23:1–4 The chapter begins with the third in a series of woe oracles against the rulers of Judah (cf. 22:13, 18), thereby showing that the diatribes against kingship in chapters 22–23 form a single rhetorical unit. But compared to the earlier woe oracles against Shallum (22:11–17) and Jehoiakim (22:18–19), Jeremiah 23 takes a broader historical view by pronouncing woe upon all of Judah’s kings. They are identified here as “shepherds” in keeping with a standard way ancient Near Eastern rulers were identified (e.g., Hammurabi of Babylon in his Law Code; 2 Sam. 5:2; Ezek. 37:24). But rather than being keepers of creational order, as this title implies, Judah’s kings have “driven . . . away” (Hb. nadah) Yahweh’s flock and failed to “attend” (paqad) to its needs, thereby receiving the poetic justice that Yahweh will “attend” (paqad) to their sins (Jer. 23:1–2). The punishment of Judah’s kings will exactly fit their crimes. On this note of symmetry it is striking that Yahweh himself is also characterized as one who has “driven” away (nadah; v. 3) the flock into exile but who will likewise restore them to a secure place with faithful shepherds over them (v. 4). The punishment of exile is due to both flawed human leaders and God’s sovereign design, while return from exile will be accomplished by divine initiative and power alone.

23:5–8 Looking to a future after the historical failures of Judah’s kings, Yahweh envisions a new and better David, identified as a “righteous Branch” who will “reign as king and deal wisely” (v. 5). The term “branch” is figurative for a human sprout from David’s royal line (Ps. 132:17; Zech. 3:8).81 More important than bloodline, however, is the nature of this Messiah’s reign as one who “shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jer. 23:5). Upholding the covenantal virtues of “justice and righteousness” is the ideal of Davidic kingship (Psalm 72). But this is precisely what the kings of Jeremiah’s time have failed to do, as mentioned in the previous chapter (e.g., Jer. 22:13, 15).

No particular king is mentioned in Jeremiah 23, unlike the strictures against Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Coniah in chapter 22. Even so, Yahweh’s promise to bring a Davidic ruler whose name is “The Lord is our righteousness” clearly takes aim at Zedekiah, whose name ironically means “Yahweh is my righteousness.” He was Judah’s last king and briefly set free the Hebrew slaves within Jerusalem in a halfhearted attempt to do justice and head off Yahweh’s judgment (34:1–10). But he quickly reversed course and brought severer wrath on himself (34:11–22). This fickle king, whose selfish connection to Yahweh is ironically confined to “my righteousness,” must be replaced by a faithful king who not only pursues the conduct of a faithful leader but whose name itself is divine and brings God’s righteousness.

Jeremiah 23:7–8 predicts that the arrival of a just Davidic ruler will coincide with Judah’s return from exile, much as prophesied in Isaiah 40–55. Yahweh is already known among the nations as the uniquely powerful God of the exodus (Jer. 23:7; cf. Deut. 4:34; Josh. 2:10). To this reputation will be added the mighty deeds of a God who rescues his people from the very exile (Jer. 23:8) with which he punished his people (cf. v. 3).

23:9–10 Here the passage shifts to an indictment of the prophets (and priests by extension), the leaders in Israel and Judah who should be holding kings accountable to Yahweh’s teaching in the covenant (cf. Deut. 17:9, 18; 18:15–22). Jeremiah feels crushed by the massive gap he sees between Yahweh’s holy words (Jer. 23:9) and the unholy conduct exemplified by Judah’s leaders, whose reprehensible behavior even causes all creation to be cursed (v. 10; cf. 4:23–28). In these poignant verses are found numerous echoes of Jeremiah’s unbearable conflict in his “Confessions” (chs. 11–20) as he interceded between a righteous God and an unrighteous people (e.g., 13:17; 20:9).

23:11–15 Yahweh adds his voice to Jeremiah’s lament with a much harsher edge, befitting his status as the divine Sovereign over Judah. Yahweh confronts the apostasy that prophets and priests have brought into “[his] house” (v. 11), probably referring to the veneration of nature gods that Ezekiel witnessed in visionary form in Jerusalem and its temple in the 590s BC, roughly the same period as Jeremiah’s ministry (Ezek. 8:13–18). Whatever the referent for the spiritual pollution mentioned here, Yahweh warns that walking in the “way” of sin will lead to the predictable result of “slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall” (Jer. 23:12). This refers to the coming exile of Judah and is another of this chapter’s descriptions of exile being both the natural consequence of human sin as well as the punishment God has ordained (cf. vv. 2–3).

Yahweh follows this indictment with a painful comparison between bad and worse. The prophets of the northern kingdom of Samaria were certainly bad for their complicity with the kings (e.g., Ahab) who introduced Baal worship. But where the southern kingdom of Judah tended to regard itself as superior for being delivered from the Assyrians, Yahweh declares that the prophets of Judah are actually worse than Samaria’s for adding wicked conduct to false teaching. Their depravity means that a formerly chosen people have fallen to the unthinkable extent that “all of them have become like Sodom to [Yahweh], and its inhabitants like Gomorrah” (v. 14; cf. Isa. 1:9–10). These prophets must therefore be punished severely for being enthusiastic enablers rather than opponents of ungodliness (Jer. 23:15).

23:16–22 Shifting to addressing the people, Yahweh exhorts them not to heed the false prophets, who propagate “vain hopes” and “visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord” (v. 16). Their attractive message to a besieged Jerusalem is “It shall be well with you” and “No disaster shall come upon you” (v. 17). These are the lies of false prophets who claim that Jerusalem will soon be delivered from the Babylonian threat (e.g., Hananiah in ch. 28). It is just this type of misguided advice that will embolden King Zedekiah to rebel against Babylon (52:3) instead of submitting to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar as Jeremiah had commanded (27:8).

A poetic voice interjects briefly in 23:18–22, in contrast to the prose speeches that precede and follow. The speaker appears to be Jeremiah in verses 18–20, as Yahweh’s voice returns explicitly in verse 21. In contrast to the false prophets, Jeremiah is a true prophet who is numbered among the “council of the Lord” (vv. 18, 22) and has received the divine word (cf. Amos 3:7). The true prophet’s message to sinful people is one of divine wrath (Jer. 23:19–20) rather than the false prophets’ mantra of “Peace, peace” (quoted in Jer. 6:14; 8:11). Peace is undoubtedly a more welcome message than war (cf. 28:8–9), but the fact remains that Yahweh has neither sent such prophets nor spoken through them (23:21). They lack the basic qualification of standing in Yahweh’s council to hear his fiery word of judgment against sinners (cf. vv. 9, 29). It will only be this searing, unforgettable experience of Yahweh’s presence that transforms reluctant people like Jeremiah into faithful prophets who proclaim the threat of judgment and bring revival among Yahweh’s people (v. 22).

23:23–32 Returning to prose, this section is a monologue from Yahweh that employs rhetorical questions to expose the lies of the false prophets. Their first error is to imagine that God’s nearness and farness are mutually exclusive: “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away?” (v. 23). Theological shallowness leads directly to their second error, that of overestimating human power: “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” (v. 24). Third, and in response, Yahweh asserts that his presence is simultaneously up there and down here: “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (v. 24), against their misconception that divine presence in one place means absence from another (cf. Ezek. 8:12). Fourth and finally, Yahweh mocks the inflated opinion that the false prophets have of their own ministry: “How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?” (Jer. 23:26–27). The false prophets are deluded, supposing their feeble words to be impressive. For this reason Yahweh repeatedly exposes their prophecies as the wishful thinking of “dreams” (vv. 25, 27, 28, 32) that fail to understand that Yahweh’s power and intimacy toward his people are not at odds.

In fact, the chasm between the prophets’ words and Yahweh’s word (v. 28) goes far beyond their different visions of whether Jerusalem will be saved. More than just its description of a powerful judgment, Yahweh’s word itself has the destructive power of fire or a hammer (v. 29; cf. 5:14; 20:9). Its uniqueness stands over and against the false prophets, whose impotence leads them to plagiarize their oracles from one another (23:30) and to invoke Yahweh’s name as the authority behind their lies (v. 31). As seen especially in chapters 27–28, peace oracles in Yahweh’s name were common in Jerusalem when the city was under siege by Babylon. Yahweh warns that prophets who bring such false assurance to his people will no doubt be popular but will ultimately bring more harm than good (23:32).

23:33–40 Having excoriated the false prophets (vv. 9–32), Yahweh gives further instructions to Jeremiah, his true prophet. In the near future some of Judah’s people and leaders may approach Jeremiah with the question, “What is the burden of the Lord?” (v. 33). Their request to know the “burden of the Lord” (Hb. massaʾ yhwh) reflects the self-deception that their nation’s future remains open-ended, the Hebrew term massaʾ usually being rendered in English as the prophetic “oracle” concerning specific nations (e.g., Isa. 13:1; 15:1; 17:1; Nah. 1:1; Zech. 1:1). Yahweh responds with this word’s other meaning: “You are the burden, and I will cast you off” (Jer. 23:33). With this devastating wordplay, those who desire to know an “oracle” from Yahweh are placed on notice that their sinfulness is a “burden” to Yahweh. Judgment has now become inevitable.

In addition, Yahweh resolves to punish those who continue to peddle their own message as Yahweh’s massaʾ (v. 34). It is still acceptable for the people to ask sincerely, “What has the Lord answered?” or “What has the Lord spoken?” (vv. 35, 37; cf. 21:2; 32:3). But for anyone to claim possession of an authoritative massaʾ (23:36), as the false prophets apparently do (cf. 14:13), is to presume not only knowledge of the future but also the power to change it through chanting a “Peace, peace” mantra (cf. 6:14; 8:11). Anyone who propagates such a massaʾ about peace and security (cf. 23:17) will find that the opposite comes true (vv. 38–40), for Judah’s future lies in the hands of Yahweh alone.