Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 23:30
Therefore, behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.
30. steal my words ] They have themselves no revelation to impart, and therefore proclaim as their own that which has been said by the really inspired.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
30 32. See introd. summary to section.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jeremiah gives in succession the main characteristics of the teaching of the false prophets. The first is that they steal Gods words from one another. Having no message from God, they try to imitate the true prophets.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. I am against the prophets] Three cases are mentioned here which excited God’s disapprobation:
1. The prophets who stole the word from their neighbour; who associated with the true prophets, got some intelligence from them, and then went and published it as a revelation which themselves had received, Jer 23:30.
2. The prophets who used their tongues; hallokechim leshonam, who lick or smooth with their tongues – gave their own counsels as Divine revelations, flattering them in their sins, and promising peace, when God had not spoken; and prefaced them, “Thus saith the Lord,” Jer 23:31.
3. The prophets who made up false stories, which they termed prophecies, revealed to them in dreams; and thus caused the people to err, Jer 23:32.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There are various opinions as to what the prophet meaneth here by those prophets that stole the Lords words from their neighbours. Some, by their
neighbour, understanding the true prophets, from whom they stole those forms of speech, Thus saith the Lord, or, The word of the Lord, or, The burden of the Lord. Or some of the matter which they prophesied, though they mixed it with their own lies and deceits. Others by neighbours understanding their associates, think that these false prophets conspired together what to say to deceive the people, and so stole what they said one from another: or, the generality of the people, from whom they are said to steal the Lords word because they withheld it from them injuriously; or by their arts and flatteries brought men out of love with or fear of the words of the Lord, which had by the true prophets been delivered to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. steal my wordsa twofoldplagiarism; one steals from the other, and all steal words fromJehovah’s true prophets, but misapply them (see Jer 28:2;Joh 10:1; Rev 22:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore, behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the Lord,…. The false prophets, with whom the Lord was displeased; he set himself against them, and was determined to bring wrath and ruin on them. So the Targum,
“therefore, behold, I send my fury against the false prophets;”
that steal my word, or “words” q,
everyone from his neighbour; either from the true prophets; beginning their prophecies as they did, with a “thus saith the Lord”; and mingling some words and phrases used by them, the better to ingratiate themselves among the people, and that they might be taken for the prophets of the Lord; as Pelagius, Austin says, used the word “grace”, the better to hide his sentiments, and cause them the more easily to be received by the people: or from the false prophets; they privately meeting, and consulting, and agreeing together what they should say to the people, as if they were the words of the Lord: or else from the people themselves; lessening their esteem for the words of the Lord; making them negligent of them and indifferent to them; and causing them to forget what they had heard and received.
q “verba mea”, Munster, Pagniuus, Montanus, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jeremiah returns again to the false teachers, who were the authors of all the evils; for they fascinated the people with their flatteries, so that every regard for sound and heavenly doctrine was almost extinguished. But while God declares that he is an avenger against them, he does not exempt the people from punishment. We indeed know that a just reward was rendered to the reprobate, when God let loose the reins to the ministers of Satan with impunity to deceive them. But as the people acquiesced in those false allurements, while Jeremiah so severely reproved the false teachers, he reminds the people how foolishly they betook themselves under the shadow of those men, thinking themselves to be safe.
He says, first, Behold, I am, against the prophets, who steal my words every one from his neighbor. Many explain this verse as though God condemned the false prophets, who borrowed something from the true prophets, so that they might be their rivals and as it were their apes; and no doubt the ungodly teachers had ever from the beginning made some assumptions, that they might be deemed God’s servants. But it seems, however, a forced view, that they stole words from the true prophets, for the words express what is different, that they stole every one from his friend Jeremiah would not have called God’s faithful servants by this name. I rather think that their secret arts are here pointed out, that they secretly and designedly conspired among themselves, and then that they spread abroad their own figments according to their usual manner. For the ungodly and the perfidious, that they might obtain credit among the simple and unwary, consulted together and devised all their measures craftily, that they might not be immediately found out; and thus one took from the other what he afterwards announced and published. And this is what Jeremiah calls stealing, because they secretly consulted, and then declared to the people what they agreed upon among themselves; and they did this as though every one had derived his oracle from heaven. I have, therefore, no doubt but that the Prophet condemns these hidden consultations when he says that every one stole from his neighhour. (113)
We indeed see the same thing now under the Papacy, for the monks and unprincipled men of the same character have their own false doctrines; and when they ascend the pulpit, every one speaks as though he was endued with some special gift; and yet they steal every one from his friend, for they are like the soothsayers or the magi, who concocted among themselves their own falsehoods, and only brought out what they deemed necessary to delude the common people. This, then, was one of the vices which the Prophet shews prevailed among the false teachers, — that no one attended to the voice of God, but that every one took furtively from his friend what he afterwards openly proclaimed.
(113) Various have been the expositions of this sentence: they adopted the manner of the true prophets, as some say, and used their words, an instance of which is found in Jer 28:1; and this is the view of Scott; others hold that the imitation in saying, “Thus saith the Lord,” is what is referred to. It has also been suggested that they are intended — who, knowing the truth, withheld it from the people; and that to withhold what they knew, is represented here as stealing. But none of these views sufficiently account for the words here used, “who steal my words every one from his neighbor.” They were God’s words committed to the people, and these prophets stole them, that is, by rendering them void by their falsehoods and vain dreams, as Satan is said to steal the seed sown in the heart of the way-side hearer. This is the view taken by Grotius, Venema, and Gataker. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) That steal my words . . .Another note of the counterfeit prophet is found in the want of any living personal originality. The oracles of the dreamers were patchworks of plagiarism, and they borrowed, not as men might do legitimately, and as Jeremiah himself did, from the words of the great teachers of the past, but from men of their own time, false and unreal as themselves. What we should call the clique of false prophets went on repeating each others phrases with a wearisome iteration. In my words we have, probably, the fact that, in part also, they decked out their teaching with the borrowed plumes of phrases from true prophets.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30-32. Some of the leading characteristics of false prophets are here grouped together. a) They steal my words every one from his neighbour; which has been aptly described as a twofold plagiarism one steals from another, but all from God’s true prophets. b) They say, He saith. They give out their sayings as God’s. c) They have pretended revelations prophesy false dreams. d) Finally and fatally, they cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness That is, their boastful pretensions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 23:30. That steal my words, &c. Who hide my word, every one, &c. Houbigant; who also renders the latter part of the next verse, Who make their tongues soft, and utter smooth words. See Psa 50:16.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 23:30 Therefore, behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
Ver. 30. Behold, I am against those prophets. ] Heb., Behold, I against, by an angry aposiopesis. a
That steal my word every one from his neighbour.
a A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt, as if unable or unwilling to proceed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I am against, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 18:20).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 14:14, Jer 14:15, Jer 44:11, Jer 44:29, Lev 20:3, Lev 26:17, Deu 18:20, Deu 29:20, Psa 34:16, Eze 13:8, Eze 13:20, Eze 15:7, 1Pe 3:12
Reciprocal: Jer 21:13 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 23:30. Stealing my words if considered alone would not be true because no one can take anything from God by force. The explanation is in the words from his neighbor. By deceiving his neighbor through false dreams and prophecies he prevents him from hearing the words of God, and in this manner he steals the words from the people.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 23:30-32. Behold, I am against the prophets that steal my words, &c. That imitate the true prophets, speaking in my name, as they do, and saying, Thus saith the Lord, (see Jer 23:31,) and using their words, but applying them to their own purpose: or, it may be, adding their own inventions to them. So Lowth. Others paraphrase the verse thus, That conspire together what to say to deceive the people, and to steal what they say one from another. Or, perhaps the meaning rather is, That utter, as revelations made to themselves, things which they have learned, and, as it were, stolen from others. That use their tongues, &c. That take their own tongues, as Blaney renders it, and say, He (the Lord) hath said. The phrase of taking their own tongue, he observes: is, I think, very easily to be understood of those who, without any inspiration, took upon them to deliver messages to the people, and pretended that they came from God. I am against them that prophesy false dreams False things, under the notion of revelations made to them in their sleep. And cause my people to err To wander from the right way; by their lies, and by their lightness By their groundless assertions, their folly, their rashness and inconsistency with themselves: or, by the flatteries of their preaching, soothing men up in their sins, and by the looseness and lewdness of their conversation encouraging them to persist in them. Yet I sent them not, &c. They are not my messengers, nor is what they say my message. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all All the profit they aim at communicating is to make the people easy, but they shall not be able to do even that; for my providences will be such as will fill them with painful apprehensions and distressing fears. Some read the clause, They do not profit this people, considering the words as implying more than they express, namely, that these false prophets not only did the people no good, but did them a great deal of hurt. Observe, reader, none can expect Gods blessing upon their ministry who are not called and sent of God. And those that corrupt the word of God, while they pretend to preach it, are so far from edifying the church, that they do it the greatest mischief imaginable.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:30 Therefore, behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that {z} steal my words every one from his neighbour.
(z) Who set forth in my Name that which I have not commanded.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yahweh announced His antagonism against the false prophets because they got messages from one another, or from their own minds, or from a dream, and then claimed that they were from the Lord. They were misleading God’s people and were not benefiting them in the least (cf. Jer 23:1-4). In our day, many liberal preachers begin their messages with "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and then proceed to deliver an unbiblical sermon. They give placebos to the people rather than helpful prescriptions.
The final message in this group deals with another claim by the false prophets. In addition to receiving dreams, they professed to communicate oracles from Yahweh (Jer 23:33-40).