Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 23:33–end
The profaneness of the people, with that of the priests and prophets, is here reproved in a particular instance, which may seem of small moment in comparison of their greater crimes; but profaneness in common discourse, and the debauching of the language of a nation, being a notorious evidence of the prevalency of wickedness in it, we are not to think it strange that this matter was so largely and warmly insisted upon here. Observe,
I. The sin here charged upon them is bantering God's prophets and dialect they used, and jesting with sacred things. They asked, What is the burden of the Lord? Jer 23:33 and Jer 23:34. They say, The burden of the Lord, Jer 23:38. This was the word that gave grea…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 23:36
every man's word . . . his burden--As they mockingly call all prophecies burdens, as if calamities were the sole subject of prophecy, so it shall prove to them. God will take them at their own word.
living God--not lifeless as their dumb idols, ever living so as to be able to punish.
John Gill on Jeremiah 23:36
And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more,.... Or the word of the Lord under that name, speaking of it in a ludicrous and scoffing manner:
for every man's word shall be his burden; every flout, scoff, and jeer of his, at the word of God, shall fall heavily upon him, with weight upon his conscience, and press him with guilt to the lowest hell; or, however, a heavy punishment for his sin shall light upon him: or, as the words may be rendered, "for his word is a burden to everyone" (u); that is, the word of the Lord is reckoned by everyone a burden; and with them a burden and the word of the Lord are synonymous terms; which ought not to be, and was offensive to the Lord; and theref…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Jeremiah 23:36
Jeremiah 23:36
36. And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God
36. Et oneris, Jehovae non recordabimini amplius, quia onus erit cuique sermo ejus; et pervertistis sermones Dei vivi, Jehovae exercituum, Dei nostri.
Jeremiah goes on with the same subject, that every one ought calmly and meekly to hear God speaking, he said, as we saw yesterday, that the prophets were to be asked as to what God had spoken and what he had answered; he thereby intimated that there must be docility, in order that God's word may obtain credit, authority, and favor among us. He again…
