Jeremiah 23 study notes

13:1–24:10 Section

Jeremiah shared God’s judgement messages again and again in many ways. Some he shared through an action of prophecy. This was the case with the linen belt and the clay jar from the potter. It was also the case with how Jeremiah wasn’t to get married or have children.

Other messages Jeremiah spoke as poems or simply when talking with someone. This was the case when he spoke with Pashhur and the officials sent by Zedekiah. God compared his people to many different things in his messages. This gave his people pictures to help them understand what he wanted to say. He compared them to wineskins, clay being shaped by a potter and baskets of figs. He compared them to a prostitute and to a wife who wasn’t faithful to her husband. In that picture, God was the husband. The people and leaders of the southern kingdom were the wife. Worshipping false gods was how they were unfaithful to him.

God compared the leaders to shepherds. In that picture, the people were God’s sheep. The kings, priests and prophets were shepherds who destroyed and scattered them. Sometimes God sent his messages with a sign. This was the case when God didn’t let it rain for a time. False prophets shared messages that weren’t from God. Their messages were lies about peace and good times. This made God very angry.

Jeremiah shared God’s messages faithfully. God had warned Jeremiah that the people and leaders would fight against him. This happened many times. People refused to listen to Jeremiah and they made fun of him. They made evil plans against him, beat him and put him in prison. God had promised to be with Jeremiah. God had promised to save him from those who treated him badly. But Jeremiah was suffering terribly. He felt that God had tricked him when he promised to be with him. Yet Jeremiah remained faithful to God as he suffered. In this way he was like Job.

Jeremiah was honest with God when he prayed. His prayers were like the poems and songs in the book of Psalms. They included cries for help and complaining. Jeremiah also praised God and talked about how he trusted in God. The message of hope in chapter 23 talked about a king from the family line of David. He wouldn’t be like the greedy kings of the southern kingdom. He would follow God’s rules for kings recorded in Deuteronomy 17:14–20. This king was called a godly Branch. Isaiah had prophesied about this Branch as well (Isaiah 11:1–3).

Jews came to understand this message of hope as a prophecy about the messiah. New Testament writers came to understand it as a prophecy about Jesus. Jesus is the Branch who makes people right with God.

22:1–23:8

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.

23:1

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.

23:1–8

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

23:3

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).

23:4

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

23:5

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).

23:6

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.

23:9–10

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

23:9–32

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).

23:10

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.

23:11

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.

23:12

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

23:13–14

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).

23:15

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

23:16

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.

23:16–32

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

23:17

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.

23:18–19

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.

23:19–20

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.

23:21–24

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

23:22

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.

23:23–24

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.

23:25–27

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.

23:28

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.

23:29

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.

23:30–32

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

23:33

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.

Jeremiah 23