Jeremiah 23:11

Jer 23:11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

Ver. 11. For both prophet and priest are profane.] What wonder, therefore, that the people were so? I have read of a woman, who, living in professed doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did often protest that the vicious life of a great scholar in that town did conjure up those damnable doubts ia her soul. {a} And of another, that he desired a profane preacher to point him out a nearer way to heaven than that he had taught in his sermons, for he went not that way himself. Our Saviour foretelleth {Mat 24:12} that "iniquity shall abound, love wax cold," &c.; and why? "Many false prophets shall arise."

Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness.] Sin is not a little aggravated as by the time, sc., If committed on the Lord’s day; so by the place, sc., If done in God’s house, and in his special presence. Unclean glances or worldly thoughts in hearing, &c., argue a profane heart. Like as it were a sign the orthodox party were but weak, if, while they were at sermons, Papists dared come in and put them out.

{a} Mrs Ward’s Happiness of Paradise.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 23:11-12. For both the prophet and the priest are profane — The priests, by their formality and hypocrisy, profaned the ordinances of God which they were appointed to administer; and the prophets, by their lies, false doctrine, and corrupt practice, profaned the word of God, which they pretended to deliver. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness: saith the Lord — Even in my temple, where they assemble under a pretence to worship and do me honour, they say and do many things contrary to my law, and are guilty of various acts of profaneness and immorality. Such profaners of things sacred were formerly Hophni and Phinehas. Wherefore their way shall be as slippery ways — In which they shall not walk with any steadiness, safety, or satisfaction: or they shall fail and miscarry in all their designs.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:11 Judah’s religious leaders had committed despicable acts, not just in their private lives and in the hills and fields where pagan worship occurred, but even in the Temple, in the presence of the Lord.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My Temple is full of their idolatry and superstitions.

Or, are hypocrites.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

profane-- (Eze 23:39; Zep 3:4).

in my house-- (Jer 7:30). They built altars to idols in the very temple (Kg2 23:12; Eze 8:3-16). Compare as to covetousness under the roof of the sanctuary, Mat 21:13; Joh 2:16.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. In my house] They had even introduced idolatry into the Temple of God!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He adds here that it ought not to appear strange that the prophets were silent when they ought to have loudly cried out, because they were guilty themselves: and whence can freedom of speech come except from a good conscience? Hypocrites, who indulge themselves, are indeed often severe against others, and even more than necessary; but no one can dare honestly to cry out against wickedness, but he who is innocent. For he who condemns others seems to make a law for himself, according to what a heathen writer has said, (Cicero in Salustium.) Then the Prophet here shews to us why the prophets were not only idle, but were even like stocks and stones; for in speaking against wickedness, it was necessary for them in the first place to amend themselves; for their lives were wholly dissolute. As then they were of all the most wicked, they could not boldly cry out against others; and hence the Prophet condemns them, because their own impiety prevented them to perform their own duty.

It is, indeed, possible for one to live soberly, honestly, and justly, and yet to connive at the wickedness of others; but the Prophet here condemns the prophets and priests on two accounts, — for being mute, and for not undertaking God’s cause when they saw the land polluted with all kinds of defilements; and he then shews the fountain of this evil, that is, the cause why they were idle and wholly indifferent, and that was, because they dared not say a word against those crimes of which they were themselves guilty, yea, with which they were more loaded than even the common people. We now perceive the Prophet’s object in saying that both the priests and the prophets had acted impiously; it was to shew, that their contempt of God, for which they were notorious, and also their wickedness, had taken away from them all power and freedom in acting.

It is added, Even in my house have I found their wickedness He enhances what he had said of their impiety; for they were not only infamous and wicked in common life, as to the duties of the Second Table; but they also corrupted the whole service of God, and the true Prophets were derided by them. For what was found to be the priests’ wickedness in the Temple, except that they practiced a sort of merchandise under the cover of the priesthood? and then the prophets vitiated and adulterated God’s worship; and what was religion to them but the means of filthy lucre or gain? When, therefore, the prophets thus trod under foot the service of God, corrupted and perverted the Law to make gain or to acquire power, their impiety was not only seen in the habits of daily life, but also in the very Temple of God, that is, with regard to the sacerdotal office.

Now, since this is true as to what took place under the Law, there is no wonder that such a base example is to be seen in the present day. And hence also is discovered the folly of the Papists, who think that they ingeniously evade every objection as to the crimes of the Pope and his filthy clergy, by saying that the Pope indeed may be wicked, as almost all of them have been, and that the same thing may be said of their mitred bishops; but that the Pope, as a Pope, cannot err, and that the bishops, as bishops, that is, in their government and office, are ruled by the Holy Spirit, because they represent the Church. But are they better than these ancient priests, whom God himself had expressly appointed, and to whom he commanded obedience to be rendered by the whole people? But the Prophet not only says here that they were wicked, that they acted impiously and wickedly towards their neighbors, that they committed plunders and robberies, that they were given to violence and rapacity, that they abandoned themselves to adultery and to every other crime; but he says also, that their wickedness was found in the very Temple, that is, in the very sacred office itself; for not only was their life wicked, but they also impiously and perfidiously corrupted the doctrine of God and subverted his worship.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) In my house have I found their wickedness.—Prophet and priest are joined, as before (Jer_5:31; Jer_6:13; Jer_8:10), as playing into each other’s hands. It seems probable, from Jer_32:34, that the sins of Ahaz and Manasseh had been repeated under Jehoiakim, and that the worship of other gods had been carried on side by side with that of Jehovah. With this, almost as its natural accompaniment, there may have been sins of another kind—shameless greed or yet more shameless profligacy—like those of the sons of Eli (1Sa_2:22).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. in my house have I found their wickedness] Cp. Jer_6:13, and see 2Ki_21:5; 2Ki_23:12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For both prophet and priest are profane,.... Being guilty of the afore mentioned sins. The Targum is,

"the scribe and the priest;''

and such were the scribes and priests in the time of our Lord; they played "the hypocrite" (q), as some render the word here; and are often charged with the sin of hypocrisy, and called hypocrites, Mat 22:18;

yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord; where they officiated in holy things, or should have done so; where the one should have instructed the people, and the other offered sacrifices for them, according to the will of God; there they committed wickedness, which was an aggravation of their sin, as was the case of Eli's sons, Sa1 2:22; perhaps the same sin was committed by these men; or idolatry may be meant; setting up images, and building altars for them in the house of God; see Jer 7:30; or carrying on traffic and merchandise, whereby the temple was made a house of merchandise, as it was in the times of Christ, Joh 2:14.

(q) "hypocritae fuerunt", Vatablus, Montanus; "hypocritas agunt", Piscator; "hypocrisin exercent", Schmidt, Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For both prophet and priest are profane - While by their office they are consecrated to God, they have made themselves common and unholy by their sins. See Jer 3:9 note.

Yea, in my house - This may refer to sins such as those of the sons of Eli 1Sa 2:22, or that they had defiled the temple by idolatrous rites.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Defiled. Hebrew, "hypocrites." My priests retain the appearance of religion, to join with impostors in deluding the people.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Those whose work was to reveal the mind of God to the people, and who pretended to that office; and those that were employed in offering sacrifices, and other works which belonged to the priestly office, according to the law; the whole ecclesiastical order, all their ministry, were

profane; not merely hypocritical, but lewd, immoral, and debauched. Yea, they were grown to that impudence, that they made the temple, which was the Lord’s house, a den of thieves, a place where they committed

wickedness. Thus it was in the time of Eli, 1Sa 2:22, and more generally afterward, 2Ch 36:14. See Jer 7:10,11, and Jer 23:14 of this chapter. There is no more certain sign of a ruining nation, than when God suffereth in it a lewd and corrupt ministry.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Both prophet and priest are profane — Instead of being specially holy, they are specially wicked. Even into the very temple covetousness and impurity had come. See 2Ki_23:12; Eze_23:39; Zep_3:4.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Both prophet and priest are profane; i.e. are unholy, disobeying the Divine commands. (see on Jer_5:7) The same two important classes specified as in Jer_6:13. Yea, in my house, etc. Evidently some sin specially incongruous with its locality is referred to, either idolatry (comp. Jer_7:30) or the totemistic worship of figures of animals. (Eze_8:10, Eze_8:11) Comp. note on Jer_5:7.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Jeremiah continues to deliver Yahweh's message about the false prophets and priests that he began in Jeremiah 23:9.

the prophets and the priests are polluted

The prophets and priests are defiled by sin in the same way that water can be polluted by filth. AT: "the prophets and the priests are sinful" (See: Metaphor)

I even found their wickedness in my house!

The abstract noun "wickedness" can be stated as an action. AT: "I know that they have even acted wickedly in my temple!" (See: Abstract Nouns)

in my house

This refers to the temple in Jerusalem.

this is Yahweh's declaration

Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

their way will be like a slippery place in the darkness

The danger of their actions is spoken of as if they were about to fall off the slippery edge of a cliff in the dark and injure themselves. AT: "there actions are unstable and dangerous, like walking on a slippery place in the darkness" (See: Simile)

I will send disaster against them

Yahweh speaks of disaster as an enemy that he will send to attack the priests and false prophets. AT: "I will cause them to experience disaster" (See: Metaphor)

in the year of their punishment

"when their time for punishment comes" or "when the time comes for me to punish them"

translationWords

priest

house of God

darkness

send

punish

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

both prophet and priest Even these, from whom everyone learns.

even in My house have I found their evil For they placed an image in the Temple.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.