Back to Jeremiah 23

Jeremiah 23:14

In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

  • KJV King James Version

    I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies, and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them become unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • What was Sodom's sin?

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Cross-references (32)

Passages linked to Jeremiah 23:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Isaiah 1:9-10 Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah. Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
  • Jeremiah 29:23 because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.
  • Ezekiel 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it.
  • Genesis 18:20 Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
  • Deuteronomy 32:32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
  • Jeremiah 14:14 Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.
  • Jeremiah 23:32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says Yahweh, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says Yahweh.
  • Ezekiel 13:22-23 Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive. Therefore you shall no more see false visions, nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
  • Micah 3:11 Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”
  • Genesis 13:13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
  • Isaiah 41:6-7 Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good;” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
  • Jeremiah 5:30-31 “An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
  • Jeremiah 20:16 Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn’t repent. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;
  • Jeremiah 23:25-26 “I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?
  • Ezekiel 13:2-4 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.
  • Ezekiel 16:46-52 Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. “ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were arrogant, and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.
  • Zephaniah 3:4 Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.
  • Matthew 11:24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, on the day of judgment, than for you.”
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
  • 1 Timothy 4:2 through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,
  • 2 Peter 2:1-2 But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.
  • 2 Peter 2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way;
  • 2 Peter 2:14-19 having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing; forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
  • Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
  • Revelation 11:8 Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
  • Revelation 19:20 The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
  • Revelation 21:8 But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
  • Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
  • Jeremiah 18:13 Therefore Yahweh says: “Ask now among the nations, ‘Who has heard such things?’ The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
  • Jeremiah 23:17 They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’
  • Ezekiel 13:16 to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’ ” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
  • Malachi 1:1 A revelation, Yahweh’s word to Israel by Malachi.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (13 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain It follows, They commit adultery, and walk in deception…

It follows, They commit adultery, and walk in deception Expositors think that there is a change of number; but what if these words be applied to the people? as though Jeremiah had said, “When any one is an adulterer, when any one walks in deception, that is, when any one is fraudulent, they strengthen, the hands of the wicked.” And, doubtless, this sense seems here to be the most correct. Then Jeremiah shews how they surpassed other prophets in impiety, even because they dissimulated when they saw on one hand adulteries prevailing, and on the other frauds, plunders, and perjuries; and not only so, but they undertook the patronizing of the wicked, and strengthened the hands of the ungodly, and added audacity to their madness. For as fear weakens the hands, so does shame; as, then, these prophets removed shame as well as fear from the wicked and ungodly, so they strengthened their hands; that is, they gave them more confidence, so that they rushed headlong into every evil more freely and with greater liberty.

That they might not return, he says, every one from his wickedness This is added for the sake of explanation; for, as I have said, either the fear of God or shame from men might have checked their audacity; but when they were confirmed and countenanced, they broke out into all excesses, and hardened themselves in their obstinacy: That they might not return, every one from his wickedness.

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In the last place he adds, They shall be to me all of them as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah We see that the last clause is confined to the citizens of Jerusalem. Then God says, that these prophets would be like the Sodomites, and the citizens of Jerusalem like the citizens of Gomorrah. This is not to be understood only as to crimes, but also as to punishment; as though he had said, that there was no more hope of pardon for them than for the Sodomites, for they had provoked to the utmost the wrath of God, so that he could not now spare them. It then follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They which should have profited by my rods against…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 23:14 I have seen also in the prophets…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain An horrible thing; the word signifies
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. I have seen also in the prophets…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Rather, “But in the prophets of Jerusalem” etc. Their…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Jerusalem. These were far worse, as they pretended to…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain "Jerusalem" and Judah were even worse than "Samaria" and…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. all of them] the prophets and their hearers…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) They commit adultery, and walk in lies .…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I have seen also, etc.; rather, But in the…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain They strengthen also the hands of evil-doers.

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