Jeremias 23:21

21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied.

Jeremias 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.

Jeremias 23:21 In-Context

19 Behold, an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly.

20 And the Lord's wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it.

21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied.

22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had hearkened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices.

23 I am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off.