And thou shalt speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
Jeremiah had written to the exiles in Babylon, telling them to submit to the Gentile king who now ruled them. One man there wrote back to Jerusalem to have the prophet silenced, and verse 24 is God's answer to that man.
Shemaiah was reacting to a letter Jeremiah had already sent to Babylon. One writer sums up what that letter told the exiles to do:
In Jeremiah 29, the prophet sent a letter to the rest of the elders taken captive to Babylon in the time of Jeconiah the king of Judah. And the word of the Lord of hosts commanded them to submit fully to Nebuchadnezzar. They were not only not to rebel, they were to obey. They were no longer Jews under the direct government of God in their own land. Instead, they were to recognise the authority of the Gentile king. God had now set him over them because of their sins.
One writer explains Shemaiah's title and traces what he did next:
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer," was also in Babylon. When the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered it. A certain Zephaniah received the letter, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" When Zephaniah received this letter he read it to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver and announces His judgment.
The ESV renders that question, "who is prophesying to you." Commentators differ over the title "Nehelamite." One reference work is more cautious:
Designation of Shemaiah the false prophet. Jer. 29:24, 31, 32. Its meaning is unknown. In the margin it is 'dreamer.'
Shemaiah sent his letters in his own name. One writer explains why God made an open example of such men:
Public examples were needed in particular cases. They served to warn and impress a stubborn people, who trusted man as readily as they disbelieved God... Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem, as though they came from the Lord. They stirred up the priests especially against Jeremiah. God was no careless listener to this bold profanity.
Shemaiah was not the only one who attacked Jeremiah. One writer lists this hostility among the marks of that time:
As a third feature, we notice the bitter opposition of the prophets to God's prophets. "Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and to all the people, This man is worthy to die. He has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears" (Jer. 26:11, compare Acts 6). "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" (Jeremiah 29:27)
Shemaiah spoke for God without God sending him. One writer applies that test well beyond Babylon:
Every man who prophesies out of his own heart is a false prophet. He speaks his own mind. His preaching and teaching is not according to the oracles of God. He is a blind leader of the blind... What the Lord said through Ezekiel is true of all such men: "They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord says, and the Lord has not sent them." They are self-called and self-sent.
The judgment in this chapter does not stop with the false prophets. One writer notes who else it reaches:
Ahab and Zedekiah are specially singled out (vv. 20-23), also Shemaiah (vv. 24-32)... Shemaiah attempted to silence Jeremiah, who, he said, had made himself a prophet. Severe judgment was to come upon them, and upon all such, and likewise upon those who heeded them (vv. 15-19).
One writer draws the lesson for anyone who attacks a servant of God:
Truly God is not mocked... Some people are miserable themselves, and they give themselves up to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth. They will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
- Letter. God's true word told the exiles to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and settle in Babylon — not rebel, but obey.
- Reply. Shemaiah wrote back to Jerusalem. He wanted Jeremiah rebuked and silenced as a self-appointed prophet.
- Name. He is called the Nehelamite. The margin reads "dreamer," but one reference work says the meaning is unknown.
- Test. The dividing line is simple: sent by God, or self-called and self-sent, speaking out of one's own heart.
- Reach. God was no careless listener. The judgment falls on Shemaiah, on all like him, and on those who listened to him.
Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
Jeremiah had written to the exiles in Babylon and told them to settle down for a long captivity. One of them, Shemaiah, wrote back to Jerusalem to get the prophet silenced, and God's reply here names the charge: he sent letters "in your name."
Shemaiah's letters travelled the opposite way from Jeremiah's — from Babylon back to Jerusalem. They had a target:
Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem, as if they came from Jehovah. They stirred up the priests above all against Jeremiah. God was no careless listener to this bold irreverence.
Shemaiah is identified in the verse by a title, and his campaign worked by correspondence — a letter answering a letter, which ended up read aloud to the very man it targeted:
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer," was also in Babylon. When the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered it. His own letter went to a certain Zephaniah, and he asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who sets himself up as a prophet to you?" Zephaniah read this letter to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver and announces his judgment.
The sentence begins "Thus says the LORD of hosts" and then indicts letters sent "in your own name." Writing as a prophet out of your own resources is not treated as a small irregularity:
To be a prophet out of one's own heart is to ensure judgment from God. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous of His majesty and truth, which such a prophet completely misrepresents and profanes.
The same danger appears wherever a messenger swaps God's message for his own thoughts:
Bringing in one's own opinions twists the message of God's Word, and can even falsify it. How dangerous that unfaithfulness is! "I did not send these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (Jeremiah 23:21).
Shemaiah did not write to a nobody. Zephaniah held high rank among the priests, and Scripture records how his life ended:
Son of Maaseiah, and 'second' priest in the reign of Zedekiah. He was carried captive to Nebuchadnezzar and killed at Riblah. 2 Kings 25:18; Jer. 21:1; Jer. 29:25, 29; Jer. 37:3; Jer. 52:24.
Shemaiah wrote to the priests for a reason. They were the ones who turned on Jeremiah:
As usual it was the religious element which was most wounded by the word of God and most hostile to His servant. The priests and the prophets decided he must die, and all the people were quickly stirred up and misled into joining them. This happened in the Lord's house.
The whole exchange turns on one practical question: would the exiles accept Babylon or plot against it? Speaking against God's stated mind here was not merely a mistake of opinion:
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke, for this was God's mind concerning them. Anyone who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, because it was rebellion against Him.
Shemaiah's letters fought that rest. Faith does the opposite when God's hand is heavy:
But 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 of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
- Name — The charge is that Shemaiah's letters went out under his own name, while the reply to him comes as "Thus says the LORD of hosts."
- Name misused — Prophesying out of your own heart invites judgment. Your own opinions misrepresent God's majesty and truth.
- Name spread wide — He wrote to all the people at Jerusalem, to Zephaniah the priest, and to all the priests. The religious leaders were his readiest allies against Jeremiah.
- Name answered — Zephaniah read the letter aloud to Jeremiah. God was no careless listener: He exposed the writer as a deceiver and announced his judgment.
- Name honoured — God's own word told the exiles to rest under the yoke. Faith bows to His chastening and confesses the wrong instead of fighting it.
Jehovah hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that there should be officers [in] the house of Jehovah, over every madman and self-made prophet, that thou shouldest put him in the stocks and in the shackles.
Shemaiah, exiled in Babylon, writes back to Jerusalem to remind the priest there what his job is — locking up religious madmen. Commentators trace the chain of correspondence:
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer," was also in Babylon, and when the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered the letter. A certain Zephaniah received the letter, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" When Zephaniah received this letter he read it to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver, and his judgment is announced.
So the note meant to silence Jeremiah ended up in Jeremiah's own ears. Shemaiah points the priest back to Jehoiada, the man whose place he now holds.
Shemaiah names a real punishment. Jeremiah had already been through it once, under another priest who held office in the house of God:
Jeremiah stands in the court of the Temple and warns the people of coming judgment. Hearing him prophesy these things, Pashur, a priest and chief officer in the house of God, strikes him and puts him in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin. The stocks were instruments of torture. Jeremiah on this occasion has to endure them for the rest of the day and the following night. These were hours of physical and mental suffering.
Gaebelein adds that the stocks also left the prisoner open "to the vulgarity of the people who passed by and would taunt him" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein). Shemaiah is asking for that again — pain plus public shame.
The verse files the true messenger under one label: madmen who set themselves up as prophets. That verdict is not new. One commentator points to Jehu and his captains, who used the same word for a true prophet:
Jehu then comes out, and the captains asked in astonishment what he had to do with that "mad fellow" (2 Kings 9:11) — a word we do well to consider — for so a prophet appeared! a true prophet of the LORD! This was how he looked to the eye of the men of the world — a mad fellow. The world was just the same in Israel as it was afterwards in the days of the apostles. They were put on show, as the apostle so movingly says, as the rubbish scraped off everyone. So they were regarded then. And, dear friends, bear with me if I remind everyone here of this. The scorn and contempt of the world must be, more or less, in exact proportion to how far we enter into the mind of God now.
Shemaiah does not argue with Jeremiah's message. He goes to the institution and asks why it has not used its powers. One commentator calls this a prime example of prophets opposing God's prophets (J. G. Bellett). He draws the lesson out:
It was in this way that man's own institution became a snare to him, for God catches the wise in their own craftiness. The very means they had taken to keep a blessing alive among them became, through their own wilfulness, the means of blinding them. The same thing happened later. The scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law looked to men like so many supports of religion. In fact they were the great means of stopping the people from confessing Jesus as the Christ.
Shemaiah sent his letter to a priest. It did not stop there.
Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem, as if from the LORD, stirring up the priests against Jeremiah. God was no careless listener to this bold profanity… Truly God is not mocked. The curse without cause will not come. But there are men who, miserable themselves, are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth. They will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
- Letter — Shemaiah wrote from exile to a priest in Jerusalem and told him to jail Jeremiah. Zephaniah then read the letter aloud to the very man it targeted.
- Label — Calling a true messenger "mad" is the world's standing verdict on anyone who speaks God's mind, from the prophet in Jehu's day to the apostles.
- Stocks — The threat was real: an instrument of torture in public view. A priest had already used it on Jeremiah once.
- Snare — What men built to guard a blessing became the tool for silencing it. The same trap later blinded the teachers who opposed Christ.
- Listener — God heard the letter too. The man who stirred up slander against a faithful servant reaped what he sowed.
And now, why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself a prophet to you?
Jeremiah 29:27 comes from a letter — not Jeremiah's, but one written against him. A man named Shemaiah wrote back from exile in Babylon. He asked the priests in Jerusalem why no one had silenced Jeremiah.
Jeremiah had sent a letter to the captives in Babylon. Shemaiah wrote a reply, and sent it to a priest in Jerusalem named Zephaniah.
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite — the name means "the dreamer" — was also in Babylon. When the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered it. A certain Zephaniah received his letter, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" Zephaniah then read this letter to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver, and announces his judgment.
(Gaebelein and Bellett quote an older translation: "makes himself a prophet." The ESV reads "who is prophesying to you.")
Shemaiah does not say "the prophet." He names the village. That village had already tried to end Jeremiah's ministry by threat.
The men of Anathoth had intimidated him. They said, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand." The Lord answers him that their young men would die by the sword, and their sons and daughters by famine. No remnant of them should be left.
The accusation is about credentials. Shemaiah says Jeremiah gave himself the title. He was not the first to attack him.
As a third feature, we notice the virulent opposition of the prophets to God's prophets. "Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears" (Jer. 26:11, compare Acts 6). "Why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" (Jer. 29:27).
Jeremiah kept telling Judah to give in to Babylon. That sounded like betrayal, and the men who refused it felt like the loyal ones.
Jehovah meant their exile to be for their eventual good. This is a very important point. In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and counts it patriotism or perhaps religion to oppose. Jeremiah seemed to the men of Judah a very false Jew for this reason. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought themselves much better Jews, because they were willing to fight against the king of Babylon.
Shemaiah wrote with confidence because prophets like him had the crowd behind them.
It was more popular to prophesy smooth things and deceits, and nothing is so dear to the human heart as to have God's approval on its own desires. That is why prophets who would say, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord had not spoken, were so popular. We should not suppose that these prophets were always inventing lies, but they corrupted the word of God and made it suit man's taste (2 Cor. 2:17). They had to imitate the real prophets in many of their expressions, and yet in the end they only produced their own empty ideas.
Shemaiah wrote to a priest. He did not expect heaven to answer his mail.
And as Shemaiah had sent letters, as if from Jehovah, from Babylon to Jerusalem, stirring up the priests especially against Jeremiah, God was not a careless listener to this bold irreverence. … Truly God is not mocked. Those who are miserable themselves, and who are given up to hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth, will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
The sentence that followed did not stop with the writer.
Shemaiah attempted to silence Jeremiah, who, he said, had made himself a prophet. Severe judgment was to come upon them, and upon all such, and likewise upon those who heeded them (vv. 15-19).
- The letter. Shemaiah, an exile in Babylon, wrote to the priest Zephaniah and asked why no one had rebuked Jeremiah. Zephaniah read the letter aloud to Jeremiah.
- The label. The name "Jeremiah of Anathoth" points to his home town. Its men had already told him to stop prophesying or die by their hand.
- The charge. Shemaiah said Jeremiah had appointed himself. Commentators see here the fierce hostility of false prophets toward God's prophets.
- The motive. Jeremiah told Judah to submit to Babylon. Unbelief resists the chastening of God, and calls that resistance patriotism or religion.
- The answer. God was not a careless listener. The judgment announced fell on Shemaiah, and on everyone who listened to him.
Forasmuch as he hath sent unto us in Babylon, saying, It will be long; build houses, and dwell [in them], and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Shemaiah writes from Babylon to get Jeremiah silenced, and the charge he brings is Jeremiah's own advice to the exiles: settle down, the stay will be long. But that advice came from God, and the question is whether a people under discipline will accept how long He says it lasts.
Shemaiah's complaint assumes Jeremiah invented the advice. But the plan was not his. It came from the Lord, and so did the refusal to promise a quick way home.
It was worse than useless to hope for an immediate return to Palestine. No plots and no resolutions would achieve anything. It was Jehovah's word that they should settle down in the land of their captivity. They were to build and plant, to marry and give in marriage, and so grow in number instead of dwindling. They were to seek the peace of the city where they lived. And they were to do this from the heart, as from the Lord, not to please men.
The letter did not leave "long" vague. God fixed the number Himself, and He fixed it with two things in view.
Jehovah measured out 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.
Houses and gardens sound like surrender. The instruction cuts against a religious mood that treats daily work as beneath a person in trouble.
Souls that are not truly bowing to God are always gloomy. They complain in their affliction, and they avoid the common duties of life. Godly people do not shut their eyes to what is painful, nor are they unfeeling in their adversity. There would be no godliness in ignoring how things truly are. They feel the affliction, yet they seek grace from God to take the hardship from His hand with all patience.
Jeremiah's counsel was not a call to blend in. One of the exiles himself shows the balance.
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 either they or we are to become like Babylon. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the 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.
The same letter also told them to pray for the city, because their own peace was tied to its peace. No one was to talk them out of this — not even a prophet.
The Lord through Jeremiah tells them to build houses, plant gardens, eat the fruit, take wives, and have sons and daughters, so that they may increase. They were also to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (vv. 5-7). And they were to be careful not to let anyone deceive them about this, even a prophet who came and spoke to them in the Lord's Name (vv. 8-9).
Verse 28 is Shemaiah speaking. His own words came back on him.
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer," was also in Babylon. When the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered it. A certain Zephaniah received his letter, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is making himself a prophet to you?" Zephaniah then read this letter to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver and announces judgment on him.
The long exile is not the last word. Accepting the sentence clears the way for what God says next.
The Jews in Babylon should live in peace, quietly seeking the welfare of the city where they were captives. The time of deliverance would come. God would punish the spirit of rebellion. He first insists on the people's submission to the judgment. Then He reveals His own thoughts of grace.
- Sent, not stranded. The exile was God's own act, so the advice to settle was His word, not Jeremiah's opinion.
- Measured. Seventy years was long enough to do its work of chastening, short enough to show His tender mercy.
- Ordinary. Houses, gardens and families show what bowing to God looks like — not gloom, and not dodging daily work.
- Distinct. Pray for the city and seek its good. Daniel did just that: he refused the king's food, yet he sought the welfare of those around him.
- Then grace. God first presses the people to accept the judgment. Then He unfolds His own thoughts of grace.
-- And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of the prophet Jeremiah.
A false prophet in Babylon wrote to the priests in Jerusalem and told them to lock Jeremiah up. A priest then read that letter aloud to Jeremiah himself, which raises a hard question: what happens when religious office turns against a man God has sent?
Zephaniah did not write this letter. Its author sat far away in Babylon, and its target was the man now listening to it.
Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem as if they came from the LORD. They stirred up the priests especially against Jeremiah. God was not a careless listener to such bold irreverence.
The man holding the letter was no minor figure. He held the second place in the priesthood under king Zedekiah. He died later at the hands of Babylon.
Son of Maaseiah and 'second' priest in the reign of Zedekiah; he was carried captive to Nebuchadnezzar and killed at Riblah. 2 Kings 25:18; Jer. 21:1; Jer. 29:25, 29; Jer. 37:3; Jer. 52:24.
The words Jeremiah had to sit and listen to accused him of appointing himself. It fits a pattern across his whole ministry. The loudest religious voices were the ones set against him.
We notice the fierce opposition of the prophets to God's prophets. "Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, 'This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city'" (Jer. 26:11). "Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who is prophesying to you?" (Jer. 29:27).
Older translations put that last line as "who makes himself a prophet to you."
The anger had a cause. Jeremiah told the exiles how to take the hand of God that had fallen on them.
The part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the wrong, and it does not make light of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening meekly and confesses the wrong.
Jeremiah is not recorded as writing back. God answered instead.
Truly God is not mocked. A curse without cause will never land. But there are those who are miserable themselves. They are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth. They will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
God's sentence named what Shemaiah had done.
Shemaiah attempted to silence Jeremiah, who, he said, had made himself a prophet. Severe judgment was to come upon them, and upon all such, and likewise upon those who paid attention to them.
Jeremiah was not the only man handed a hostile letter. King Hezekiah received one too.
When Hezekiah received the letter he spread it out before the Lord (v.14). Rather than answer the letter himself, he committed it entirely to the Lord. Could the Lord be trusted to answer? Yes, indeed! If we too commit such things to the Lord, rather than fighting or arguing, can we not trust the Lord to answer better than we might imagine?
- The letter — Shemaiah wrote from Babylon in the LORD's name to turn the priests against Jeremiah. God was "not a careless listener."
- The office — Zephaniah, the second priest under Zedekiah, held the letter. Religious rank became the weapon against God's word.
- The charge — Jeremiah "makes himself a prophet." It was the same hostility the priests and prophets showed him all through his ministry.
- The offence — Jeremiah told the exiles to bow to God's chastening. Faith accepts it; faith never makes light of it.
- The verdict — Jeremiah did not answer; God did. Slander of His servants reaps corruption. The judgment touched the liar and everyone who trusted him.
And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jeremiah had told the exiles to settle down in Babylon, and one man there wrote home to Jerusalem to get him silenced for it. Verse 30 is the hinge: Jeremiah has just heard that letter read aloud, and now a word from God arrives instead of a reply of his own.
The word that comes to Jeremiah here is God's reply to a letter.
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite, which means "the dreamer," was also in Babylon. When the captives received the letter from Jeremiah, he answered it. The letter reached a certain Zephaniah, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" When Zephaniah received this letter he read it to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver and announces his judgment.
Commentators differ on that name. One reference work is less sure of its meaning:
The title given to Shemaiah the false prophet (Jer. 29:24, 31, 32). Its meaning is unknown. The margin note gives "dreamer."
Shemaiah worked by letter, from a distance, through the priests in Jerusalem. But his letters had another hearer.
Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem, as if they came from the LORD. They stirred up the priests, above all against Jeremiah. God did not listen carelessly to this bold irreverence.
Shemaiah wanted to silence Jeremiah's advice to build houses and settle down. That advice showed how faith takes a correction sent by God.
The captives were in a new political situation. They needed special direction from God. The Jewish spirit would no doubt have deeply resented the idea of a Gentile ruling over them. Without a word from God they would have been plotting in Babylon all the time, looking for a way 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. If the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part, faith in Him does not make light of the wrong or of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
God's words about Shemaiah repeat a charge Jeremiah had made before: not sent, making people trust in a lie, teaching rebellion. He had said it to Hananiah, and that case had a visible outcome.
"Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, 'Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. So this is what the LORD says: I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.' So Hananiah the prophet died the same year, in the seventh month" (verses 13-17). It was a solemn public proof that Jeremiah's prophecies were true and that Hananiah's were false and deceitful.
God's sentence on Shemaiah follows in the next verses. Behind it stands a rule that reaches far past this one man.
God is not mocked. A curse without a cause does not come. But some people are wretched themselves, and they are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth. They will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
The question is not who sounds most confident. It is who God sent. One writer applies that test far beyond Babylon:
Every man who prophesies out of his own heart is a false prophet, a blind leader of the blind. He speaks his own mind, and his preaching and teaching do not follow the oracles of God. Of all such it is true what the Lord said through Ezekiel: "They have seen empty visions and lying divination, saying, 'The LORD says,' and the LORD has not sent them." They are self-called and self-sent.
- Attack. Shemaiah wrote from Babylon to the priests in Jerusalem. He asked why no one had silenced Jeremiah for telling the exiles to settle down.
- Hearing. Zephaniah read the letter to Jeremiah. But God was the real hearer, and He did not listen carelessly to that bold irreverence.
- Answer. The reply is not Jeremiah's. The word of the LORD comes to him, and God answers for His servant.
- Verdict. The charge matches the one Hananiah faced: not sent, making people trust in a lie, teaching rebellion. God exposed Shemaiah as a deceiver and announced his judgment.
- Test. Faith bows to chastening instead of fighting it. So the standing question for any teacher is simple: was he sent, or is he self-called and self-sent?
Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he hath caused you to trust in falsehood;
Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon, and a man named Shemaiah wrote back to attack him. This verse is God's reply, sent to all the exiles: Shemaiah spoke, but God had not sent him.
Shemaiah was among the exiles in Babylon, and he answered Jeremiah's letter with one of his own.
Shemaiah, a Nehelamite — which means "the dreamer" — was also in Babylon. When the captives received Jeremiah's letter, he wrote a reply. A man named Zephaniah received it, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" Zephaniah read this letter to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver, and his judgment is announced.
The message is not sent to Shemaiah alone. It goes to all the exiles. One commentator says why God would not let his letters pass.
Public examples were needed in particular cases. They warned and impressed a stubborn people, who were as ready to believe man as they were unwilling to believe God… Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem as though they came from the LORD, stirring up the priests especially against Jeremiah. God was no careless listener to this bold profanity.
The charge against Shemaiah is not that he guessed wrong. God never sent him. One commentator gives the same test for anyone who speaks for God.
Every man who prophesies out of his own heart, who utters his own mind, whose preaching and teaching is not according to the oracles of God, is a false prophet, a blind leader of the blind. Of all such it is true what the Lord said through Ezekiel: "They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'Declares the LORD,' when the LORD has not sent them."… They are self-called and self-sent.
Jeremiah 28 tells of another prophet who made the people trust in a lie. What happened to him shows what is at stake for Shemaiah.
In Jeremiah 28 we read of Hananiah, who prophesied falsely in the Name of the Lord. Opposing Jeremiah, he made the people trust in a lie. "Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.' In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died." This is a sad illustration of these false prophets.
The judgment does not stop with the speaker. The same writer notes who else was included.
Ahab and Zedekiah are singled out (vv. 20-23), and so is Shemaiah (vv. 24-32)… Shemaiah tried to silence Jeremiah, who, he said, had made himself a prophet. Severe judgment was to come on them, on all like them, and also on those who listened to them (vv. 15-19).
So what should the exiles have trusted instead? One commentator says what faith does when God sends a chastening.
But the part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against 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 chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
That acceptance is not gloom, and it is not pretending the pain is small.
Souls that do not truly bow to God are always gloomy. They murmur in their affliction and avoid the ordinary duties of life. The godly do not shut their eyes to what is painful, and they are not unfeeling in hard times. There would be no godliness in ignoring the truth of things. They feel the affliction, and they ask God for grace to take the hardship from His hand with all patience.
- Sent — the case against Shemaiah is not that he was insincere. God never sent him. A man who speaks from his own mind is "self-called and self-sent."
- Lie — an unsent message does not stay harmless. It makes people trust in something that cannot hold, as Hananiah's message did before he died that same year.
- Exposed — God was no careless listener to letters written in His name. He answered them in front of all the exiles.
- Spreading — judgment fell on the false prophets, and on those who listened to them. A lie believed is not a lie excused.
- Bowing — the opposite of trusting a lie is bowing to God's chastening. That means confessing the wrong, feeling the affliction, and asking God for grace to bear it.
therefore thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he see the good that I will do for my people, saith Jehovah; because he hath spoken revolt against Jehovah.
Shemaiah was one of the exiles in Babylon. He wrote to Jerusalem demanding that the priests jail Jeremiah as a madman, and this verse is God's reply to that letter. The sentence falls on the man and on his family line, and it ends with a reason: he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.
Shemaiah had read Jeremiah's letter telling the captives to settle down in Babylon. He wrote back to have the prophet silenced.
Shemaiah the Nehelamite — the name means "the dreamer" — was also in Babylon. When the captives received Jeremiah's letter, he wrote a reply. A man named Zephaniah received his letter, and Shemaiah asked him, "Why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?" Zephaniah then read this letter to Jeremiah. The Lord exposes the Nehelamite as a deceiver, and announces His judgment on him.
So the charge is not that Shemaiah plotted against Babylon. He spoke in God's Name against what God had said.
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest peacefully under the yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Anyone who spoke otherwise in the Lord's Name would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. The letter singles out Ahab and Zedekiah (vv. 20-23), and Shemaiah too (vv. 24-32)… Shemaiah tried to silence Jeremiah, who, he said, had made himself a prophet.
Shemaiah sent his letters as though God stood behind them. They had one reader he never counted on.
Shemaiah had sent letters from Babylon to Jerusalem as if they came from the LORD, stirring up the priests in particular against Jeremiah. God did not hear this bold profanity carelessly… God is not mocked. A curse without a cause will not come. But those who are miserable themselves, and are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stand in the truth, will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
This verse closes a chapter full of comfort. The same letter promises deliverance to those who submit, and shuts Shemaiah's household out of it. No descendant of his will be left among the people to see it.
On the other hand the prophet comforts those whom God's judgment had placed under the yoke He laid on them. The Jews in Babylon were to live in peace, seeking the good of the city that held them captive. The time of deliverance would come. God would punish the spirit of rebellion. At the end, having insisted that the people submit to the judgment, God reveals His own thoughts of grace.
For a while the lie was winning. One writer shows how such opposition works, and where it stops.
False prophets as well as false teachers oppose the truth in this very point on which God tries His people. They can use all other parts of truth to deceive, and can seem to have greater faith in them. It is clear that the secret of the Lord is never with them. But whatever it looks like, they neither stop God nor turn Him from the path He takes. Yet the true prophet's place is a painful one. For a time he may seem to be silenced, because the popular lie holds the hearts of the people.
Shemaiah fought a correction God had sent. Faith takes the opposite road.
When God sends a chastening, 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 chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
- The cause. Shemaiah wrote letters in God's name to have Jeremiah jailed, and God read every word.
- The crime. Telling people to throw off a yoke God had placed on them is rebellion against God.
- The reach. The sentence covers his family line as well as himself — no descendant left among the people.
- The loss. The good God promised the submissive captives is the one thing the rebel will never see.
- The lesson. Faith bows to correction and confesses the wrong; it does not campaign against the God who sent it.