What Does Jeremiah 23:32 Mean?
Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who recount them, and lead my people to wander by their lies and by their wonders. Yet I did not send them, nor command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the LORD.
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 them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.THE KEY
The fruit exposes the absent source: these words make people wander, yet carry no divine sending and give them no good.
THE MEANING
The LORD stands against those who present false dreams as his voice and mislead his people through lies and reckless speech. Their words carry no sending or command from him, and they do this people no good.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A claim to prophetic authority does not establish that God sent the speaker.
THE ROOT
וַיַּתְעוּ
wayyatʿu
GROWS FROM
תעה
t-ʿ-h
Wander or go astray; in the causative form, make another wander.
“err, cause to err” in this verse is wayyatʿu. The verb is causative: these speakers do not simply misunderstand; they make others wander. The English “err” can sound like an isolated mistake, while the root pictures people being moved off course.
ALSO GROWS
taʿah: To wander or go astray.
תָּעָה
This is the root’s basic action, which the verse makes the speakers impose on others.
taʿiti: I have wandered or gone astray.
תָּעִיתִי
The same root can describe a person who has lost the way; here, the false speech actively leads people into that condition.
שְׁלַחְתִּים
shelaḥtîm
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, send away, release.
“sent” in this verse is shelaḥtîm. The denial reaches back to the source of the speech: no commission releases these speakers to carry this message. The root makes the missing act of sending explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send, send forth, or release.
שָׁלַח
The verse’s “I sent them not” denies that the LORD set these speakers out with this message.
Shiloach: Shiloach, “sent”; the Hebrew name associated with the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 interprets Siloam as “Sent,” extending this root to something sent forth; these speakers have no such sending.
פַּחֲזוּתָם
paḥazutam
GROWS FROM
פחז
p-ḥ-z
Act rashly or recklessly; behave unstably.
The KJV’s “lightness” can sound trivial, but פחז points to rashness and recklessness. Alongside lies, it describes speech that misleads through both falsity and heedlessness.
ALSO GROWS
paḥaz: To act rashly or recklessly.
פָּחַז
This verb gives the verse’s “lightness” its sense of reckless conduct.
paḥaz kamayim: Unstable as water (Genesis 49:4).
פַּחַז כַּמַּיִם
The same root evokes instability, showing the unruly quality carried by the word translated “lightness.”
THE PATTERN
A message that claims to speak for God is exposed by whether God sends it and by what it produces in people.
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.But there are also false prophets among the people, as there are false teachers among you, who slip in factions of perishing, denying the Master who bought them, and bringing swift perishing upon themselves.THE THREAD
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.Both verses use שָׁלַח (shalach, “send” or “release”). Jeremiah 23:21 makes the contradiction visible: the prophets run and speak, but no sending or speaking from the LORD precedes them.
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