Jeremiah 27:9

27:1-11 Jeremiah is to prepare a sign that all the neighbouring countries would be made subject to the king of Babylon. God asserts his right to dispose of kingdoms as he pleases. Whatever any have of the good things of this world, it is what God sees fit to give; we should therefore be content. The things of this world are not the best things, for the Lord often gives the largest share to bad men. Dominion is not founded in grace. Those who will not serve the God who made them, shall justly be made to serve their enemies that seek to ruin them. Jeremiah urges them to prevent their destruction, by submission. A meek spirit, by quiet submission to the hardest turns of providence, makes the best of what is bad. Many persons may escape destroying providences, by submitting to humbling providences. It is better to take up a light cross in our way, than to pull a heavier on our own heads. The poor in spirit, the meek and humble, enjoy comfort, and avoid many miseries to which the high-spirited are exposed. It must, in all cases, be our interest to obey God's will.

Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets,.... False prophets, as the Targum. These words are not directed to the Jews, but are a continuation of what the messengers of the nations should say to their masters from the God of Israel, by the mouth of his prophet; for they had their prophets as well as the Jews; as the prophets of Baal, and others: nor to your diviners; or soothsayers; such an one as was Balaam: nor to your dreamers; or "dreams"; such as they had themselves, and laid great stress upon; or to those who pretended to interpret them to them: nor to your enchanters; or stargazers; astrologers, who pretended by the position of the stars to foretell what would come to pass: nor to your sorcerers; or wizards, or necromancers; who, by unlawful methods, pretended to acquire knowledge of future things: which speak unto you, saying, ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; meaning, either that they ought not to become tributary to him; or they should not be brought into subjection by him: and so were stirred up to oppose him, and not submit to him.

Jeremiah 27:9-11. Hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners — These nations, it must be observed, had their prophets as well as the Jews, or rather persons that pretended to foretel future events by consulting the stars, by dreams, and various arts of divination; and they, to please their patrons, flattered them with assurances that they should not be brought into subjection and servitude by the king of Babylon. By these means they designed to animate them to a vigorous resistance: and though they had no ground for such an expectation, they hoped hereby to do them service. But Jeremiah here tells them, that it would prove to their destruction; for by resisting they would provoke the conqueror to deal severely with them, to remove them from their land, and to drive them out into a miserable captivity, in which they should be buried in oblivion, and perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke, &c. — That, upon the first summons, or without making any hostile opposition, shall yield themselves subjects to the king of Babylon, shall continue in their own country and possessions, being only made tributaries to that king.

Verse 9. - Your dreamers ; rather, your dreams . So in Jeremiah 29:8 the "dreams" of the people are expressly distinguished from the utterances of the prophets and soothsayers. In our passage the "dreamers" are appropriately mentioned between the "diviners" and the "enchanters," because the skill of the soothsayers partly lay in the interpretation of dreams (comp. Genesis 41:8 ; Daniel 2:2 ). Jeremiah 27:9

(9) Therefore hearken ye not to your prophets. —The almost exhaustive list of the names given to the men who claimed the power of prevision, may have had its ground in the fact that each of the five names was characteristic of this or that among the five nations to whom the message was sent. Of the names themselves, the prominent idea in “prophet” is that of full-flowing utterance; in “diviners,” that of casting lots, as in Ezekiel 21:21 ; in “dreamers,” what the English word indicates; in enchanters, that of practising “veiled” or “secret” arts ( Leviticus 19:26 ; Deuteronomy 18:10 ); in “sorcerers,” that of muttered and whispered spells ( Isaiah 8:19 ; Isaiah 47:9-13 ; 2Kings 9:22 ). It is clear that the five nations of the confederacy were sustained in their rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar by a unanimity of prediction from men of all these classes like that which lured Ahab to his destruction ( 1Kings 22:22 ). Every oracle was tuned, as it were, in favour of the policy of resistance.

It is uncertain whether these words were part of the message which Jeremiah by command from God sent to the kings above mentioned, or the prophet’s words to the Jews; for as those pagan nations had diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers, so the Jews had them also, Isaiah 47:12,13 : the meaning is, Hearken to none of them that pretend as from God to foretell your escape from this judgment, and not being brought into servitude to the king of, Babylon, for you shall serve the king of Babylon. By prophets he means such as pretended to some Divine revelations. By diviners he means soothsayers, of which were several sorts. By dreamers , such as pretend to revelations in their sleep. By enchanters and sorcerers , he means their astrologers, and such as used necromancy, or by any unlawful ways and means pretended to know the mind and will of God.

9. ye—the Jews especially, for whom the address to the rest was intended. enchanters—augurs [Calvin], from a root, the "eyes," that is, lookers at the stars and other means of taking omens of futurity; or another root, a "fixed time," observers of times: forbidden in the law (Le 19:26; De 18:10, 11, 14).

Therefore they must not hearken to their prophets, soothsayers, and sorcerers, that prophesy the contrary. The mention of dreams between the prophets and soothsayers on the one hand, and the enchanters and sorcerers on the other, strikes us as singular. It is, however, to be explained from the fact, that prophets and soothsayers often feigned dreams and dream-revelations (cf. Jeremiah 23:25 ); and other persons, too, might have dreams, and could give them out as significant. Cf. Jeremiah 29:8 , where dreams are expressly distinguished from the discourse of the prophets and soothsayers. Whether the reckoning of five kinds of heathen prophecy has anything to do with the naming of five kings (Hitz.), appears to us to be questionable; but it is certain that Jeremiah does not design to specify five different, i.e., distinct and separate, kinds of heathen divination. For there was in reality no such distinction. Heathen prophecy was closely allied with sorcery ad soothsaying; cf. Deuteronomy 18:9 ., and Oehler on the Relation of Old Testament Prophecy to Heathen Divination (Tb. 1861). The enumeration of the multifarious means and methods for forecasting the future is designed to show the multitude of delusive schemes for supplying the lack of true and real divine inspiration. כּשּׁפים, equivalent to מכשּׁפים , the same which in Deuteronomy 18:10 is used along with מעונן. The explanation of the last-mentioned word is disputed.

Some take it from ענן, cloud equals cloud-maker or storm-raiser; others from עין, eye equals fascinator, the idea being that of bewitching with the evil eye; see on Leviticus 19:26 . The use of the word along with מנחשׁ וּמכשּׁף, Deuteronomy 18:10 , favours the latter rendering, whereas no passage in which the word is used in the Old Testament supports the sig. storm-raiser. "That I should remove you," as is shown by the continuation of the infinitive by והדּחתּי. The false prophets delude the people, inducing them to rise in rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, contrary to God's will, and thus simply bringing about their expulsion from their land, i.e., removal into banishment. למען shows, as frequently, that the inevitable consequence of these persons' proceedings is designed by them.