Jeremiah 29:23

Jer 29:23 Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and [am] a witness, saith the LORD.

Ver. 23. Because they have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives.] As did Eli’s sons, {1Sa 2:22} those false prophets also at Jerusalem, {Jer 23:14} Hetser, the great Anabaptist in Germany, {a} who yet died penitently, and as do still the Imailers, an order of religious men among the Turks, {b} who call them the religious brothers of love, and the Brahmins, successors to the Brachmanni, among the Indians, who are extremely impure and libidinous, claiming the first night’s lodging of every bride, &c., having nothing of a man but the voice and shape, and yet these are their priests. {c}

Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.] Let them carry their villany never so cleanly and closely, with their si non caste, saltem caute, yet I know all, am now an eyewitness, and will be one day a swift witness against them. Utinam animadverterent haec principes, et ille qui non in sede Petri sed in prostibulo Priapi Lampsaceni sedens fornieationes tegit, sancta coniuga vetat, mera sorenia vendit, et Dei oculos claudit, saith one.

{a} Scultet. Annal.

{b} Turk. Hist., 477.

{c} Heyl., Cosmog.

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.

Which was adultery, and falsifying the word of God.

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

villainy--literally, "sinful folly" (Isa 32:6).

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 23. Have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives] This is supposed to refer to the case of Susanna. See above.

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

We perceive why the Prophet mentions the cause of their death; it was, that the Jews might regard the event, not according to their own thoughts, but that they might feel assured that God took vengeance on the impiety of those who had falsely pretended his name. For we know that we always look here and there, and that when we find an immediate cause, we neglect and esteem as nothing the judgments of God. In order then to correct this evil, Jeremiah again repeats that Zedekiah and Ahab were not punished by the king of Babylon, but by God himself, because they committed villany in Israel. Some render, נבלה, nubele, enormity or abomination; but I am disposed to render it villany, or turpitude, or filthiness. They, then, committed a filthy thing He afterwards specifies two kinds, that they committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and that they falsely prophesied in the name of God

By the first clause we see how great was the stupidity of the people, for they did not consider what was the life of those who pretended to be witnesses for God, as though they were angels come down from heaven. Their wickedness might indeed have been concealed; but there is no doubt but that the Jews were extremely stupid, for they had willingly seized on the vain promises, which afforded them gratification. As, then, they were anxious to return, and wished to be restored to their own country as it were against the will of God, and sought to break through all obstacles by the force of their own obstinacy; it was a just punishment, that they were so blinded as not to see what was yet sufficiently manifest, even that these vaunting prophets were adulterers, and that the filthiness of their life was so great, that it was certain that they had nothing divine or heavenly in them.

Then there is another kind of evil added, that they prophesied falsely in God’s name. This was an atrocious crime; for as his truth is precious to God, so it is a sacrilege that he cannot bear, when his truth is turned into falsehood. But as the minds of them all were so corrupted, that no one would open his eyes, God testifies, that though their adulteries might be unknown to the people, that though their vanity in their false prophecies might not be perceived, yet it was enough that he knew and was a witness

Now this passage is worthy of special notice; for hypocrites, until they find that they are proved guilty before men, fear nothing, nay, they haughtily exalt themselves, even when things are justly laid to their charge. Since, then, the hardness and dishonesty of hypocrites are so great, it is necessary to summon them before God’s tribunal, that they may know that they may a hundred times be acquitted by the world, and yet that this derogates nothing from God’s judgment. It now follows —

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.

(23) Because they have committed villany . . .—The Hebrew noun is almost always used for sins of impurity. It is more commonly rendered “folly” (comp. Gen_34:7; Deu_22:21; Jdg_19:23-24). The English word “villainy” is used definitely with this meaning by Bishop Hall (Sat. i. 9).

Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.—The words find an echo in Mal_3:5. We are left to conjecture whether the prophet refers his own knowledge of the facts to a direct supernatural source, or had received private information from his friends at Babylon. The special stress laid on the Lord’s knowledge of their guilt suggests the thought that the false prophets with their restricted ideas of God had persuaded themselves that Jehovah the God of Israel hardly exercised his attributes of power in a distant place like Babylon. There they might sin without fear of detection or of punishment. They thought of him as a God not nigh at hand, but far off (Jer_23:23).

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

23. folly] The Hebrew denotes more than this, viz. “a state of mind or an action, marked by utter disregard of moral or spiritual feeling.” Dr. who illustrates the kind of immorality here referred to in the word by its use in Gen_34:7; 2Sa_13:12. See further in his Parallel Psalter, p. 457. The punishment inflicted, while really the penalty for transgressions against Jehovah, was doubtless ostensibly for breaches of the religious or civil law of Babylon.

falsely] not in LXX, and probably introduced from Jer_29:21.

he that knoweth, and am witness] The Hebrew as it stands is awkward. Probably “he that knoweth” (absent from LXX) is a gloss.

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.

Because they have committed villany in Israel,.... Or "folly" (f); as the sins of adultery, and prophesying falsely, are afterwards mentioned. This was not the reason why the king of Babylon put them to death; though the Jews (g) have a tradition that they attempted the chastity of Nebuchadnezzar's daughter, for which reason he case them into a furnace; but rather it was on account of their prophesying immediate destruction to Babylon; and telling the captives that they should be delivered in a short time; and stirring them up to prepare to go to their own land; but the reasons here given are those which moved the Lord to deliver them into the hands of the king of Babylon for their destruction:

and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives; which was a piece of villany, as well as folly; and which abundantly showed that these men were not the prophets of the Lord, or were sent by him, being such impure wretches:

and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; as that the people should return to their own land in a short time; this was another part of their villany and folly, and for which they were given up into the hands of the king of Babylon, to be punished:

even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord; for though their adulteries might be very secretly committed, and their lying prophecies were not seen to be such by the people in common; yet God, who is omniscient, saw all their impurity, and knew all their lies and falsehood, and was, and would be, a swift witness against them, here and hereafter. The Targum is,

"and before me it is manifest, and my word is a witness, saith the Lord.''

(f) "stultitiam", V. L. Schmidt. (g) T. Bab. Sanhedrin. fol. 93. 1.

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

Villany - Elsewhere folly, in the sense of lewdness Jdg 20:6, unchastity.

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

Folly. A crime, Judges xix. 23., and 2 Kings xiii. 12. --- Witness, the sovereign truth. (Calmet)

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).

The reason here given must not be understood as the reason of the king of Babylon’s punishment of them, but why God gave them up into his hands, because they had committed villany or folly in Israel; which is expounded by the next words, they had

committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives. All sin is folly, and so called in Scripture, uncleanness particularly, Gen 34:7; here it is called villany, to denote the heinousness of it, especially in those whose office it was to teach others that they ought not to do it, Rom 2:22. Falsehood in discharge of a trust is ordinarily attended with debauchery of life, nor indeed can it be reasonably imagined that those who, to humour men, have debauched their consciences, and declared things as the will of God, which they know are not so, should be more true and honest in their conversation towards men. The second crime of these false prophets was, what gave them their denomination, teaching people what God never bid them speak. Now this, saith the Lord,

I know, and am a witness to; their adulteries are in secret, but I am a witness to them; the poor people do not know that they teach them lies, but I know it. God will deal with men not according to what men like themselves know of them, and can prove against them, but according to what he knows and can witness against them.

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

An important and melancholy addition to our knowledge of these false prophets. They were not only misleading prophets, but immoral men in their private capacities. Villainy; rather, folly, as the word is always rendered elsewhere. The phrase "to commit folly in Israel" is always (except Jos_7:15) used of sins of unchastity.

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

and they committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors As is explained in Sanhedrin (93a), “So said the Holy One, blessed be He, ‘Lie with my friend.’”

and a witness an expression of testimony (עֵדוּת).

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.