Jeremiah 23:30

THE MESSAGE

"I've had it with the ‘prophets' who get all their sermons secondhand from each other. Yes, I've had it with them. They make up stuff and then pretend it's a real sermon.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets”—the Lord’s declaration—“who steal my words from each other.

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

King James Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord , that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

English Standard Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord , who steal my words from one another.

New American Standard Bible
"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who steal My words from each other.

New Century Version
"So I am against the false prophets," says the Lord . "They keep stealing words from each other and say they are from me.

Amplified Bible
"Therefore behold (hear this), I am against the [counterfeit] prophets," says the LORD, "[I am descending on them with punishment, these prophets] who steal My words from one another [imitating the words of the true prophets].

World English Bible
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore beholde, I will come against the prophets, saieth the Lorde, that steale my word euerie one from his neighbour.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," declares Yahweh, "who steal My words from each other.

Berean Standard Bible
"Therefore behold," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who steal from each other words they attribute to Me."

Contemporary English Version
These unfaithful prophets claim I give them their dreams, but it isn't true. I didn't choose them to be my prophets, and yet they babble on and on, speaking in my name, while stealing words from each other. And when my people hear these liars, they are led astray instead of being helped. So I warn you that I am now the enemy of these prophets. I, the Lord , have spoken.

Complete Jewish Bible
So, I am against the prophets," says Adonai , "who steal my words from each other.

Darby Translation
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

Easy-to-Read Version
This message is from the Lord : "So I am against the false prophets. They keep stealing my words from each other."

George Lamsa Translation
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words, every one from his neighbor.

Good News Translation
I am against those prophets who take each other's words and proclaim them as my message.

Lexham English Bible
"Therefore look, I am against the prophets," declares Yahweh, "who steal my words each one from his neighbor.

Literal Translation
Then, Jehovah says, Behold, I am against the prophets who steal My Words, each one from his neighbor.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore thus saieth the LORDE: beholde, I wil vpo the prophetes, that steale my worde priuely from euery man.

American Standard Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.

Bible in Basic English
For this cause I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take my words, every one from his neighbour.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal My words every one from his neighbour.

King James Version (1611)
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, sayth the Lord, that steale my worde euery one from his neighbour.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Therefore thus saith the Lodre: beholde, I wyll vpon the prophetes that steale my worde priuilie from euery man.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, saith the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

English Revised Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor lo! Y am redi to the profetis, seith the Lord, that stelen my wordis, ech man fro his neiybore.

Update Bible Version
Therefore, look, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.

New English Translation
So I, the Lord , affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me.

New King James Version
"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor.

New Living Translation
"Therefore," says the Lord , "I am against these prophets who steal messages from each other and claim they are from me.

New Life Bible
So I am against those who tell what is going to happen in the future," says the Lord, "who steal My words from each other.

New Revised Standard
See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord , who steal my words from one another.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Therefore! behold me! against the prophets, Declareth Yahweh, - who steal my words, every man from his neighbour:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who steal my words every one from his neighbour.

Revised Standard Version
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from one another.

Young's Literal Translation
Therefore, lo, I [am] against the prophets, An affirmation of Jehovah, Stealing My words each from his neighbour.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who steal My words from each other.

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 14:14, Jeremiah 14:15, Jeremiah 44:11, Jeremiah 44:29, Leviticus 20:3, Leviticus 26:17, Deuteronomy 18:20, Deuteronomy 29:20, Psalms 34:16, Ezekiel 13:8, Ezekiel 13:20, Ezekiel 15:7, 1 Peter 3:12

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 21:13 - I am

Gill's Notes on the 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 דברי "verba mea", Munster, Pagniuus, Montanus, Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jeremiah gives in succession the main characteristics of the teaching of the false prophets. The first is that they steal God’s words from one another. Having no message from God, they try to imitate the true prophets.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 23:30. 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, Jeremiah 23:30.

2. The prophets who used their tongues; הלקחים לשונם 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," Jeremiah 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, Jeremiah 23:32.