# Jeremiah 23 📖: The Righteous Branch [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Jeremiah Overview]] | [[Jeremiah 22]] | [[Jeremiah 24]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### New Leaders over a Regathered Remnant [[#Verse 01.]] The Lord says, “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered.”  [[#Verse 02.]] So the Lord God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: “You have caused my people to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. I, the Lord, affirm it!  [[#Verse 03.]] Then I myself will regather those of my people who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. They will greatly increase in number. [[#Verse 04.]] I will install rulers over them who will care for them. Then they will no longer need to fear or be terrified. None of them will turn up missing. I, the Lord, promise it! [[#Verse 05.]] “I, the Lord, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David. He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding and will do what is just and right in the land. [[#Verse 06.]] Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: ‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ [[#Verse 07.]] “So I, the Lord, say: ‘A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with, “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.”  [[#Verse 08.]] But at that time they will affirm them with, “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.” At that time they will live in their own land.’” ### Oracles Against the False Prophets [[#Verse 09.]] Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated. [[#Verse 10.]] For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under his curse. The pastures in the wilderness are withered. [[#Verse 11.]] Moreover, the Lord says, “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple. [[#Verse 12.]] So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” The Lord affirms it! [[#Verse 13.]] The Lord says, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something that was disgusting. They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. [[#Verse 14.]] But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. [[#Verse 15.]] So then I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’” [[#Verse 16.]] The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the people of Jerusalem: “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the Lord has given them to say. [[#Verse 17.]] They continually say to those who reject what the Lord has said, ‘Things will go well for you!’ They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’ [[#Verse 18.]] Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said? [[#Verse 19.]] But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. [[#Verse 20.]] The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In future days you people will come to understand this clearly. [[#Verse 21.]] I did not send those prophets, yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything, yet they prophesied anyway. [[#Verse 22.]] But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing. [[#Verse 23.]] Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?” the Lord asks. [[#Verse 24.]] “Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. “Do you not know that I am everywhere?” the Lord asks. [[#Verse 25.]] The Lord says, “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’  [[#Verse 26.]] Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds.  [[#Verse 27.]] How long will they go on plotting to make my people forget who I am through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal.  [[#Verse 28.]] Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! I, the Lord, affirm it!  [[#Verse 29.]] My message is like a fire that purges dross. It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. I, the Lord, so affirm it!  [[#Verse 30.]] So I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me.  [[#Verse 31.]] I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares.’  [[#Verse 32.]] I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. I, the Lord, affirm it!” [[#Verse 33.]] The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message do you have from the Lord?’ Tell them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you away. I, the Lord, affirm it!  [[#Verse 34.]] I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who says “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” I will punish both that person and his whole family.’” [[#Verse 35.]] So I, Jeremiah, tell you, “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’  [[#Verse 36.]] You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. For what is ‘burdensome’ really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  [[#Verse 37.]] Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’  [[#Verse 38.]] But just suppose you continue to say, ‘The message of the Lord is burdensome.’ Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent word to you that you must not say, “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” But you used the words, “The Lord’s message is burdensome,” anyway.  [[#Verse 39.]] So I will carry you far off and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight. [[#Verse 40.]] I will bring on you lasting shame and lasting disgrace that will never be forgotten!’” ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ###### Verse 27. ###### Verse 28. ###### Verse 29. ###### Verse 30. ###### Verse 31. ###### Verse 32. ###### Verse 33. ###### Verse 34. ###### Verse 35. ###### Verse 36. ###### Verse 37. ###### Verse 38. ###### Verse 39. ###### Verse 40. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The "Branch" (23:5) is a messianic title also used in Jeremiah 33:15, Isaiah 11:1, and Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12. 2. "The Lord Our Righteousness" (23:6) is *Yahweh Tsidqenu* in Hebrew. 3. This name is a likely wordplay on King Zedekiah, whose name means "the Lord is my righteousness." The true King would live up to that name. 4. The promise of a new exodus (23:7-8) repeats 16:14-15. 5. God condemns the prophets of Samaria for prophesying by Baal (23:13). 6. God says Jerusalem's prophets have become like Sodom and Gomorrah (23:14). 7. The true prophet stands in "the council of the Lord" (23:18, 22), the picture of God's heavenly court. 8. God compares false dreams to straw and His word to grain (23:28). 9. The Hebrew word *massa* can mean both "burden" and "oracle," and God plays on both meanings in 23:33-40. 10. God says the people's question, "What is the burden of the Lord?" would be answered, "You are the burden" (23:33). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the Righteous Branch from David who reigns wisely and is called "The Lord Our Righteousness" (23:5-6). Jesus became our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30), and in Him we become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. God condemns shepherds who scatter the flock (23:1-2). What should faithful spiritual shepherds do instead? 2. God's word is like fire and like a hammer that shatters rock (23:29). How has God's Word confronted or broken something hard in you? 3. God asks, "Am I only a God nearby and not a God far away?" (23:23-24). How does God's presence everywhere comfort and challenge you? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verses 5-6: God will raise up a Righteous Branch for David, called The Lord Our Righteousness. - 📖 verse 24: Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the Lord. - 📖 verse 29: Is not My word like fire and like a hammer that shatters rock? ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[1 Corinthians 01#Verse 30.|1 Corinthians 1:30]] - Christ became our righteousness. - 🔗 [[2 Corinthians 05#Verse 21.|2 Corinthians 5:21]] - In Him we become the righteousness of God. - 🔗 [[John 10#Verse 11.|John 10:11-14]] - Jesus, the good shepherd. - 🔗 [[Isaiah 11#Verse 01.|Isaiah 11:1-5]] - A shoot from the stump of Jesse. - 🔗 [[Hebrews 04#Verse 12.|Hebrews 4:12]] - God's Word is living and active. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Jeremiah 23 - SOAP|Care Enough to Listen]] ## 📂 Internal Notes