29 "Is not My word like fire ?" declares the Lord , "and like a hammer which shatters a rock ? 30 "Therefore behold , I am against the prophets ," declares the Lord , "who steal My words from each other . 31 "Behold , I am against the prophets ," declares the Lord , "who use their tongues and declare , 'The Lord declares .' 32 "Behold , I am against those who have prophesied false dreams ," declares the Lord , "and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting ; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit ," declares the Lord .
33 "Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying , 'What is the oracle of the Lord ?' then you shall say to them, 'What oracle ?' The Lord declares , 'I will abandon you.' 34 "Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say , 'The oracle of the Lord ,' I will bring punishment upon that man and his household .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 23:29-34
Commentary on Jeremiah 23:23-32
(Read Jeremiah 23:23-32)
Men cannot be hidden from God's all-seeing eye. Will they never see what judgments they prepare for themselves? Let them consider what a vast difference there is between these prophecies and those delivered by the true prophets of the Lord. Let them not call their foolish dreams Divine oracles. The promises of peace these prophets make are no more to be compared to God's promises than chaff to wheat. The unhumbled heart of man is like a rock; if not melted by the word of God as a fire, it will be broken to pieces by it as a hammer. How can they be long safe, or at all easy, who have a God of almighty power against them? The word of God is no smooth, lulling, deceitful message. And by its faithfulness it may certainly be distinguished from false doctrines.
Commentary on Jeremiah 23:33-40
(Read Jeremiah 23:33-40)
Those are miserable indeed who are forsaken and forgotten of God; and men's jesting at God's judgments will not baffle them. God had taken Israel to be a people near to him, but they shall now be cast out of his presence. It is a mark of great and daring impiety for men to jest with the words of God. Every idle and profane word will add to the sinner's burden in the day of judgment, when everlasting shame will be his portion.