Rashi on TanakhJeremiah 23

Woe to the shepherds The kings of Judah.

and have not taken care of them You were not careful to watch them.

nor shall [any of them] be missing and they shall not be missing. (Cf. Num. 31:49) “And no one of us was missing (נפקד).”

and prosper Heb. והשכּיל.

The Lord is our righteousness The Lord will vindicate us during this one’s days.

Because of the prophets my heart is broken within me Because of the words of the prophets who say, “You shall have peace,” my heart is broken. shake sway like the wings of a bird who hovers over his nest, (trenblent in O.F.) tremble.

because of the Lord For I heard from Him this evil decree.

because of oaths False oaths.

mourns i.e., is destroyed.

their eagerness (course in French,) their course, their running. But Jonathan renders it as an expression of desire.

not right Not according to the law.

both prophet and priest Even these, from whom everyone learns.

even in My house have I found their evil For they placed an image in the Temple.

like slippery places Smooth ground upon which the foot slips and the person falls.

like slippery places in the dark Stumbling upon stumbling. On slippery places in the light there is stumbling. In the dark without slippery places, there is stumbling.

And in the prophets of Samaria I saw unseemliness before they were exiled.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem I now see. a horrible thing a shameful thing.

and they encouraged evil doers They say to the wicked, “You shall have peace.”

that none returns So that the evildoers would not return each one from his evil.

and everyone who follows the view of his heart And to everyone who follows the view of his heart, etc.

For who stood in the council of the Lord and will hear what is decreed by Him? He who hearkened to the word of His Torah and listened to His commandments, but not these wicked men. The first expression of ֹשְמִיעָה in the verse is actual hearing; the latter expression of ֹשְמִיעָה is an expression of acceptance.

a whirling A resting storm, a storm which seeks to rest, and it shall rest on the heads of the wicked.

the plans of an expression of thought.

And if they stood in My council, they should have let My people hear My word, etc. They should have let My people hear My words and My Torah, rather than cause them to stray away from Me.

Am I a God from near that I do not see but what is close to Me and have I no power to judge the lower creatures that are far from Me and do I not know of their deeds?

Can a man hide in secret places This is a repetition of the question, ‘Am I a God from near,’ according to the manner of all double questions.

How long [will this be]? That they will prophesy falsely? Do these prophets who prophesy falsely have in their heart to execute their thoughts that they are thinking to cause My people to forget My name, etc.?

deceit an expression of מִרְמָה, deceit.

let him tell a dream Let him tell it as vain talk like other dreams, and let him not presume it as words of prophecy.

What has the straw to do with the wheat? What has falsehood to do with truth?

with the wheat like עִם-הַבָּר.

Is not My word so like fire? They should not have erred to compare their dreams to say that they are prophecy, for the prophetic word, when it comes to a prophet, it comes into him with force like a burning fire, as the matter is stated (supra 20:9): “And it was in my heart like a burning fire,” and (Ezekiel 3:14): “And the hand of the Lord became strong upon me.”

and as a hammer (pic in French), a pick. And some say (marteau in French), a hammer.

those who steal My wards from one another They have spies who spy upon the true prophets, who listen to their expression with which they prophesy and say false prophecies with that same expression, as Hananiah son of Azzur did. He heard Jeremiah prophesying in the upper marketplace, “Behold I break the bow of Elam,” and he prophesied in the lower marketplace, “I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon” (28:2), as our Rabbis wrote in Sanhedrin 89a.

those who train their tongues who teach their tongues to say their falsehoods with the expression, “Says the Lord,” like the true prophets, so that they should believe them.

with their bewilderment an expression of wonder (estordisoun in O. F.).

“What is the burden of the Lord?” This is an expression of derision, for his prophecy is a burden to them.

you shall say to them, “What burden? And I will forsake you, etc.” They say to you (sic), “What is the burden?” You are the burden of the Holy One, blessed be He, and He says that He will forsake you and cast you off His arms from heaven to earth. So I heard.

and I will forsake Heb. וְעָזַבְתִּי.

For the burden shall be to the man of His word Although you pervert the massa into a pejorative, the prophecy (משא) of the word of the Lord shall be to the man of His word, and to the man of His counsel He reveals it, but you pervert it to an expression of a burden. This interpretation I did not hear, but it is the main interpretation. But this is how I heard it, namely that the burden shall be a burden of retribution for the one who says it, who asks, “What is the burden?” Another interpretation: משא is an expression of prophecy, and the false prophet would ask the true prophet to tell him the word of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the language in which the expression came to him, and the expression did not explain the speech adequately. Therefore, the false prophet would pervert it to another meaning and would speak after the fashion of the true prophet in order that they should believe him. And so did Hananiah son of Azzur do. Therefore, he says, “Do not ask the prophecy of the Lord,” the language of the expression, but “What did He speak?” or “What did He reply?” The explanation of the words you shall ask the true prophet to tell you what the Holy One, blessed be He, says, and to what His words are inclined.

for the prophecy shall be for the man of His word The unexplained expression the Holy One, blessed be He, said unexplained to the man of His counsel, who is not suspected of perverting it, but you ask it in order to pervert it, and you pervert the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, and that is what is stated above (v. 30): “those who steal My words from one another.” This too is a correct explanation.

So shall you say to the prophet when you come to ask My words of the prophet.

and I will exile an expression of “the sinew that was dislocated (גִיד הַנָֹּשֶה)” (Gen. 32:33), and an expression of “their might has failed (נָֹשְתָה),” it jumps and moves from place to place.