What Does Jeremiah 14:14 Mean?
Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my nature. I did not send them, nor have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false seeing and a divining, and a hollow thing, and the daubing of their heart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.THE KEY
The prophets invoke God’s name, his nature, yet their message has no divine sending behind it.
THE MEANING
A message can claim God’s name while coming from the speaker’s own heart. This verse distinguishes the sound of authority from its source: God has neither sent these speakers nor given them words to say. Their visions and divination expose what their message actually carries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that invoking God’s name proves a message comes from God. A sacred claim does not establish who sent the speaker or supplied the words.
THE ROOT
שְׁלַחְתִּים
shelaḥtim
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, or release.
“I did not send them” in this verse is shelaḥtim. The verse names sending as a test of origin: God has not sent these speakers, even though they speak in his name. The root holds sending forth and release together, bringing the question back to where the message comes from.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the root’s sense of sending forth visible; the speakers here have no such sending.
Shiloach: Shiloah, a name associated with waters sent forth.
שִׁלֹחַ
Its name carries the image of what is sent; Jeremiah’s contrast turns on whether these words are sent from God or arise elsewhere.
תַּרְמִית
tarmit
GROWS FROM
רמה
r-m-h
To deceive or deal falsely.
“the daubing of their heart” in this verse is tarmit. The text calls the message deceit from their own heart, not merely a mistaken report. The root connects the hidden act of deception to the deceiver who gives it voice.
ALSO GROWS
remiyyah: Deceit or fraud.
רְמִיָּה
This noun names the deception that the verse says their message carries.
merammeh: One who deceives.
מְרַמֶּה
This form brings the act back to its source: the speaker is producing the deception, not relaying words given by God.
THE PATTERN
A claim made in God’s name does not establish divine sending; the source of the message remains decisive.
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.This verse repeats the passage’s denial of sending, using the same Hebrew root שׁלח (sh-l-ḥ) for “sent.” The parallel makes the missing origin plain: they run and speak, but the sending and speech do not come from God.
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