Jeremiah 23:21

21 I did not send those prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

Jeremiah 23:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 23:21

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran
They might be sent of men, and be encouraged by them; but they were not sent of God: it is not only necessary that men employed in religious affairs should have an external call, in an orderly way, from the church of God; but also an internal call from the Lord himself; he qualifying them with gifts, putting his word into their mouths, and inclining their hearts to publish it; see ( Hebrews 5:4 Hebrews 5:5 ) ; but these false prophets had no mission nor commission from the Lord, nor were they sent on any errand, or with any message from him; and yet they ran;
showed great diligence and zeal, and made haste to tell the people what the Lord had never said to them, but what were the warm imaginations of their own heads and hearts; they ran a race or course of ministry, but it was not good, as in ( Jeremiah 23:10 ) . The Targum adds,

``to do evil:''
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied;
wherefore what they prophesied was not the word of the Lord, but what they themselves devised; and so was what was false, as the Targum adds: it is a sad character of men when they speak in public neither by the will of God, nor according to the word of God.

Jeremiah 23:21 In-Context

19 Behold, that the whirlwind of the LORD shall go forth with fury, and the whirlwind which is ready shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD shall not return until he has executed and until he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the last of the days ye shall understand it with understanding.
21 I did not send those prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my secret, they would also have caused my people to hear my words, and they would have caused them to return from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God of the near only, said the LORD, and not a God of the far?
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010