Commentary - Jeremiah 23:33-40

Bird's-eye view

In this stinging conclusion to a chapter filled with rebukes against false shepherds and prophets, Jeremiah confronts the casual and contemptuous way in which the people of Judah treat the word of God. The phrase "the oracle of Yahweh," or "the burden of Yahweh," had become a cynical catchphrase, a piece of religious slang used to mock Jeremiah and the weighty pronouncements he delivered. God, through His prophet, turns their mockery back on them. He declares that He will make them the burden, a people to be abandoned and forgotten because they abandoned and forgot the gravity of His word. This passage is a severe warning about the dangers of domesticating God's revelation, turning His holy speech into a tame, predictable, and ultimately man-centered affair. It is a lesson in the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, and a reminder that how we speak about God's word reveals what we truly believe about God Himself.

The central issue is the perversion of language, which is always a symptom of a perverted heart. When a culture's spiritual leaders, the prophets and priests, begin to treat divine revelation as a joke or a tool for their own ends, the people inevitably follow suit. The result is a society where every man's own word becomes his oracle, and the living God is functionally silenced. God's response is not to engage in a debate; it is to pronounce a verdict. He will remove His presence, abandon the city, and subject them to an everlasting reproach. This is covenantal judgment in its raw form: if you treat the word of the covenant with contempt, you will be treated with the contempt the covenant curses promise.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

Jeremiah 23 is a pivotal chapter. It begins with a woe against the worthless shepherds of Israel who have scattered the flock, followed by a glorious promise of the coming righteous Branch, the Messiah-King who will reign wisely (Jer. 23:1-8). The rest of the chapter is then dedicated to a blistering condemnation of the false prophets who were leading the people astray with their licentious lives and their deceitful, self-generated "dreams." They were prophesying peace and security when God was declaring imminent judgment. Our text (vv. 33-40) serves as the capstone to this entire section. It moves from the content of the false prophecies to the attitude with which all divine prophecy was being treated. The spiritual rot was so deep that even the very phrase used to describe a divine word, "the burden of Yahweh," had become a punchline.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of Yahweh?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ Yahweh declares, ‘I will abandon you.’

The word for "oracle" here is massa, which carries a double meaning. It means both "oracle" or "pronouncement" and "burden" or "load." Jeremiah's prophecies were heavy, weighty words of judgment. They were a burden. The people, along with their corrupt spiritual leaders, had picked up on this and turned it into a sarcastic jibe. "So, Jeremiah, what's the latest burden from Yahweh?" It was a way of dismissing the message by mocking the messenger and the gravity of his words. They were treating the impending destruction of their nation as a recurring gag.

God's response is a sharp, cutting play on their own words. "You ask what the burden is? You are the burden." The ESV translates it, "I will forsake you," and the LSB has "I will abandon you." The idea is that God is going to cast them off. They have become a dead weight to Him, an intolerable load. Their flippancy about His word has made their very existence an offense to Him. This is a terrifying reality. When we refuse to feel the weight of God's word, we make ourselves a weight that God Himself will throw down.

v. 34 Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

The prohibition is now made explicit, and the stakes are raised. This is not a matter of semantics; it is a matter of the heart. To continue using this phrase in a flippant, colloquial manner is to identify oneself with the mockers. And notice the scope of the judgment: "that man and his household." This is covenantal thinking through and through. The sin of a man, particularly a man in a position of influence like a prophet or priest, does not occur in a vacuum. It infects his household, and the judgment upon him extends to them. A father's cynicism becomes the native air his children breathe, and they will share in the consequences of it. This is why headship is such a weighty responsibility.

v. 35-36 Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has Yahweh answered?’ or, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’ For you will no longer remember the oracle of Yahweh because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God.

God provides the alternative. Instead of the sarcastic "What's the burden?" they are to ask straightforward, respectful questions: "What has Yahweh answered?" or "What has Yahweh spoken?" The issue is reverence. The name of the game is fear of the Lord.

The reason for the prohibition is then laid bare. Their misuse of the term "oracle" was a symptom of a much deeper disease. They had forgotten what a true oracle was because they had substituted their own words for God's. "Every man's own word will become the oracle." This is the very essence of sin and idolatry. It is the creature setting his own thoughts, his own desires, his own "truth" up in the place of the Creator's revelation. When you do this, you inevitably "pervert the words of the living God." You twist them, you domesticate them, you make them serve your agenda instead of submitting your agenda to them. Notice the magnificent string of titles for God here: the living God (not a dead idol), Yahweh of hosts (the commander of heaven's armies), our God (the one with whom they are in covenant, and whom they are betraying). Every title underscores the magnitude of their sin.

v. 37-38 Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has Yahweh answered you?’ and, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’ For if you all say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’ surely thus says Yahweh, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of Yahweh!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’ ” ’

God repeats the instruction and the warning, driving the point home. There is no ambiguity here. He has given them a direct command about their speech, and He will hold them accountable for it. Their continued use of the forbidden phrase is not a slip of the tongue; it is an act of open rebellion. It is to hear God's clear prohibition and to say, in effect, "We will not listen." This is high-handed sin, a deliberate defiance of a direct order. The Lord is establishing a clear line in the sand. On one side is humble inquiry; on the other is arrogant mockery. There is no middle ground.

v. 39 Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and abandon you, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers, so that you are out of My presence.

Here is the sentence. The punishment fits the crime with a terrifying, poetic justice. Because they will not "remember" the oracle of Yahweh (v. 36), He will "surely forget" them. Because they treated His word as something to be cast aside, He will cast them aside. He will abandon them. And not just them as individuals, but the entire covenant structure: "along with the city which I gave you and your fathers." Jerusalem, the city of the great king, the place where God had put His name, will be thrown away. The ultimate curse of the covenant is to be put "out of My presence." This is a definition of Hell. To be forgotten by God, to be abandoned by God, is the ultimate horror. All the blessings of the covenant, the land, the city, the temple, the presence of God, are revoked.

v. 40 I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”

And the consequences are eternal. An "everlasting reproach" and an "everlasting humiliation." Their sin was in treating the eternal word with temporal contempt, so their punishment is to bear an eternal shame. And note the final irony: this humiliation "will not be forgotten." They chose to forget God's word, and in return, God will forget them as His people, but their shame will be remembered forever. It will stand as a permanent monument to the folly of mocking the living God.

This is a hard word, but it is a necessary one. It is a word that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the cross. The Lord Jesus became the ultimate burden-bearer. He took the weight of our sin upon Himself. On the cross, He was truly forgotten and abandoned by the Father, put out of His presence, so that we who trust in Him might be remembered and welcomed in. He bore the everlasting reproach so that we might receive an everlasting inheritance. This is the gospel. And it is why we must never, ever treat the word of this gospel with the kind of contempt that was on display in ancient Jerusalem. The word of God is no light thing. It is a great burden of glory, and we must receive it as such.