Tyndale Open Study NotesJeremiah 23

This collection of messages to the last kings from David's line in Judah ends with a promise. God will one day appoint a true descendant of David to lead his people.

The Lord criticized the three kings (Jeremiah 22) and compared them to the good leader he would appoint for his people after the Exile.

In the ancient Near East, people often called kings shepherds. Good shepherds protected and cared for their people. However, Judah's kings scattered their people.

As a good shepherd, the Lord would gather the exiles and place them in their own sheepfold, the land of Judah. There, they would grow and increase in number (compare Genesis 1:28; 17:6–8).

Once the people returned to Judah (Jeremiah 23:3), the Lord would appoint responsible shepherds. These good leaders would care for the people.

A righteous descendant from King David's line, whose rule had paused, would become a King. Unlike the three kings the Lord had just criticized (Jeremiah 22), this King would have wisdom and act justly and rightly (Jeremiah 33:15; Isaiah 11:1–5; 53:2; Zechariah 3:8; Luke 1:32–33).

This ruler would be called The Lord Our Righteousness (Hebrew Yahweh Tsidqenu). This name is an interesting reversal of Zedekiah’s Hebrew name (Tsidqiyyahu), which means “Righteous is the Lord.” Zedekiah’s character and the chaos during his reign were the opposite of the future King's character. The future King's reign would bring salvation and safety.

Jeremiah stood before the Lord, shocked by the harshness of the Lord's judgments against the religious leaders.

These short poems and interjections seem to be parts of a session where the Lord prepared Jeremiah to confront the false prophets of Jerusalem. These leaders misused the Lord's name, which made him angry (Exodus 20:7).

People everywhere committed adultery. They believed the ritual sex in Baal worship would ensure good crops. Instead, it caused a drought that ruined crops in Judah.

Judah's religious leaders had done terrible things. They did these not only in private and in places of pagan worship but also in the Temple, in front of the Lord.

Because of their wickedness, these priests and prophets would have unstable lives; danger would fill every moment.

• Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, was dominated by Baal worship, which the government prophets supported (1 Kings 18:19; see also Jeremiah 16:12). The religious leaders of Judah were even worse.

• Sodom and Gomorrah represented the worst of this wickedness (Genesis 18:20).

While people were responsible for their own sins, the prophets were blamed for Jerusalem's spiritual betrayal.

The Lord urged the people to ignore these prophets and listen to his word instead.

The false prophets gave the people false hopes; they were not chosen to speak for the Lord, and their ideas came from their own minds.

These prophets lied to the people, telling them peace would come soon, even though they ignored the Lord's word. However, the Lord had already decided on destruction.

These prophets made up their messages (Jeremiah 23:16); they had never been in the Lord’s presence, and none of them cared to listen to God's instruction.

Despite the false prophets' lies, the world faced the Lord's anger. The political situation was like a storm that would soon hit the wicked. The Lord planned this punishment and would make sure it happened. After the war, the survivors would look back and see that Jeremiah's prophecy was correct.

In this stanza, the Lord shows his strong disappointment and disgust with the false prophets.

If the false prophets' messages had come from the Lord, they would have been different. God wanted the people to stop their evil actions, like Baal worship, and follow the one true God.

The Lord showed how he differs from Canaanite nature gods. Pagan gods were part of nature and nearby. The Lord is near because he created nature, but he is also distinct from it. His essence is different from nature, yet he is present in all the heavens and earth.

The false prophets valued dreams highly. Claiming to have a dream supposedly gave their message authority. However, these prophets made up everything to lead people away from the Lord.

The Lord temporarily let the false prophets share their dreams. Meanwhile, the Lord had his true messengers, like Jeremiah, proclaim every word. This helped people see the difference between the false prophets' useless dreams (straw) and the nourishing words of the Lord's messengers (grain); compare Psalm 1:3–4.

The Lord’s word is powerful, like fire, and can destroy false prophecies. It would smash the strong fortress of Jerusalem like a mighty hammer.

The Lord criticized and opposed the prophets who lied in his name.

The Lord gave Jeremiah an example conversation to teach him how to deal with false prophets.

• The false prophets might mock Jeremiah by asking for the latest message from the Lord.

• What burden?: This is a wordplay. People often called a prophetic message "a burden." The false prophets were a heavy load that the Lord would discard and abandon.

A person might falsely claim to have heard a prophecy from the Lord. However, that person and their entire family would face punishment (compare Numbers 16:27–32; Joshua 7:24–25).

The Lord warned that no one should claim to have a prophecy from Him to control others. This would go against God's words and misuse His name (Exodus 20:7; see also Matthew 20:25–28).

What has the LORD spoken?: The Lord has decided to punish the people of Judah and remove false prophets. Any prophecy claiming otherwise is not from the Lord.

People would mock the false prophets. Their predictions would be wrong when Jerusalem was destroyed and its people were taken into exile.