Jeremiah 23:15

Jer 23:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

Ver. 15. I will feed them with wormwood,] {a} i.e., I will slay them with most bitter and grievous kinds of deaths. See Jer 8:14; Jer 9:15.

For from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.] Their place adding two wings to their sin - viz., Example and scandal, whereby it soareth higher and flieth much further. See Jer 23:11.

{a} Potabo eos calice maledictionis pessimae, quasi capribus draconum. - Chald. Paraph.

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 23:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets — The priests also, and all ecclesiastical guides, are included. Behold, I will feed them with wormwood — Will afflict them with most bitter calamities. For from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth — Or, hypocrisy, which seems rather to be the meaning of חנפה, the word here used. Certain it is, that this was a vice they were generally addicted to. These false prophets affected to be looked upon as pious, while they indulged themselves in various acts of wickedness; and as this could not be totally concealed, the people took example from them, and indulged themselves in vice, while they put on the garb of piety. The Jewish nation continued much in this habit even to the times of Christ, as is sufficiently evident from what is said of the Pharisees in the New Testament.

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

23:15 Although the people needed to be held responsible for their own sins, the prophets bore the blame for Jerusalem’s spiritual apostasy.

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

Read Jer. 8:14.

Or, hypocrisy.

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

gall--poison (see on Jer 8:14; Jer 9:15).

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

This verse is addressed to the prophets of the kingdom of Judah, as we learn from its conclusion; and thus the exposition which I have given is confirmed, even this, that God extenuates the fault of other prophets, in speaking of the prophets of Jerusalem, who boasted of greater sanctity. But he declares that they would have poison for meat and gall for drink; as though he had said, “I will pursue them with every kind of punishment.” He expresses evidently the same thing I have before referred to, that their table would become a snare to them. (Psalm 69:22.) The ungodly, indeed, always think that they can by their arts escape; God on the other hand declares, that though they might have a table prepared, they yet would find nothing on it, but poison for meat, and gall for drink. For as to God’s children and faithful servants, evils are turned to their benefit; so as to the ungodly and his wicked despisers, all things must necessarily turn out for their ruin, even meat and drink, and their course of life, and in a word everything.

The cause follows, For gone forth is impiety through the whole land from the prophets of Jerusalem By which words he declares that they were the authors of all evils, so that in comparison with them the prophets of Samaria might have been deemed in a manner righteous. But there is no doubt but that this declaration was considered too severe; yet we see by what necessity Jeremiah was constrained thus to speak; for the lamp of God as yet remained at Jerusalem, according to what is said in many passages, nor was the light of sound doctrine wholly put out. They professed that they continued to obey the Law; and at the same time they were much worse than others, for not only the worship of God in the Temple and in the city was corrupted, but adulteries, frauds, plunders, and all kinds of wickedness prevailed everywhere. He adds —

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.

(15) Wormwood . . . water of gall.—See Notes on Jer_8:14; Jer_9:15.

Profaneness.—The root-meaning of the Hebrew word is that of “veiling,” hence that of simulated holiness, or, as in the margin, “hypocrisy;” but the associations of the word attached to it the further sense of the hypocrisy that desecrates, so that “profaneness” is, on the whole, the best rendering. The corresponding concrete noun is rendered in Isa_9:17 by “hypocrite;” in Psa_35:16 by “hypocritical mocker;” above, in Jer_23:11, by “profane.”

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

15. Behold, I will.…] identical with words in Jer_9:15, where see notes. Here it may be originally a marginal note by a copyist, reminiscent of that passage.

wormwood] Cp. Deu_29:18; Pro_5:4; Lam_3:15.

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.

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets,.... Concerning the false prophets, as the Targum; their sin is before declared, and now their punishment:

behold, I will feed them with wormwood; with some bitter affliction and calamity; so the Targum,

"behold, I will bring upon them distress bitter as wormwood;''

they that have been fed with dainties, and lived upon the fat of the land; their views in pleasing the people with their lies being to serve their own bellies; now they shall fare after another manner:

and make them drink the water of gall: or, "the juice of hemlock", as some; or "poison", as others; "the savour of death", so Kimchi; as they poisoned the people with their false doctrines, they shall drink poison themselves; they shall not only have that which is bitter and unpleasant, but that which is noxious and hurtful; not only a bitter potion, but a destructive one. The Targum is,

"I will cause them to drink a cup of the curse, bad as the heads of serpents;''

as pernicious as poison; see Jer 8:14;

for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land; by their false doctrines, and bad examples, debauchery, irreligion, and wickedness of all kinds, were encouraged, and spread all over the land; Jerusalem, the metropolis of the nation, being infected by them, the contagion spread from thence throughout the country. Evil teachers have a bad influence all around them; from whom, and from whence, true doctrine and real religion should have been propagated; from them, and thence, was the source of all impiety and pollution. Some render it, "hypocrisy" (z), or "flattery"; as if by means of the hypocrisy and flattery of these false prophets, all manner of sin was countenanced; and the like hypocritical spirit and behaviour everywhere prevailed.

(z) "hypocrisis", Vatablus, Piscastor, Cocceius, Schmidt.

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

Profaneness - Desecration.

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

Gall, or something mortally bitter, chap. ix. 15. (Haydock)

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).

Under the term prophets he comprehendeth all the ecclesiastical guides of Jerusalem at this time, whether priests or prophets. He threatens to

feed them with wormwood; some think the word is better translated poison: by wormwood, or poison, and the water of gall, he threatens great and fatal judgments that he would bring upon them. And he giveth the reason why God would deal so severely with that order of men, who seemed by their office and employment to have the nearest relation to himself, because they were the fountain of wickedness, those from whom wickedness flowed out over the whole land. This was either by their conniving at wicked men’s sins, for fear of displeasing them; or by teaching them licentious doctrine, that gave a liberty to the flesh; or by their vile lives setting the people patterns of sin. And indeed thus it is generally, when ministers, and such as are to teach others, are wicked, either in their doctrine or practice, they are a fountain of wickedness; wickedness floweth from them to the whole city, town, parish where they are employed: and on the contrary it is observed, that where God gives a place a good ministry, goodness in one degree or other floweth from them to the whole city, town, or parish; though all are not converted, yet the generality are civilized and restrained from those gross and brutish immoralities which other places abound with. Ill ministers must look for the severest indignation of God. Others sin, and shall die in their sins; but they teach others to break God’s commandments, and have the sins of many to answer for, who perish either by their flatteries, or loose doctrine, or looser lives and examples.

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

15. See Jer_8:14; Jer_9:15.

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

On the punishment hero threatened, see note on Jer_9:15.

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