Jeremiah 23:21

THE MESSAGE

"I never sent these prophets, but they ran anyway. I never spoke to them, but they preached away. If they'd have bothered to sit down and meet with me, they'd have preached my Message to my people. They'd have gotten them back on the right track, gotten them out of their evil ruts.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I did not send out these prophets,yet they ran.I did not speak to them,yet they prophesied.

Hebrew Names Version
I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied.

King James Version
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

English Standard Version
"I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

New American Standard Bible
"I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

New Century Version
I did not send those prophets, but they ran to tell their message. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied anyway.

Amplified Bible
"I did not send [these counterfeit] prophets, Yet they ran; I did not speak to them, Yet they prophesied.

World English Bible
I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I haue not sent these prophets, sayth the Lord, yet they ranne; I haue not spoken to them, and yet they prophecied.

Legacy Standard Bible
I did not send these prophets,But they ran.I did not speak to them,But they prophesied.

Berean Standard Bible
I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

Contemporary English Version
I did not send these prophets or speak to them, but they ran to find you and to preach their message.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I did not send these prophets; yet they ran. I did not speak to them; yet they prophesied.

Darby Translation
I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Easy-to-Read Version
I did not send those prophets, but they ran to tell their messages. I did not speak to them, but they spoke in my name.

George Lamsa Translation
I have not sent these prophets, yet they have gone forth; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Good News Translation
The Lord said, "I did not send these prophets, but even so they went. I did not give them any message, but still they spoke in my name.

Lexham English Bible
I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Literal Translation
I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I haue not sent these prophetes, (saieth the LORDE) and yet they ranne. I haue not spoken to them, and yet they preached.

American Standard Version
I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied.

Bible in Basic English
I did not send these prophets, but they went running: I said nothing to them, but they gave out the prophet's word.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

King James Version (1611)
I haue not sent these prophets, yet they ranne: I haue not spoken to them, yet they prophecied.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I haue not sent these prophetes [saith the Lorde] and yet they ranne, I haue not spoken to them, and yet they preached.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied.

English Revised Version
I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y sente not the profetis, and thei runnen; Y spak not to hem, and thei profesieden.

Update Bible Version
I did not send these prophets, yet they ran: I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

Webster's Bible Translation
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

New English Translation
I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway.

New King James Version
"I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

New Living Translation
"I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me. I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying.

New Life Bible
I did not send these men who say they speak for God, yet they ran to tell their news. I did not speak to them, yet they spoke in My name.

New Revised Standard
I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I sent not the prophets yet they, ran, I spake not unto them yet, they, prophesied.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Revised Standard Version
"I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

Young's Literal Translation
I have not sent the prophets, and they have run, I have not spoken unto them, and they have prophesied.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

Contextual Overview

⁹ My head is reeling, my limbs are limp, I'm staggering like a drunk, seeing double from too much wine— And all because of God , because of his holy words. ¹⁰Now for what God says regarding the lying prophets: "Can you believe it? A country teeming with adulterers! faithless, promiscuous idolater-adulterers! They're a curse on the land. The land's a wasteland. Their unfaithfulness is turning the country into a cesspool, Prophets and priests devoted to desecration. They have nothing to do with me as their God. My very own Temple, mind you— mud-spattered with their crimes." God 's Decree. "But they won't get by with it. They'll find themselves on a slippery slope, Careening into the darkness, somersaulting into the pitch-black dark. I'll make them pay for their crimes. It will be the Year of Doom." God 's Decree. ¹³"Over in Samaria I saw prophets acting like silly fools—shocking! They preached using that no-god Baal for a text, messing with the minds of my people. And the Jerusalem prophets are even worse—horrible!— sex-driven, living a lie, Subsidizing a culture of wickedness, and never giving it a second thought. They're as bad as those wretches in old Sodom, the degenerates of old Gomorrah." ¹⁵ So here's the Message to the prophets from God -of-the-Angel-Armies: "I'll cook them a supper of maggoty meat with after-dinner drinks of strychnine. The Jerusalem prophets are behind all this. They're the cause of the godlessness polluting this country." ¹⁶A Message from God -of-the-Angel-Armies: "Don't listen to the sermons of the prophets. It's all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies. They make it all up. Not a word they speak comes from me. They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine' sermon to congregations with no taste for God, Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You' sermon to people who are set in their own ways. ¹⁸"Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true God ? bothered to take in what I have to say? listened to and then lived out my Word? Look out! God 's hurricane will be let loose— my hurricane blast, Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops! God's raging anger won't let up Until I've made a clean sweep, completing the job I began. When the job's done, you'll see that it's been well done. ²¹"I never sent these prophets, but they ran anyway. I never spoke to them, but they preached away. If they'd have bothered to sit down and meet with me, they'd have preached my Message to my people. They'd have gotten them back on the right track, gotten them out of their evil ruts. ²³"Am I not a God near at hand"— God 's Decree— "and not a God far off? Can anyone hide out in a corner where I can't see him?" God 's Decree. "Am I not present everywhere, whether seen or unseen?" God 's Decree. ²⁵"I know what they're saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying ‘I had this dream! I had this dream!' How long do I have to put up with this? Do these prophets give two cents about me as they preach their lies and spew out their grandiose delusions? They swap dreams with one another, feed on each other's delusive dreams, trying to distract my people from me just as their ancestors were distracted by the no-god Baal. ²⁸"You prophets who do nothing but dream— go ahead and tell your silly dreams. But you prophets who have a message from me— tell it truly and faithfully. What does straw have in common with wheat? Nothing else is like God 's Decree. Isn't my Message like fire?" God 's Decree. "Isn't it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jeremiah 23:32, Jeremiah 14:14, Jeremiah 27:15, Jeremiah 28:15, Jeremiah 29:9, Jeremiah 29:31, Isaiah 6:8, John 20:21, Acts 13:4, Romans 10:15

Reciprocal: Judges 18:6 - Go in peace 2 Chronicles 18:10 - Thus Jeremiah 14:18 - yea Jeremiah 23:16 - a vision Jeremiah 27:14 - they Jeremiah 29:8 - Let Jeremiah 29:23 - and have Ezekiel 22:28 - Thus saith the Lord Matthew 24:5 - in Mark 13:6 - many John 10:1 - He

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran,.... They might be sent of men, and be encouraged by them; but they were not sent of God: it is not only necessary that men employed in religious affairs should have an external call, in an orderly way, from the church of God; but also an internal call from the Lord himself; he qualifying them with gifts, putting his word into their mouths, and inclining their hearts to publish it; see Hebrews 5:4; but these false prophets had no mission nor commission from the Lord, nor were they sent on any errand, or with any message from him; and

yet they ran; showed great diligence and zeal, and made haste to tell the people what the Lord had never said to them, but what were the warm imaginations of their own heads and hearts; they ran a race or course of ministry, but it was not good, as in Jeremiah 23:10. The Targum adds,

"to do evil:''

I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied; wherefore what they prophesied was not the word of the Lord, but what they themselves devised; and so was what was false, as the Targum adds: it is a sad character of men when they speak in public neither by the will of God, nor according to the word of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ran - i. e., hurried to take upon them the responsibilites of the prophetic office.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 23:21. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran — Not to save souls, but to profit themselves.

I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. — They never received the word at my mouth; yet they went, publishing their own deceits, and pretending them to be revelations from God. The churches which have legal emoluments are ever in danger of being overrun and ruined by worldly and self-interested priests.