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to reflect the masculine plural form of the imperative and the second masculine plural form of the pronoun. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

3 tn Heb “They tell of a vision of their own heart [= mind] not from the mouth of the Lord.”

4 tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that the Lord continues speaking.

5 sn To have had a dream was not an illegitimate means of receiving divine revelation. God had revealed himself in the past to his servants through dreams (e.g., Jacob [Gen 31:10-11] and Joseph [Gen 37:6, 7, 9]) and God promised to reveal himself through dreams (Num 12:6; Joel 2:28 [3:1 HT]). What was illegitimate was to use the dream to lead people away from the Lord (Deut 13:1-5 [13:2-6 HT]). That was what the prophets were doing through their dreams which were “lies” and “the delusions of their own minds.” Through them they were making people forget who the Lord really was which was just like what their ancestors had done through worshiping Baal.

6 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

7 tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.

8 sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.

9 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”