Jeremiah 23

God condemns the leaders of Judah, kings, priests and prophets alike, for scattering the people He entrusted to them. He promises to gather His flock and give them a righteous King from David’s line, called ‘The LORD Our Righteousness’. The rest of the chapter exposes lying prophets who speak their own dreams and say ‘peace’ when judgment is coming, and it sets them against God’s true word, which burns like fire.

Jeremiah 23:1

God opens with a cry of grief and anger against Judah’s leaders. They were meant to care for His people like shepherds, but they ruined and scattered them. The flock is God’s own, not theirs. Leaders answer to Him for how they treat His people.

BSA: shepherds (“leaders, caregivers”): Shepherd was a common name for kings and rulers, so the failure here is a failure of care, not just of power.

See also: Ezekiel 34:2.

Jeremiah 23:2

The charge is that the shepherds scattered and drove away the flock and never looked after it. God then turns their own word back on them: they did not ‘attend’ to the sheep, so He will ‘attend’ to them, and the result will be judgment for their evil deeds.

BSA: attend to (“visited, overseen”): The same word can mean a caring visit or a judge’s inspection. The shepherds neglected the first, so they will get the second.

Hebrew: פָּקַד (paqad, H6485) — “to visit, look after, call to account.” One Hebrew word is used twice here. The shepherds failed to ‘visit’ the sheep, so God will ‘visit’ them in judgment. The wordplay is lost in English.

Jeremiah 23:3

God promises to do the shepherding Himself. He will gather the survivors from the countries where they were exiled and bring them home to their own pasture. There they will flourish again, as God first intended when He told humanity to be fruitful and multiply.

BSA: remnant (“what is left, a surviving group”): Not everyone is lost. God keeps a surviving people through judgment and restores them.

See also: Isaiah 11:11; Genesis 1:28.

Jeremiah 23:4

God will give His people shepherds who truly care for them. Fear and terror will end. Because these shepherds watch over the flock, not one sheep will be lost. It is a picture of complete safety under faithful leadership.

BSA: dismayed (“completely broken, shattered”): The flock will no longer be frightened to the point of being crushed in spirit.

Jeremiah 23:5

Beyond ordinary shepherds, God promises one great King from David’s line. He is called a ‘Branch’ because He grows out of David’s family like a fresh shoot from a cut-down tree. He will rule wisely and bring true justice. Christians see this fulfilled in Jesus.

BSA: Branch (“a sprout, a new growth”): David’s royal line looked like a stump, but new life would spring from it. wisely (“with prudence, circumspectly”): This King’s rule will be marked by careful, skillful judgment, not by the foolishness of the old leaders.

Hebrew: צֶמַח (tsemach, H6780) — “sprout, shoot.” The word means something that springs up from the ground. It became a title for the coming Davidic King.

See also: Isaiah 11:1; Zechariah 3:8.

Jeremiah 23:6

Under this King, Judah is rescued and all Israel lives without fear. His name declares who He is and what He gives: ‘The LORD Our Righteousness.’ Righteousness here is God’s own gift to His people. It is not something they produce themselves.

BSA: saved (“rescued, delivered from danger”): The promise is real rescue from the enemies and dangers that had scattered them. Righteousness (“justice, moral integrity, vindication”): God Himself sets His people right and puts them in good standing, and this is wrapped up in the King’s name.

Hebrew: יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ (Yahweh tsidqenu, H3068) — “The LORD is our righteousness.” The name joins God’s personal name with the word for righteousness and the word ‘our’. Righteousness is something He supplies to us.

See also: 1 Corinthians 1:30; Jeremiah 33:15-16.

Jeremiah 23:7-8

The return from exile will be so great that it will overshadow the exodus from Egypt as Israel’s best-known rescue. People will swear by the God who brought them home from the north and from every land. They will then live again in their own land.

BSA: north (“Zaphon, the northern direction”): Babylon’s armies came from the north, so the north stands for the exile itself.

See also: Jeremiah 16:14-15.

Jeremiah 23:9

Jeremiah now speaks about the prophets, and he is shaken. The corruption of the leaders and the weight of God’s holy words leave him reeling like a drunk man. A true prophet feels the grief of what God says, and does not just announce it.

BSA: broken (“shattered, deeply distressed”): Jeremiah’s inner being is crushed, which shows how deeply he feels God’s grief and anger.

Jeremiah 23:10

The land is full of unfaithfulness, both literal adultery and turning from God to idols. Because of this curse the land itself mourns, and the pasture dries up. Sin spreads past people to the ground. The people’s course is evil and they use their strength unjustly.

BSA: adulterers (“those who are unfaithful, commit idolatry”): In Scripture, unfaithfulness to God is often called adultery, because His people are bound to Him as in a marriage.

See also: Hosea 4:1-3.

Jeremiah 23:11

The people who should be closest to God, prophet and priest, are godless. The worst part is that God found their wickedness inside His own house. Sin in a place of worship is not hidden from Him.

BSA: ungodly (“profane, defiled”): These leaders treat holy things as ordinary and spoil what is set apart for God.

Jeremiah 23:12

Their path will become slippery, and in the dark they will be pushed along and fall. God Himself will bring the disaster when the appointed year of reckoning arrives. Their way looked easy, but it leads to a fall they cannot recover from.

BSA: slick (“smooth, slippery, like flattery”): The ‘smooth’ ground suggests the smooth words they spoke, which lead to a fall.

Hebrew: חֲלַקְלַקּוֹת (ḥalaqlaqqôt, H2519) — “slippery places.” The Hebrew sounds slippery as it is spoken, and it is related to the word for smooth, flattering talk. It suggests that a path of smooth words ends in a slide.

See also: Psalm 35:6.

Jeremiah 23:13

God compares two sets of prophets. In the northern kingdom, Samaria, prophets spoke in Baal’s name, an open betrayal that led His people astray. He calls it offensive, even foolish, for anyone to claim to speak for another god.

BSA: astray (“to go astray, wander morally”): These prophets did more than say wrong things. They drew the people away from the right path.

Jeremiah 23:14

Jerusalem’s prophets are worse. They have God’s name and temple, yet they live in adultery and lies and encourage evildoers, so no one repents. God says they are like Sodom and Gomorrah, cities remembered as the standard for wickedness and judgment.

BSA: strengthen (“encourage, support”): By assuring the guilty that all was well, the prophets propped up the very people who needed to turn back.

Hebrew: שַׁעֲרוּרָה (sha’arurah, H8186) — “a horrible, appalling thing.” The word describes something that makes the skin crawl and the hair stand on end. God sees their conduct as that appalling.

See also: Genesis 19:24-25.

Jeremiah 23:15

The punishment fits the crime. Since the prophets fed the people poison, God will feed them bitter wormwood and poisoned water. Their ungodliness began in Jerusalem and spread through the whole land, so the judgment reaches them first.

BSA: wormwood (“a bitter plant”): It stands for the bitter result of sin, which the prophets will have to swallow themselves.

Hebrew: לַעֲנָה (la’anah, H3939) — “wormwood, a bitter plant.” The plant is very bitter. In the Bible it often stands for bitter suffering that comes from turning away from God.

Jeremiah 23:16

God tells the people not to listen to these prophets. They fill the people with empty hopes. Their visions come out of their own minds, not from God’s mouth. The test is simple: does the message come from God, or from what people want to hear?

BSA: false hopes (“vain, empty, or meaningless expectations”): The prophets’ promises are hollow, like a puff of air, and give the people nothing real to stand on.

Hebrew: מַהְבִּלִים (mahbilim, H1891) — “making empty, filling with vapor.” It comes from the word for a breath or vapor, the same word used for ‘vanity’ in Ecclesiastes. The prophets filled the people with nothing.

Jeremiah 23:17

The false prophets give soothing messages to the very people who despise God and follow their own stubborn hearts. They say ‘peace’ and ’no harm will come to you.’ Such comfort is cruel, because it ignores the repentance that real peace requires.

BSA: peace (“shalom, completeness, wellness”): Shalom means wholeness and well-being. The prophets promised it while the people were still cut off from God, which is what makes it a lie.

See also: Jeremiah 6:14.

Jeremiah 23:18

God asks a sharp question. Which of these prophets has stood in His council, listened to Him, and obeyed? A true prophet has been with God and taken His word to heart. These men have done neither.

BSA: council (“secret, intimate conversation”): It is a close, private place where God shares His mind with those He trusts.

Hebrew: סוֹד (sod, H5475) — “council, confidential circle.” The word describes a gathering of close friends who share secrets. A true prophet has been admitted to God’s confidence, and the false ones have not.

See also: Amos 3:7.

Jeremiah 23:19-20

God’s anger is like a storm that has already left His hand and is whirling down on the wicked. It will not turn back until He has done what He intends. The people will understand this fully only in later days, when the judgment has come.

BSA: fury (“intense anger, rage”): This is the burning, settled anger of a God who sees wrong and will not ignore it.

Hebrew: אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים (aḥarit hayyamim, H319) — “the latter days, the end of days.” The phrase points to a time when events have run their course. Then the people will see what God’s anger was for.

See also: Jeremiah 30:23-24.

Jeremiah 23:21-22

God says He never sent these prophets. They ran off with a message He never gave. If they had stood in His council, they would have spoken His words and turned the people from evil. The test of a true prophet is that his message brings people back to God.

BSA: run (“rushed, hastened”): They hurried to speak without being sent. Eagerness is no proof of a calling.

See also: Jeremiah 14:14.

Jeremiah 23:23-24

God is no small local deity who can be avoided at a distance. He is near and far at once, and nobody can hide from Him. He fills heaven and earth. The prophets’ secret lies and secret sins are fully open to Him.

BSA: fill (“occupy, pervade”): God is present everywhere, with nothing in the world outside His reach.

See also: Psalm 139:7-10; 1 Kings 8:27.

Jeremiah 23:25-27

God has heard prophets say, ‘I had a dream!’ while speaking lies in His name. Their dreams are only the product of their own deceived minds, and they hope to make people forget God’s name, just as earlier generations forgot Him through Baal worship. Forgetting God is how people drift away.

BSA: name (“fame, renown, reputation”): God’s name stands for His character and reputation. These prophets try to bury both under their own stories.

See also: Deuteronomy 13:1-3.

Jeremiah 23:28

God does not forbid dreams, but He draws a line. A man who has a dream should tell it as a dream, and the man who has God’s word should speak it faithfully. God asks what chaff is next to grain. The difference is that one feeds and the other is worth nothing.

BSA: straw (“chaff, worthless material”): Chaff is the husk that blows away, and it has no food value. Human dreams compared with God’s word are like that.

Jeremiah 23:29

God’s word is like fire and like a hammer that shatters rock. It burns away what is false and breaks hard hearts. It is not a soft or soothing thing, and a prophet who offers only comfort has missed its power.

BSA: word (“like a refining flame, burning away impurities”): God’s word purifies. It burns away what is false and leaves what is true.

Hebrew: פַּטִּישׁ (patish, H6360) — “hammer.” This is a heavy tool for breaking stone. The picture is of God’s word striking a rock-hard heart until it breaks.

See also: Hebrews 4:12.

Jeremiah 23:30-32

Three times God says, ‘I am against’ the false prophets. They steal words from one another, they wag their own tongues and say ‘The LORD declares it,’ and they pass on false dreams with reckless lies. God never sent them, and they do the people no good.

BSA: steal (“take secretly, plagiarize”): These prophets borrow each other’s words and pass them off as God’s.

Hebrew: נְאֻם (ne’um, H5002) — “declaration, utterance.” This word usually marks a solemn declaration from God. The false prophets use it to make their own words sound like His.

Jeremiah 23:33

Here God plays on a word. In Hebrew, ‘burden’ also means ‘oracle’, a weighty message from God. When anyone asks Jeremiah, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’, he is to answer, ‘What burden?’ God says He will cast them off. The people treat His word lightly, and they themselves have become the burden.

BSA: burden (“message, oracle, or prophecy”): The same word means a load and a prophetic message, so the pun lands on the people’s casual use of it.

Hebrew: מַשָּׂא (massa, H4853) — “burden, oracle.” It comes from a word meaning to lift or carry, so a prophecy is a weight that is carried. The people’s mocking use of the word turns it back on them.

Jeremiah 23:34-36

Anyone who claims ’the burden of the LORD’ for his own idea will be punished with his household. People should ask simply, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ When a man’s own word is passed off as God’s, he twists the words of the living God.

BSA: pervert (“twist, distort, or overturn”): To put human words in God’s mouth is to turn His message upside down.

See also: Deuteronomy 18:20.

Jeremiah 23:37-38

The right way to inquire of a prophet is to ask what the LORD has answered and spoken. If anyone uses the forbidden phrase ’the burden of the LORD’ after being told not to, he is openly defying a plain command.

BSA: claim (“assert, declare”): To claim God’s message is a serious act, and it should be done only when He has actually spoken.

Jeremiah 23:39-40

For that, God says He will utterly forget them and throw them out of His presence, along with the city He gave their fathers. They will carry lasting shame that will never be forgotten. It is a sobering end that shows how seriously God takes His own word.

BSA: forget (“neglect, disregard”): The people had made light of God, and now He will no longer attend to them as His own.

See also: Jeremiah 24:9.