Jeremiah 23

Jeremiah 23:1-8

In this chapter the prophet, in God’s name, deals out his repressive and threatening, 1. Among the covetous pastors of the people, ver. 1, 2. yet God promises to take care of the seed, ver. 3—8. 2. Among the wicked prophets and priests, whoof ill character is here given at large, for which they must expect to be punished, ver. 9—32. 3. Among the profane people, who ridiculed God’s prophets, ver. 33—40.

1. WO be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastors, faith the LORD.

2. Therefore thou 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, faith 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 fields, 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, faith the LORD.

4. ¶ Behold, the days come, faith 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.

5. 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 RIGHT SENSIBLES. 7. Therefore behold, the days come, faith 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 the countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land.

The prophet’s message is a roll full of woes against a wicked nation, utterly corrupt both in its head and members.

1. He pronounces a vow on the papers of Israel, their rulers in church and state, whose duty it was to have fed and protected the flock of God committed to their charge, but who had not only neglected to visit, and take care of the things, but had scattered and destroyed them by oppression and covetousness; by their bad examples leading them into sin, and thereby bringing ruin upon them; for these evils God would visit them with righteous judgment. Note, They who have the rule over men’s persons, and especially those who have the case of men’s souls entrusted with them, should remember the awful charge, and what a solemn account they must use day make.

2. He promises to take care of the flock they neglected.

(1.) He will bring the scattered captives to their own land again, under the conduct of the Shepherds Zernubbabel, Walensub, and others, raided up by his providence, men faithful in their office, under whose government they should increase in numbers, build again the walle places of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, enjoy peace and prosperity, and no spoiler be permitted to devour them. Some suppose this refers to gospel-timers, when the elect of God should be gathered into his church; when under the ministry of the apostles and preachers the Bony of Christ should be fed with the rich doctrines of grace; filled with that divine faith which calfeth out fear, and not one of the redeemed be ever suffered to perish, Joke z. a. b.

(2.) God bids them expect with confidence the coming of the promised Messiah. Behold, the days come, Saith the Lord, swiftly advancing, and surely approaching, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, by which name the Messiah is preferred, Joc. iv. 2. Zesh. iii. 8. A branch, because of his mean appearance, and the weakness of his incarnation; a righteous branch, perfectly so himself, and the author of all righteousness to others; and raised unto David, unto whom God had promised that from him the Messiah should descend; and a long shall reign and employ; for mean as his appearance was, has thrown was higher than the kings of the earth, established from eternity, continuing to eternity. The kingdom he came to erect among men is an everlasting kingdom; victory and prosperity marked all his steps, the powers of sin and Satan were broken, and peace, love, and joy diffused in the hearts of all his redeemed people; and he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, governing his people in righteousness, and executing judgment on their enemies. In his days Judah, the cholem of God, Saith he saved with an everlasting salvation; and Israel, the spiritual Israel, shall dwell safely; delivered from the power of Satan, the scars of guilt, the prevalence of corruption, enjoying the present favour of a covenant God, and expecting a real eternal in the heavens; and this is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord, Jehovah, our Rightowheath; by his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, he hath brought in an everlasting righteousness, and all who by faith apprehend him, are made partakers of it; God imposes it to them, and repasts them at compleat in him. A righteousness this, infinitely transcending all the righteousness of men or angels, as being the righteousness of Jehovah; and therefore, whoever make Jesus their refuge, and this righteousness their plea, can never enter into condemnation, but are entitled to the favour of God here, and to the inheritance of glory hereafter.

3. The greatness of this salvation would so far obscure all the former deliverances God had wrought for his people, even their wondrous redemption from Egypt, that they should no more be mentioned. And this must refer, not merely to their return from Babylon, but to their conversion under the preaching of the gospel, when multitudes were turned to the Lord, and may have yet a farther respect to the latter days, when the fulness of the Gentiles being come in, all Israel shall be saved, and literally be gathered, as many learned men suppose, to dwell in their own land, which hath never been the case with the ten tribes, since their first dispersion.

4. ¶ 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 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, faith 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, faith the LORD. 13. And I have seen I 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 doommit adultery, and walk in lies: they flaming him also the hands of evil levers, that none doth restore from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15. Therefore thus faith 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 I profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16. Thus faith the LORD of hosts, Hearless 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 full unto them that despite 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 found 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 all 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, faith the LORD, and not a God atar off? 24. Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? faith the LORD: do not I fill heaven and earth? faith 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? faith the LORD. 29. Is not my word like as a fire? faith the LORD: and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30. Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, faith the LORD, that steal my words, every one from his neighbour. 31. Behold, I am against the prophets, faith the LORD, that I die their tongues, and say, He faith. 32. Behold, I am against them that prophesy falls dreams, faith 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, faith the LORD.

kedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 13. Therefore thus faith 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 I profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16. Thus faith the LORD of hosts, Hearless 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 full unto them that despite 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 found 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 all 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, faith the LORD, and not a God atar off? 24. Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? faith the LORD: do not I fill heaven and earth? faith 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? faith the LORD. 29. Is not my word like as a fire? faith the LORD: and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30. Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, faith the LORD, that steal my words, every one from his neighbour. 31. Behold, I am against the prophets, faith the LORD, that I die their tongues, and say, He faith. 32. Behold, I am against them that prophesy falls dreams, faith 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, faith the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:9-12

When God comes to visit, none will suffer feverer vengeance than those whose duty it was to have stood in the gap against the growing evils; but who safely joined in the general defection, and hardened and encouraged sinners by their smooth prophecies and ill examples. Against these the prophet is sent to denounce God’s wrath.

1. He appears deeply affected with what he saw, and the fearful message he was about to deliver. My heart within me is broken with grief, because of the wickedness he beheld, and the ruin ready to retire; all my heart flaks with horror; I am as a drunken man, at a loss what to say or do; so confounded was he with the abominations he saw, because of the Lord, whose name was so dishonoured, and because of the words of his holiness, profanely abused by those who pretended to inspiration from him; or because of the dire judgments, which in righteous wrath he was sent to denounce against them. Note, A true prophet grieves for the dishonour cast on God by men’s wickedness, whilst he trembles at their approaching doom.

2. He declares the dreadful state of the whole land. Full of adulterers, corpses, and spoils; full of sinners, perjured or profane, who having cast off the scar of God, made no conscience of an oath. For these things God had begun to visit them; the land returned already with drought, the pollutes failed, and famine devoured them; and yet, hardened in him, their course is evil, they attend not to these warnings of God, but not to the same excess of evil, and will not be restrained; and their lives is not right; their power and influence was exerted, not to suppress, but to encourage iniquity; or their wisdom is not right, full of rapine and injustice, as well as adultery and profaneness. No marvel such a people are devoted to ruin.

3. They Baker-Clark

4. They who should have refrained them, are the ringleaders in his. For both prophets and priests are profess in their conversation and their lives; or play the hypocrisy, pretending zeal for religion, and with the cloak of piety covering the brisk abominations: yes, in my house, where most peculiarly God required purity, have I found their wickedness, faith the Lord, defying the sacred place with their false doctrines, their flagrant immaturities, or idolatry, 1 Sam. xi. 22. The prophets of Israel had been bad, very bad, God had seen their wickedness and folly; prophesying in the name of Baal, and causing the people to err by their words, and debauching them by their ill examples: but had as the prophets of Samaria had been, the prophets of Jerusalem have equalled, yes, exceeded them in their abominations. Hearable to tell even in the face of God’s temple they commit adultery, and wait in lies, reporting lying visions, making false pretenses to prophecy, and turning the people from God to idols; hardening sinners in iniquity, crying peace, to lull their consciences asleep in fatal security, profaning God’s name to vouch for their lies, v. 17. and by their wicked deeds encouraging and emboldening others to sin. Nate, (1.) No guilt so aggravated as theirs, who have not only their own blood, but the blood of soft souls lying upon them. (2.) Nothing so embolden and hardens sinners, as when their teachers give them an occasion of offence by their ungodly convertations.

5. An awful threatening is pronounced against them. God regarded them as the inhabitants of Sudan and Gomorrah, their guilt to great, and crying to heaven for vengeance: and swift it descends; the Lord will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation. The time is fixed, the judgment ready to seize them, this property was shall lead them into horrible darkness, they shall not be able to foresee nor avoid the ruin that approaches, but be driven by irresistible violence, captivated by Satan and their own lusts, and full therein from the depths of sin into the depths of misery, but into a miserable slavery, or perishing with famine and the sword, v. 12. The bitterest and most poisonous cup of affliction, wormwood and gall, or the juice of broiled, a cup of trembling, is mingled for them, to punish them for their horrid profaneness, the contagion of which had spread over the land. Nothing being so dangerously infectious, and so fatally destructive, as the example of a debauched and abandoned ministry.

6. God cautions the people to pay no regard to the lying suggestions of these false prophets, v. 16. They make you vain, bother you up in false hopes, speak the fancies of their own corrupted hearts, not the visions of inspiration, v. 17. They cry peace to the wicked, to whom God hath said there is no peace; and promise them impunity when vengeance is ready to light upon them, v. 17. Infiniting and contradicting the prophets of the Lord, who affirmed God’s wrath was ready to be revealed, they ridiculed their pretensions to prophesy; or boathing themselves of God’s counsel, they vaunted their knowledge of his word and will, i. who were so deep in his secrets as they? v. 18. therefore, as the most effectual method of conviction, God will arise, I should, a wherriber of the Lord is gone forfeit to levy; the executors of his judgments, the Chaldeans, with restless violence are halting to destroy; men a gracious suburban, of shall fail grievously on the head of the wicked, both on the deceived and the deceivers, but especially on the wicked prophets; nor depart from them till it hath answered God’s decree and purpose, and extirpated them from the land; and conviction will come too late, when the sentence begins to be executed; they shall then see what they will not now believe, v. 20. Or, in the latter days, may refer to the times of the gospel, or the final conviction of the Jews, when they shall consider all their past visitations, and be convinced and turned unto the Lord; tho’ the former feeble seems preferable, as more agreeable to the context. God, by these his judgments, made it evident, that he had not first these prophets, yet they ran without any commission from him, self-ordained, and pretending to prophesy when he had never taught them, but they palmed on the people the effusions of their corrupted hearts for his inspiration, v. 21. and this was proved also from the effects of their ministry; for had they been sent of God, as they pretended, they would have made his word the standard of their preaching; and, as the blessed effect of their labours, would have beheld the conversion of men’s souls turned by their preaching from the evil of their ways; the very reverber of which was evident, v. 22. Nate, (1.) We need be often cautioned against false prophets, they are in every day more numerous than the true; and by authority and numbers seek to call on them the brand of fasthood, but by their fruits ye shall know them. (2.) No man may take on him the office of the ministry who is not called of God, and moved by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. They who profess the truth, and yet are conscious of the fasthood of such declarations, God will not only disown, but fearfully punish. (3.) They who go forth in God’s name, and pretend to labour for him, yet for no effect of their ministry, and no one soul brought to a sense of sin and the knowledge of reconciliation by them, may justly suspect their doctrine is false, and themselves deluded.

7. God expositions with them on their folly and wickedness. Do they think to deceive him by their lies? Can he, like

man, a worm, only see the objects near him; and because afar off in heaven, is he unable to defecy what paffes have before, and in the hearts of men? Vain hope? to think of imposing on Omniscience, and evading his eye, who blush heaven and earth with his presence. The darkest recettes of the globe, or the darkest devices of the human mind, are all naked and open to him; for there is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where any of the workers of wickedness can hide themselves, v. 24. He heard and law what these false prophets thought and spoke, he detected their impositions and lying dreams, which they reported as divine inspirations; and severely upholds them with their hardened effrontery. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Will they never have done with their lies? Or the words may be read, How long will they go on thus? Is there any thing in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? No; their mind and conscience is defiled; yes, they are prophet of the deceit of their own hearts, deceiving and being deceived, given up to their delusions to believe their own lie; and with most malignant intentions striving to debauch the minds of God’s people to affection and idolatry, as their fathers, by Baal’s prophets, had been induced before them, v. 27. Nate, (1.) A sense of God’s all-feeing eye is the great preservative from evil. (2.) They who would call off God’s people, by pretenses of new revelation, from the worship he hath prescribed, and the obedience he hath enjoined, evidently prove the fasthood of their pretensions.

7. The prophet, in God’s name, lays down the criterion to judge the false prophets and the true. He that hath a dream, let him tell his dream, and the event will prove whether it comes from God: or this is addressed to the false prophets, warning them not to call it a vision from God, but report what they dream as a dream. And he that hath my word, a real and experimental knowledge of it, let him speak my word faithfully, without keeping back a title, however offensive on dangerous it may be to bear testimony to the truth. What is the chief to the wheat, faith the Lord? As different as these are, so different is the word of truth from the vain imaginations of the false prophets: the one nutritive, substantial, wrighty; the other light, vain, and delusive. Is not my word his fire, faith the Lord? its operations quick, piercing, kindling a fire of conviction in the sinner’s conscience; a fire of trial, separating the precious from the vile; a fire of love in the hearts of the faithful; and like a hammer that breatch the rock in pieces? breaking the rocky heart of fallen man with deep contrition, and leading it to Chief; or flamping the hardened sinner to powder, denouncing upon him the vengeance of eternal punishment. So effectual and mighty was the word in the mouth of the true prophets, which the preaching of the false prophets neither communicated light nor heat, was accompanied with no power, nor produced the least good effects on the people.

8. God changes them with other notorious crimes. They shall my word, every one from his neighbour, either the words of the true prophets, which they introduced the better to infirmate their fasthoods, as if mimicking their language, they also partook of their inspiration: or they prejudiced the people against them, and prevented them from paying regard to their admonitions and warnings. They use their tongues, and say, He faith, pretending a divine commission, and taking the name of God in their mouths in vain; or they breach their tongue, prophesy what will please and flatter men in their sins, and dare and God’s sanction to their lies. They prophesy false dreams, impeding the reverber of their own brain for inspiration, and cause the people to err by their lies and by their lightness; their false doctrines and evil examples encourage sinners in their wickedness, and for these things God threatens them with his vengeance. Behold, I am against the prophet; these times he repeats it, to show the certainty and terrificness of the wrath they had provoked. He disowns the least connection with them; I feel them not, neither commanded them; they were lying boarers, who had no commission from him; therefore they shall not press this people at all, but, the very reverber, shall bring down delusion on their heads as well as their own. Nate, None do more irreparable mischief in the church of God, than they who, pretending to be preachers of the truth, advance the doctrines of error, and beguile unstable souls.

9. ¶ And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt thou say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, faith 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. Thou shalt 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.

God. 37. Thus shall thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 38. But fish ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thou saith the LORD, Because you 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 call you out of my presence. 40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Jeremiah 23:33-40

It is evil indeed with any nation, when the most awful words of God are foothold, and made the object of ridicule.

1. The fin here charged on the false prophets, priests, and people, is their horrid profanesses. Instead of humbly enquiring concerning God’s mind and will, v. 35. they footholdly repeated the prophet’s words, and consequently conquered, What is the burden of the Lord? mocking the phrases, as a cant term, because the true prophets often made use of it, and despising the judgments which this word usually imported, perverting, than the words of the living God, of the Lord of heirs our God, concerning his power, and inflicting his majesty; and though warned to desist, they persevered in their iminous derision, v. 38. Nate, (1.) It hath been the common effort of the wicked in all ages, to make God’s word the butt of their wit; and by torturing some expression to a ludicrous meaning, to turn the warnings of his ministers into contempt. (2.) As long ago as Jeremiah, the burden of the Lord afforded matter of derision; he was one of those preachers of hell and damnation which the men of that generation mocked at. Let such sinners then mock on, and fill up the measure of their iniquities. (3.) Wicked prophets and false preachers are usually chief in this transgression, and the great accusers and revilers of the faithful; but that damnation they deride slumbereth not.

2. God declares his full purpose, consignly to punish such profanesses, v. 34. Every man’s word shall be his burden, lay on him a load of guilt that, if unrepented of, shall sink his foul into the depths of hell. Behold, I, even I, that living God, against whom such wretches dare open their iminous lips, will utterly forget and forsake you, and give you up to your terrible doom, without one kind remembrance to alleviate your misery. The city God had given them and their fathers, should be a prey for the Chaldean army, and they be led into a miserable captivity; nor should their shame and disgrace come to an end. For a long while the whole nation should suffer the marks of his fierce displeasure, which to this day lies upon them, and the impetient among them be sentenced to everlasting shame and contempt in the day of final recompense and perdition of ungodly men. Nate, (1.) However men may mock at God’s word, it will be seen at last whose word shall stand, his or theirs. (2.) The damnation sinners despise, shall shortly and terribly come upon them, and their laugh of derision be turned into everlasting weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.