Jeremiah 23:35

Jer 23:35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

Ver. 35. Thus shall ye say.] God sets them a form, who otherwise knew not how to lisp out a syllable of sober language. Loquamur verba Scripturae, Let us speak the words of the Bible, saith Peter Ramus, utamur sermone Spiritus Sancti, Let us inure ourselves to Scripture expressions.

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_23:35

What hath the Lord spoken?

The contents of the Bible

I. Impartiality of its contents. Each writer is an honest chronicler. With an unflinching adherence to truth the whole story is told whoever may be unpleasantly involved therein. Such is the undaunted boldness, sterling integrity, and resolute independence of the Scripture scribes that they do not pause to inquire whose faults they are recording. Such is their antipathy to sin in all its forms that they expose the hydra wherever he may be encountered. Ay, the writers even disclose their own faults and infirmities. They unfold their hearts without any reserve. They allude to their own virtuous actions without any ostentation, and do not palliate their vices. They refer to themselves with the same simplicity and fidelity with which they treat of others. Where will you find such a marked feature in any other book?

II. The originality of its contents.

1. Look, for example, at the disclosures given of the Divine Being--read the sublime language of the holy scribes concerning the self-existence, independence, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, long-suffering, and love of the Deity. Whence were these lordly conceptions derived? They were revealed by God to man, and so made known to mortals. You commend us to the productions of Horace; do you forget that a thousand years before his day the lyric poetry of the Hebrews was famous? Read the books of Grecian or Roman authors of the highest standard, and tell me in which of them can you discover themes so stately, thoughts so surprising, and diction so sublime as you have in the Bible

2. Look, again, at the Scripture teaching concerning Christ. Now, such a Divine Being either lived or He did not. If you grant He lived, then the evangelistic narratives are the authoritative biographies of Jesus. If He did not live, then the narratives are fictitious, and the character is an invention. But was it possible for the New Testament writers to have invented such an original character? It is a moral impossibility that they should have concocted a story such as that the New Testament contains. Nor did they gather the elements of the unique character of Christ from any person or persons then living. A sight acquaintance with the condition of society at the time of the Saviours appearing will suffice to satisfy us that there were no men who could sit as models to the evangelic artists. Nor did they reproduce themselves. Four men of very different temperaments produce a history of one Man in which all four coincide. There is but one way of accounting for this original, peerless, beautiful life in the Gospels, and that is by accepting the declaration of John--That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.

III. The high moral tone of the contents. From first to last the Book of books holds forth the Divine law as the safe and sole standard of morality. It points to God as the supreme lawgiver, and tells us that He, in His spotlessness, demands purity in man. It condemns not merely the overt evil, but the concealed offence; not only the spoken word, but the voiceless emotions; not alone the guilty act, but the hidden thought of its committal. Where was such elevated morality taught before the Bible propounded it? So far back as the days of Abraham, Egypt was sunk in sensuality and unrighteousness. Whence, then, did Moses obtain the morality with which his writings are full? He could not evolve it from his own brain--that were a greater miracle than the act of Divine revelation. And whence did the evangelists and apostles obtain their sublime and stainless sentiments? Not from Rome, not from Greece. In the lands where Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Plato, Socrates, Virgil, and Cicero wrote--in the countries where philosophers, poets, and orators- of the most distinguished order lived and laboured, idolatry abounded, brutal savageness was patronised, voluptuousness and debauchery were approved. How out of paganism, as it then was, could there have sprung up the noble, beautiful, and blessed system of morality like that we possess in the New Testament? How could the icy, indiscreet, and infamous teachings of heathen philosophy have given birth to the warmhearted, winsome, and wonder-working ethics of our Scriptures? Do men expect figs from thistles?

IV. The beauties of its contents. The volume is full of literary splendours. Picture, proverb, parable, and poem arc blended to produce a superb Book. Creation has been ransacked that its choicest works may embellish the page of inspiration. The fairest flowers of nature are woven into this garland for the brow of Immanuel. The beauties of this volume are like the veins of gold beneath the surface soil. Generations of men intellectually cross and recross the hallowed ground, and remain in entire ignorance of a tithe of the hidden glories. Whole armies of mental athletes handle the sword of the Spirit, without ever detecting the jewels which decorate its hilt. Companies of learned men saunter in the gardens of revelation, examine one plant and another, and-pronounce an opinion upon the whole--an opinion dogmatic and defiant---whilst they have never discovered the sweetest flowers which are concealed by the masses of luxuriant foliage. And yet they who have judged simply by the conspicuous features of the volume are enthusiastic in their praises of the Book, even our enemies themselves being judges.

V. The prominence given to Christ. It is said that a celebrated artist of ancient times constructed a shield of so remarkable an order that he had worked his name into the device in a manner that it could not be removed. To erase the name you must destroy the shield. Thus is it emphatically with the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation the whole volume points to Jesus. He is the centre and soul of the Book. Take away Jesus from the Book of books, and you have a casket without a jewel, an envelope without a letter, a scaffolding without any superstructure, musical notation without any melody, a frame without a portrait, an assembly without a leader, ages of preparation on the most extensive scale for an event that never happens, centuries of practice for an oratorio that is never performed. From the fatal declension of Adam, He was the subject of promise and prophecy. In paradise He was referred to as the seed of the woman. Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and avowed that the Lord would provide Himself a Lamb. Jacob spake of Him as the coming Shiloh, Moses foretold the rising of a Prophet, Balaam saw Him as a Star and a Sceptre, Job rejoiced in the life of his Redeemer, David described the agonies, death, and resurrection of the Holy One, Solomon ecstatically praised his Beloved, Isaiah graphically dwelt upon the doings of the tender Plant, and the precious Corner-stone. He was Jeremiahs Branch, Ezekiel s River, Daniel s Ancient of Days, Hoseas Lord of hosts, Joel s Latter-day Glory, Obadiah s Saviour, Jonah s Salvation, Micahs Peace, Nahums Him that bringeth good tidings, Habakkuks Strength, Haggais Desire of all nations, Zechariah s Fountain, and Malachis Sun of Righteousness. How can you account for such a marked blending of all writers on one theme--such a manifest gravitation of thought toward one point--such a glorious clustering of hope, expectation, and joy around one centre? How was it that these scribes, separated by ages, and climes, and callings, and capacities, all looked Christward? There is but one answer. All were under the invisible spell of the Saviours attractive influence--all felt the centripetal force of the Cross which was to be erected on Calvary--all were God-guided and God-taught. (J. H. Hitchens.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The result of My judgments shall be, ye shall address the prophet more reverentially hereafter, no longer calling his message a burden, but a divine response or word. "What hath the LORD answered?"

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

Here the Prophet explains himself more clearly; he shews why God would not have his word to be called a burden. Why so? because they in a manner closed the way, so that they derived no benefit from God’s word, while they regarded it with disdain and hatred; for the word burden was an obstacle, so that they gave no access to God, nor opened their ears to hear his word. God then bids them to come with empty and sincere hearts; for it is a real preparation for a teachable spirit, when we acknowledge that we ought to believe in God’s word, and also when we are not possessed by a perverse feeling which forms a prejudice and in a manner holds us bound, so that we are not free to form a right judgment.

The import of the passage then is this, that the Jews, renouncing their blasphemies, were to prepare themselves reverently to hear God’s word, for hearing is due to God; and then that this word was to be heard with sincere hearts, so that no weariness, nor pride, nor hatred, nor any depraved feeling, might hinder his word from being believed and reverently heard by all. This then is what the Prophet means when he says, “Ye shall hereafter change your impious expression, and shall say, What has Jehovah answered? what has Jehovah spoken?” That is, they shall not themselves close the door, but willingly come to the school of God, being meek and teachable, so that nothing would hinder them from rendering honor to God and from embracing his word, that they might be terrified by his threatenings, and that being allured by his promises they might devote themselves wholly to him.

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.

(35) Thus shall ye say . . .—The words are a protest against the high-sounding phrase, “This is the burden, the oracle of Jehovah.” This, with which the false prophets covered their teachings of lies, the prophet rejects, and he calls men back to the simpler terms, which were less open to abuse. The true prophet’s message was to be called an “answer” when men had come to him with questions—a “word of the Lord” when it was spoken to them without any previous inquiry.

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

Thus shall ye say everyone to his neighbour, and everyone to his brother,.... When conferring about religious things, and the word of God in particular; when any inquiry is made of another, whether any message from the Lord by his prophets? or what is it? that it should not be put in such deriding and calumniating words, "what is the burden of the Lord?" but in more decent and becoming language, thus,

what hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken? they might lawfully and laudably inquire of the prophet what answer he had received from the Lord, and what it was that he had said to him, provided they were serious in it, and asked with meekness and fear: the word of God should be reverently spoken of, and attended to.

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

The proper words for prophecy. It is to be called an answer when the people have come to inquire of Yahweh: but His word when it is sent unasked.

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

Answered. I will make you alter your language by chastisements.

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).

I will have you speak more reverently of me and my word to my prophets.

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

What hath the Lord answered? i.e. a simpler phraseology is to be used, Jehovah hath answered, saying, or, Jehovah hath spoken, according as a definite question had been put before the prophet or not.

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

Thus shall ye say - I will have you speak more reverently of me and my prophets.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Connecting Statement:

Yahweh continues to deliver his message about the false prophets and priests that he began in Jeremiah 23:9 and completes in Jeremiah 23:40.

General Information:

In verses 33-40 there is a wordplay with the word "burden." Sometimes it means "a message" and other times it means "a heavy load to carry." This wordplay should be retained if possible.

You continue to say ... 'What did Yahweh declare?'

It may be helpful to reorder this sentence. AT: "Each person continues to ask his neighbor and his brother, 'What did Yahweh answer?' and 'What did Yahweh declare?'"

But you must no longer talk about the 'burden of Yahweh,' for the burden is every man's own word, and

Possible meaning are 1) both instances of "burden" mean "message." AT: "You must no longer call your visions the 'burden of Yahweh' because they are really only every man's own words, and" or 2) the first 'burden' means "message" and the second means "heavy load." AT: "You must no longer talk about the 'message of Yahweh' because the words that each of you speak are what is a 'heavy load.' In this way"

you have perverted the words ... our God

To "pervert" something is to twist or distort it. AT: "you have changed the message of the living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God, to say what you want it to say and not what God said"

translationWords

brother

declare

word

life

God

Yahweh of hosts

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