What Does Jeremiah 23:31 Mean?
Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who lift their tongues and say, He says.
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
Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.THE KEY
The verse places the LORD’s “oracle” beside the prophets’ own “uttering”: they copy the sound of revelation while the grammar assigns the act to them.
THE MEANING
A voice can carry the sound of God’s authority while coming from the speaker’s own act. The verse names that gap now: the claim “He saith” does not prove that God speaks, and the LORD stands against those who use their tongues to make the claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The formula “He saith” guarantees that God has spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיִּנְאֲמוּ
wayyin'amu
GROWS FROM
נאם
nāʾam
To utter or declare, especially in the register of an oracle.
The same root appears first in the LORD’s “oracle” and then in what the prophets “utter.” English makes the second use a plain “say,” concealing the pointed echo: they reproduce an oracle’s form, while the verse names their own act of uttering.
ALSO GROWS
ne'um: Utterance; oracle.
נְאֻם
This noun appears in the LORD’s oracle formula earlier in the verse, establishing the register the prophets echo.
ne'um YHWH: Oracle of the LORD.
נְאֻם־יְהוָה
The verse sets this formula beside the prophets’ utterance, exposing the difference between the claimed source and the speaker’s act.
הַלֹּקְחִים
halloqeḥim
GROWS FROM
לקח
lāqaḥ
To take or receive.
“take” in this verse is halloqeḥim. The Hebrew describes the prophets as “taking” their tongues, making speech sound like something they pick up and wield. The same root also names instruction as something received, connecting their act of taking to the teaching listeners receive from them.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: To take; to receive.
לָקַח
This verb is the root form behind the participle describing the prophets as those taking their tongues.
leqaḥ: Teaching; instruction.
לֶקַח
This branch names what listeners receive, bringing the speaker’s act of taking into contact with the teaching being passed on.
THE PATTERN
A claim of divine speech does not establish its source; scripture exposes and tests the speaker’s claim.
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.They have seen emptiness and lying divination, saying, The LORD says; and the LORD has not sent them; and they have made others wait, that they might make the word stand.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.Here the LORD directly denies sending or speaking to the prophets whose tongues carry the formula. Verse 31 shows the sound of their claim; this verse names the missing source behind it.
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