Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 23:9-12
1). Jeremiah Explains How Difficult He Is Finding It To Proclaim YHWH's Holy Words Against The Prophets And Outlines The Consequences Of Their Prophesying On The Land. YHWH Himself Then Declares What The Consequences Will Be On The Prophets Themselves (Jeremiah 23:9).
Jeremiah's diatribe against the prophets commences with an expression of the effect that what he is being called on to do is having on him. The ‘holy words' that YHWH has given him to say against the prophets have affected him deeply, for he is only too well aware of who it is that the people put their trust in, and of what the people's view of them is as those who are ‘holy to YHWH'. He knows that he is taking on the very people whom the people see as revealing to them YHWH's mind, and must publicly declare them to be ungodly, profane and polluted, and the impression that we gain is that he himself did also see them as having a kind of ‘holiness' which was why he needed ‘holy words' with which to combat them.
‘CONCERNING THE PROPHETS.
My heart within me is disturbed (broken),
All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of YHWH,
And because of his holy words.'
The passage opens in an unusual way with a heading, ‘concerning the prophets' demonstrating the importance that Jeremiah placed on this particular passage. Compare the later ‘concerning Egypt' (Jeremiah 46:2), ‘concerning Moab' (Jeremiah 48:1) and so on of other nations. In other words the guild of prophets were seen as on a parallel with great nations. Such was their importance.
The heading then introduces a long diatribe against these prophets, one which commences with an expression demonstrating Jeremiah's concerns and how vividly and deeply they were affecting him. The conversation will, however, very quickly be taken over by YHWH speaking through him.
Jeremiah begins by describing the effect on him of both YHWH and of ‘His holy words' which he has to pronounce. The burden imposed on him by them seemingly constantly oppressed him, and clearly affected him deeply. He was not finding the ministry to which he was called easy. There may have been a number of reasons for this, but in context the main reason was undoubtedly that of the problem of having to deal with the ‘holiness' of the prophets, something about which he may well have been uncertain. (We can compare how difficult we may ourselves find it to distinguish between those who truly have the Holy Spirit and those who simply make great claims about it, fearful lest we cause despite to the Holy Spirit). But along with that were a number of related reasons:
· Firstly he was deeply upset because he did not find it easy having to oppose the whole prophetic guild whom everyone saw as ‘YHWH's messengers' and as ‘holy' and ‘untouchable', especially as it was they who had the confidence of the people. Having to expound against them ‘YHWH's holy words' was not something that he found to be easy. In view of the long passage ahead devoted to his words against the prophets this would appear to have been a primary reason for his distress.
· Secondly he would be distressed because he did not find it easy to have to recognise that there was a curse on his own native land as a result of the activities of those prophets (Jeremiah 23:10). He knew that he had to proclaim it but it was not something that came easily.
· Thirdly he would be distressed at the thought of the people's spiritual condition, which arose as a further consequence of the activities of the prophets, and would be deeply upset at the thought of what was coming on them (Jeremiah 23:10).
So concern about the ‘holiness' of his opponents, awareness of the curse on the land, and anguish at the people's spiritual condition would all, in a sensitive and essentially loving man, have contributed to his distress. Indeed had they not done so he would hardly have been a suitable person to carry YHWH's ‘burden'.
Thus we learn that these factors disturb his mind and will (‘heart') and cause his inner self to shake, (the bones were seen as representing men's inner self), with the result that he senses himself as behaving like a drunken man, reeling under the words that he has to proclaim. But he is not drunk with wine, he is rather filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), not however in order to sing (even though he would sometimes do that when he worshipped in the Temple) but in order that he might convey YHWH's message.
It may also partly be because he contrasts ‘the holy words' which he himself has received from YHWH with their supposed ‘holy' words, and shudders as he does so. That would have added to his distress as he thought of the way in which it would be seen by the people as both sets of adversaries claiming to wield ‘holy words'. It gave him a new sense of what his ‘holy words' involved, the very truth of YHWH, and he longed that the people might appreciate the fact. Indeed he may have found it difficult that the prophets even dared to speak such words in the face of the holy words of YHWH. He probably saw their attempts as the equivalent of blasphemy, because they were downgrading the word of God, were interfering in a sphere into which they had no right to enter, and were uttering things that they had no right to say.
‘For the land is full of adulterers,
For because of the curse the land mourns,
The pastures of the wilderness are dried up,
And their course is evil, and their might is not right,
“For both prophet and priest are profane,
Yes, in my house have I found their wickedness,
The word of YHWH.”
He points out that it is in fact because of these ‘holy' prophets with their ‘holy words' that the land is full of adultery, something which they were quite happy to recommend under the guise of religious ritual. This was their kind of ‘holiness', consorting with ‘holy' prostitutes. The adultery would have been spiritual, indicating a seeking after idols as ‘lovers', as well as physical in that the very worship encouraged perverted sex (compare Jeremiah 29:23), or indeed both for the two went together. Everywhere people were copulating in the high places as they burned incense to Baal. And it is because of the curse which this behaviour has produced that ‘the land mourns because of the curse' which is on it (in accordance with Deuteronomy 29:23; Isaiah 24:6; Amos 4:7), something which results in the pastures of the grazing lands being dried up (the ‘wilderness' was where they grazed their cattle and sheep as opposed to the arable land on which they grew their crops). Furthermore the course that they recommended was evil (their course is evil) and what they put their strength and efforts and great influence into bringing about was not right (their might was not right). And that was because both priests and prophets were ‘profane', that is, irreligious, polluted and godless, having been led astray by false teaching. Note in this regard the combination of prophets and priests, those who professed an inspired ‘word' from YHWH, and those who supposedly expounded the Law. In the face of this what hope was there for the people? And it should be noted that YHWH Himself testifies to their wickedness as revealed in their activities in the Temple, and does it ‘by His sure and certain word'. This wickedness again included not only their idolatrous worship, but also the perverted sex with cult prostitutes, and the sex between worshippers, all aimed at persuading the gods to make the land fertile, something which had manifestly failed, together with their acceptance without protest of injustice and oppression. The prophets meanwhile no doubt kept a look out for the best looking girls, using their exalted office as a means of influencing them in their favour. A similar position is taken today by modern servants of idolatry, singers, sports personalities and the like, and even some religious personalities. They will all share the fate of these prophets.
“For which reason their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness,
They will be driven on, and fall in them,
For I will bring evil on them,
Even the year of their visitation,
The word of YHWH.”
But the consequences for these prophets will be that they will find themselves walking in slippery places in the darkness, and being driven on and falling in them, because YHWH was bringing about their downfall. The idea would be a familiar one with them. Many a man's body had been discovered when morning came because in seeking to descend slippery slopes in the darkness he had fallen to his death (compare Psalms 35:5; Psalms 73:2; Isaiah 8:22), and many would have experienced such dangers for themselves, and the awfulness, having slipped, of falling into darkness. But in that case, unlike here, they had not been driven on by YHWH. Here it is different. For it was YHWH's intention to bring evil on them and visit them with His judgment in ‘the year of their visitation' which is coming. And this is the sure and certain word of YHWH.