Jer. 23 Woe against wicked pastors; the scattered flock shall be gathered; Christ shall rule and save them, Jer. 23:1–8; against false prophets, Jer. 23:9–32, and mockers of the true, Jer. 23:33–40.

There is the like woe against the pastors denounced Ezek. 34:2. Interpreters judge that by the pastors are to be understood the civil magistrates, for Jer. 23:9 he denounceth the judgments of God against their ecclesiastical officers.

That feed my people: God calleth them his people, his flock, the sheep of his pasture, with respect to the ancient covenant which God had made with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God puts a difference betwixt those that were misled by the examples of others, and the rulers who set them such an ill example; he threatened Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, that they should return no more; but for the people, he here promiseth them a return, at least a remnant of them,…

And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: some think this prophecy was fulfilled in Nehemiah and Zerobabel, who were pious and good governors, and consulted in their government the good of the people committed to their trust, Neh. 2:10, Neh. 5:14.

Though some interpreters think that Zorobabel may be here intended, who was descended from David, and ruled the people when they came out of Babylon, yet even the Jewish doctors themselves, as well as the Christian interpreters, understand this as a prophecy and promise of the Messiah; the…

During the reign and kingdom of the Messias (whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom) the people of God, typified by Judah and Israel, the true Israel of God, those that are Jews indeed, shall be saved with a spiritual salvation; for he was therefore called Jesus, because he was to save his people…

See Poole “Jer. 16:14”, where much the same words are to be found. The prophet aggravateth the greatness of that salvation, which should be brought by Christ to all the true Israel of God, by comparing it with the deliverance of the ancient Israel of God out of the land of Egypt; which he saith it…

The prophet having denounced the wrath of God against the wicked rulers of Judah under the notion of pastors, cometh here to discharge the like trust with reference to those orders of persons amongst the Jews, whose office it was, or at least who took upon them, to reveal the mind and will of God…

Under that term adulterers all species of uncleanness are comprehended. Because of swearing the land mourneth; by false swearing, or by idle and profane swearing, the land is brought to ruin. The word signifies also a curse or cursing.

Those whose work was to reveal the mind of God to the people, and who pretended to that office; and those that were employed in offering sacrifices, and other works which belonged to the priestly office, according to the law; the whole ecclesiastical order, all their ministry, were profane; not…

As their ordinary course is wicked and sinful, so they shall find that it will in the event be to them pernicious, perilous, and full of danger, as a slippery path is to them that walk in a dark night, they shall be driven on till they fall therein.

There was a time when I saw folly in the prophets that belonged to the ten tribes, whose chief city was Samaria. The word translated folly signifies unsavoury, or an absurd thing. Our Saviour compareth wicked ministers to unsavoury salt, Matt.

An horrible thing; the word signifies filthiness, stench, or an abominable thing, things every whit as bad, in some kind worse, than what I saw in the prophets of the ten tribes. They commit adultery; they commit not spiritual adultery only, but carnal adultery, they are whoremongers.

Under the term prophets he comprehendeth all the ecclesiastical guides of Jerusalem at this time, whether priests or prophets. He threatens to feed them with wormwood; some think the word is better translated poison: by wormwood, or poison, and the water of gall, he threatens great and fatal…

People are under no religious obligation to hear any thing but the revealed will of God, and are not to obey those that call to them for what that doth not call to them; nor to listen to them, the scope of whose teaching is but to make them vain, sinfully vain, or to deceive their souls; no man is…

Lewd and corrupt ministers are a hatred and abomination in the house of the Lord to all serious good people, and are therefore obliged to make themselves a party of those that are like themselves, whose favour they cannot have without indulging them in their lusts.

Who besides us hath known the counsel of the Lord? arrogating to themselves a fellowship and acquaintance with the mind and will of God. Or, (which I should rather judge the sense,) Which of those prophets, that prophesy such terrible things against this city, is a privy-counsellor to God? The…

A severe judgment of God, that should resemble a whirlwind, for the sudden and utter destruction that it shall bring. See Jer. 30:23–24. The same word is elsewhere translated a storm, Ps. 83:15, Amos 1:14, Jonah 1:4. It is called a whirlwind of the Lord, either to denote the greatness of it, as Ps.

It is therefore called a continuing whirlwind, Jer. 30:23. The prophet speaks of the judgment as of a messenger, which coming from God, should not return till it had done its errand, and executed what it came for, even whatever God had resolved it should effect.

These false prophets did not prophesy without the approbation of the rulers of the ecclesiastical state amongst the Jews in their corrupt state, but so they might, and yet not be sent of God.

Atheism is generally the foundation of ill life. Men say God sees them not, the Almighty doth not regard. them. By a God at hand many understand heaven: Do you think that my eyes are limited like yours, that I cannot see their practices, though far off from me; that is, from the place of my…

What do these atheistical priests, and prophets, and people think? Do they think that I, who am a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, see and take notice of what doctrine they preach, and what lives they live? If they did, surely they would not dare to do as they do.

Visions and dreams were two usual ways by which under the law God made himself known of old to his prophets, making them sometimes, being awake, to hear a voice; sometimes attended with, and proceeding upon, some visible appearance, sometimes not: at other times causing them being asleep, to dream;…

Will these prophets never have done? Have they not deceived people long enough with their lies, and the deceit of their own hearts; and that not unwarily, and by involuntary mistake, but of set purpose, it being in their heart, their purpose and design, to do it.

To forget my name; that is, to forget me, and those things by which I have made myself known unto them, my word and my works. By their dreams which they tell abroad every one to his neighbour, as if they were revelations which I had in their sleep made unto them; but they are indeed lies, and…

A dream; not a Divine dream; a revelation which I have made to him in his sleep (as appeareth by the following opposition, betwixt a dream and the word of the Lord); but if any man hath dreamed an ordinary dream, let him tell it as a dream; let him not entitle God to it.

Full of life and efficacy, John 6:63, Heb. 4:12; like a fire that warmeth, and healeth, and melteth, and consumeth the dross; and like a hammer that breaketh the flints, so my word breaketh hard hearts.

There are various opinions as to what the prophet meaneth here by those prophets that stole the Lord’s words from their neighbours. Some, by their neighbour, understanding the true prophets, from whom they stole those forms of speech, Thus saith the Lord, or, The word of the Lord, or, The burden of…

Some think the Hebrew words were more properly translated smooth their tongues: see the English Annotations. But the next words seem to assure us that the crime for which God here by the prophet reflecteth upon the false prophets, was not so much their flattering people, and speaking to them such…

False dreams; that is, false things under the notion of things which I have revealed unto them in their sleep. By lightness here some understand volubility and smoothness of tongue and speech; others, lasciviousness; others, levity and inconstancy: the last seemeth most probably the sense.

The true prophets, to let the people know how little pleasing it was to them to be the messengers of God’s threatenings, to denounce his judgments, usually thus began their prophecies of that nature, calling them the burden of the Lord, as may be seen, Isa. 13:1, Isa. 15:1, Isa. 22:1, Hab.

That is, that shall in derision say thus, mocking at my threatenings and judgments. I will not only punish him, but his whole family.

I will have you speak more reverently of me and my word to my prophets.

The burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more; not in scorn and derision, as not believing there were any such judgments as they threaten; nor hardly, as if I sent yon no other messages but burdens.

Thus shalt thou say to the prophet; to my true prophet. You shall speak to them reverently, and as becometh you.

Because you go on in your scoffing and deriding my word and my prophets; and that when I have expressly forbidden you those profane speeches, or that deriding form of speech; adding further contempt to your former profaneness.

I will forget you as to my affection, and that is more than if all your friends forgot you. There is a great emphasis in the doubling of the pronoun, I, even I. I will forsake you as to the presence of my special gracious providence.

And you shall be a reproach, and that not for a few days, but for ever; and a penal shame, which neither you nor those that see or hear of it shall forget. See such expressions Jer. 20:11.