But ye, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of Jehovah.
Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the Jews already carried off to Babylon. Here he calls every one of them to listen. Two things stand out. God calls their removal His own act. And He sends them a word to hear, because other voices were already claiming to speak for Him.
God says He sent them away. He does not say Babylon took them. The exiles could blame Jeconiah's blunder, or Babylon's army. Commentators press hard against both.
It was no accidental slip of Jeconiah and the people. The king of Babylon's power did not explain why the Jews were brought so low. The Lord of hosts had them carried away to the conqueror's city. And He was the One who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to take notice of them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen condition!
Two softer words are missing from the way Scripture's men of God speak about discipline.
These men of God never soften their strong statements about God's dealings in discipline. They do not even say that God has "allowed" His people to be scattered, or "permitted" them to be driven away. They say plainly that God Himself drove the people away and brought the disaster.
Everyone must hear, not only those directly concerned. The exiles were proving far too easy to fool.
Particular cases needed public examples, to warn and impress a stubborn people. They were as ready to believe man as they were unwilling to believe God.
Judgment follows for the men who said the opposite in God's name.
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest peacefully under the yoke. This was God's mind concerning them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Lord's Name would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. Ahab and Zedekiah are singled out (vv. 20-23), and also Shemaiah (vv. 24-32).
If God sent them there, plotting a way out fights God, not Babylon. The exiles needed this spelled out. Everything in them recoiled from a foreign ruler.
The captives were in a new political situation. They needed special direction from God. The Jewish spirit would surely have resented a Gentile ruling over them. If God had not made His mind known, they would always have been plotting in Babylon to end this miserable captivity. But when God sends a chastening, the part of faith is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord does something because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the thing, or of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
The same God who sent them had already fixed how long they would stay.
The Lord Himself measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to complete His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Settling in Babylon did not mean becoming like Babylon. One of the exiles shows what that looked like day by day.
To be happy, and to be peacefully pursuing what was good, was God's mind for them then; it is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that they, or we, are to become Babylonish. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the kind of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the Word of the Lord. We do well to grasp this principle and have grace to put it into practice.
- Sent. The exile was not Babylon's victory or a political accident — God says He sent them, and writers here refuse to soften that to "allowed" or "permitted."
- Spoken to. The same God who sent them still speaks to them. He linked His name with theirs in their fallen condition instead of dropping them.
- Summoned. Every exile had to hear. A stubborn people, quick to believe man and slow to believe God, needed public examples.
- Submitted. Faith's response to a chastening is to bow and confess the wrong, not to plot an escape from it.
- Settled. Seventy years was long enough to do its work, and short enough to prove His mercy. So they were to seek the good of the city without becoming like it. Daniel shows how.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy falsehood unto you in my name Behold, I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall smite them before your eyes.
This verse names two men: Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah. They spoke lies in God's name, so He will hand them to Nebuchadnezzar — which raises the question of why God names them in public, and what their crime really was.
These two were prophets among the captives in Babylon. They promised the exiles a quick way home.
The false prophets had predicted a quick return. Some of them had gone with the captives to Babylon and were in the prison camp on the banks of the river Chebar. We read in Ezekiel 11:3 that they mocked God's command and gave wicked advice. They felt safe... Two of the false prophets are named, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). As well as being false prophets, they were adulterers and sexually immoral men. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire.
The Zedekiah here is not the king of Judah who had the same name.
Their message sounded loyal and hopeful. God calls it a lie. Jeremiah had told the exiles to settle in Babylon and pray for the city's peace. These men said the opposite.
Jeremiah called the Jews in Jerusalem to submit to the king of Babylon. He told the captives to build houses, plant gardens and raise families in their exile, and to pray for the peace of the city, until the seventy years were finished and a remnant returned to Jerusalem. The false prophets promised pleasant things both at home and abroad. In every way they stirred up rebellion under the cover of patriotism, claiming the Lord's name while they urged the people not to bow under His humbling hand.
The captivity was God's discipline, and the right response was to bow under it.
When God sends discipline, the part of faith is to bow to it, not to fight it. If the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part, faith in Him does not make light of the wrong or of the discipline. Faith accepts the discipline meekly and confesses the wrong.
The verse does not just say they lied. It says they used God's name to cover their own message.
To prophesy out of your own heart is to make God's judgment certain. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous for His majesty and His truth, which such a prophet completely misrepresents and profanes.
The men who stirred up revolt against Babylon are handed over to Babylon's king. God could have dealt with them out of sight. Instead He names them, and their end comes "before your eyes."
In special cases public examples were needed, to warn and impress a stubborn people who believed men as readily as they disbelieved God.
And the warning did not stop with the two prophets. It reached the people who listened to them.
The letter was sent to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Those who said otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, because it was rebellion against Him... Ahab and Zedekiah were not only busy as lying prophets; they also did wicked things in Israel... Severe judgment was to come on them, on all like them, and equally on those who listened to them.
False teaching and corrupt living went together in these two men. That pairing is not unique to this chapter.
Long ago God raised up, for an evil day, prophets who were as marked out for truth as for holy living. Satan was quick to supply prophets who were as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways. The Old Testament shows this all too plainly. Here the apostle foretells that it would be no better, and even more guilty, where the grace of the gospel was more open to abuse than the law had been.
- Named. God gives both men's names and their fathers' names. He does not hide them, because "public examples were needed" for a people who believed men more readily than God.
- Comfortable. Their lie was easy to like: a quick return home and no long exile. They "promised pleasant things," dressing rebellion up as love for the nation.
- Borrowed. Their core offence was borrowing God's name for their own message. He is "jealous for His majesty and His truth."
- Corrupt. False teaching and corrupt living travelled together. They were lying prophets and adulterers. Satan supplies prophets "as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways."
- Shared. Judgment fell on the speakers and equally "on those who listened to them." A comfortable lie condemns the hearer who wanted it.
And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Jeremiah wrote to the Jews already deported to Babylon. He told them to settle there for seventy years. Two men in the camp were telling them the opposite. This verse records God's word about those two men. Their names would end up inside a curse that the other exiles spoke over each other.
These two were not kings. They were men among the exiles who claimed to speak for God. The record of their end covers both their message and their private lives.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return... Those who kept on in disobedience and listened to the false prophets will suffer the fate that was foretold. There will be no deliverance for them. Two of the false prophets are mentioned by name, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were adulterers and men of loose living. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire (22–23).
God did not deal with these men out of sight. He said the king of Babylon would kill them in front of the exiles. The reason lies in what those exiles were like.
In special cases, public examples served to warn and impress a stubborn people. They were as ready to believe man as they were unwilling to believe God.
The exile was God's discipline. To promise a quick end to it was to invite the people to fight what God had sent.
The part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord does something because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the wrong, or make light of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
These men promised a quick end to the captivity. God handed them over to the king of Babylon. Scripture calls that king God's servant.
Nebuchadnezzar, whom the Lord calls "My Servant," is spoken of about forty times. He is raised up to carry out His judgment on Israel, and on other nations too. The Lord says, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant... and all the nations shall serve him." Dominion is given to him by God; it is taken away from Israel.
The charge against these two men has two halves. One is what they said in God's name. The other is how they lived. One writer traces the pattern back to its source.
If God of old raised up prophets for the evil day, men as marked for the truth as for holiness of life, Satan was not slow to supply prophets of his own. They were as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways. The Old Testament shows this again and again.
The punishment did not stop at death. Their names went on living — as the wording people reached for when they wanted to wish evil on someone. That is what Scripture elsewhere calls the fate of a wicked man's name.
"The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot" (Proverbs 10:7). So Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, Paul, Peter, John and many others are still honoured in the hearts of multitudes, age after age. The names of many godless opponents of the truth of God are forgotten like rotted rubbish. Or if some names, such as Ahab, Jezebel and Athaliah, are remembered, they only stir up disgust and horror.
None of this happened behind God's back.
God is not mocked. A curse without cause does not land. But those who are themselves miserable, and who are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth, will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
- The lie — Zedekiah and Ahab promised the exiles a quick end to the captivity. God had just announced seventy years through Jeremiah.
- The rebellion — their message asked the people to fight God's chastening. Faith bows to it and confesses the wrong.
- The life — the charge was not doctrine only. They were adulterers too, and false teaching and corrupt living keep company.
- The witness — the king of Babylon was God's own instrument, called "My Servant." He executed them in front of the people God meant to warn.
- The name — the wicked man's name rots, and here it rotted into a curse formula on the lips of the very people he had deceived.
because they have committed infamy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken words of falsehood in my name, which I had not commanded them and I [am] he that knoweth, and [am] witness, saith Jehovah.
Two men had been telling the exiles in Babylon what God never said. Their lives contradicted their message, and the verse closes not with Jeremiah's accusation but with God's own claim to have seen it all.
The verse looks back at Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, named in the two verses before it. They belonged to the group promising the captives a quick return home. Their record was not only false speech.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these false prophets had gone with them to Babylon... But those who kept on in disobedience, who listened to the false prophets, will suffer the fate that was foretold; for them there will be no deliverance. Two of the false prophets are named, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were adulterers and sexually immoral men. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire (22-23).
One writer explains why God dealt with these two men so publicly.
Public examples were needed in certain cases. They warned and impressed a stubborn people. These people believed man readily, yet would not believe God.
The verse links what the men said with how they lived. One writer sets both against the purpose of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles.
The letter was sent to encourage them to rest quietly under Babylon's yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. Ahab and Zedekiah are singled out in verses 20-23. These two were not only active as lying prophets; they also did outrageous wickedness in Israel.
This pairing was not unique to them. The same writer describes the false prophets of Jeremiah's day as a group.
They were marked by adultery, lying, profanity, false dreams, frivolity, and indecency. They had sunk so low that they were "like Sodom" (Jer. 23:14).
The heaviest part of the charge is that they spoke in His name what He had never given them. One writer, commenting on the same offence elsewhere, says why God cannot overlook it.
To be a prophet out of your own heart is to make judgment from God certain. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous for His majesty and His truth. This way of prophesying utterly misrepresents and profanes them.
The verse ends with God taking two roles at once: He knows, and He testifies. The adultery was private; the false prophecy was public. Both stood in the same light. One writer states the principle behind this.
Man can keep nothing secret, though it may seem so, and can hide nothing. All must be in the light. God must have the upper hand, and light will prevail. We must also give an account of ourselves to God. And we are not to fear the secret schemes of men, but to fear God and bear witness according to the light given to us.
The same pairing appears again later. One writer, commenting on false teachers in the New Testament, says the charge of adultery reaches beyond physical acts.
The adultery charged against them may not be literal in every case. But in its spiritual meaning it certainly applies to all false teachers. They all either teach or approve an unholy alliance with the world.
- Name misused. Ahab and Zedekiah promised the captives a quick return home and spoke lies in God's name. The name they borrowed became the ground of their judgment.
- Name and life. The charge is double: false words and a corrupt life. Writers find the same pairing across the false prophets of Jeremiah's day — adultery, lying, profanity and indecency together.
- Name profaned. Prophesying out of your own heart makes judgment certain. God must be jealous for His majesty and His truth when men misrepresent them.
- Name witnessed. Nothing was hidden. Man can hide nothing; all comes into the light. Here God says that He both knows and testifies.
- Name warned. Their fate became a public example. A people quick to believe men and slow to believe God needed it. The same warning reaches every teacher who approves an unholy alliance with the world.