Read & explore together
Lying Prophets
Jeremiah 23:9–32 warns about prophets who claim to speak for Yahweh but actually speak from their own hearts. The passage shows the harm of false messages and the difference between empty claims and Yahweh’s true word.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In this passage, Jeremiah speaks “concerning the prophets” and reacts with deep distress because of Yahweh and his holy words. Yahweh then describes corruption among prophet and priest, warns against listening to deceptive prophecy, and explains that these speakers were not sent by him. Dreams, lies and stolen words are all exposed here.
Jeremiah 23:9–32Main takeaway
This passage teaches that a true word from Yahweh is faithful to what he actually says, while false prophecy comes from human deceit and leads people further into evil.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Jeremiah’s shock at corrupt prophetsThe passage opens with Jeremiah trembling and broken because of Yahweh and his holy words.
Explanation
The passage opens with Jeremiah trembling and broken because of Yahweh and his holy words. The reason soon appears: the land is marked by evil, adulterers, and profane leaders. Even prophet and priest are called wicked in Yahweh’s house, so judgement is pictured as a dark, slippery path ending in a fall.
02Their messages encourage sin, not repentanceYahweh compares earlier folly in Samaria with a “horrible thing” among Jerusalem’s prophets.
Explanation
Yahweh compares earlier folly in Samaria with a “horrible thing” among Jerusalem’s prophets. They walk in lies and strengthen evildoers, so no one turns back from wickedness. Because of this spread of ungodliness, Yahweh says not to listen to them. Their visions come from their own hearts, while they keep promising peace and safety to the stubborn.
03Yahweh’s true word confronts evilThe passage asks who has really stood in Yahweh’s council and heard his word. His storm of wrath is aimed at the wicked, and his anger will accomplish his purpose.
Explanation
The passage asks who has really stood in Yahweh’s council and heard his word. His storm of wrath is aimed at the wicked, and his anger will accomplish his purpose. These prophets were not sent by him. If they had truly stood in his council, they would have caused the people to hear Yahweh’s words and turn from evil.
04Dreams and slogans cannot replace God’s wordYahweh sees everywhere, so hidden deception is impossible. He has heard prophets repeating dreams and lies in his name, causing people to forget him.
Explanation
Yahweh sees everywhere, so hidden deception is impossible. He has heard prophets repeating dreams and lies in his name, causing people to forget him. A dream may be told as a dream, but Yahweh’s word must be spoken faithfully. His word is not light straw. It is like wheat, like fire, and like a hammer that breaks rock.
05Yahweh stands against lying prophetsThe closing verses repeat Yahweh’s opposition. He is against prophets who steal words, who use their tongues to say, “He says,” and who tell lying dreams.
Explanation
The closing verses repeat Yahweh’s opposition. He is against prophets who steal words, who use their tongues to say, “He says,” and who tell lying dreams. Their speech causes people to err and brings no profit. The repeated charge is simple: Yahweh did not send or command them.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01According to this passage, what effect did the false prophets have on other people?
Look for phrases about strengthening evildoers, stopping repentance, causing people to forget Yahweh’s name, and causing the people to err.
02How does this passage describe the difference between a prophet’s own message and Yahweh’s true word?
Compare “a vision of their own heart” and dreams with the command to speak Yahweh’s word faithfully, plus the pictures of wheat, fire and a hammer.
03What would these prophets have done differently if they had truly stood in Yahweh’s council?
The text answers this directly by connecting Yahweh’s council with hearing his words and turning people from evil.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Jeremiah 23:9–32
9Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.
10“For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the curse the land mourns. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right;
11for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says Yahweh.
12Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says Yahweh.
13“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
14In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
15Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
16Yahweh of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.
17They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’
18For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it?
19Behold, Yahweh’s storm, his wrath, has gone out. Yes, a whirling storm! It will burst on the head of the wicked.
20Yahweh’s anger will not return until he has executed and performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly.
21I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran. I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23“Am I a God at hand,” says Yahweh, “and not a God afar off?
24Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
25“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’
26How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?
27They intend to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they each tell his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal.
28The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says Yahweh.
29“Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says Yahweh, “who each steal my words from his neighbor.
31Behold, I am against the prophets,” says Yahweh, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’
32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says Yahweh, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says Yahweh.